The airport improvement fee and price of parking will be climbing at YXS in the new year.

The move is in response to a funding gap that Prince George Airport and several other similar, smaller international airports are dealing with.

Airport CEO John Gibson is optimistic the Trudeau government’s promise of infrastructure investment will help them prevent further future fee increases.

“If that goes ahead, I think we won’t see any further movement in our airport improvement fee for the next number of years” said Gibson. “That’s some stability and that’s good for everybody.”

The new higher rates will be introduced in January, despite ridership increasing by more than five percent in 2015.

“We’ve probably had two or three percent growth outside of the Canada Winter Games” said Gibson. “The Winter Games gave us some of the busiest days of travel we’ve ever had.”

According to Gibson, the slowing resource economy means ridership numbers should stay flat in 2016.