Rising cost of jet fuel prices having impact on the Regina International Airport

The Regina Airport Authority says rising jet fuel prices may affect short-term flight capacity and routes but does not expect long-term impacts.

The climbing cost of jet fuel prices have caused major Canadian airlines WestJet and Air Canada to change some of their price points.

WestJet has added a $60 fuel surcharge on companion voucher bookings and $50 per person on some vacation packages.

Air Canada has increased baggage fees by $10 per bag and a $50 fuel surcharge to certain vacation packages.

When it comes to the Regina Airport Authority, President & CEO James Bogusz, speaking at Thursday’s Annual General Meeting, says he is not worried about long term effects to flights in and out of the airport, such as when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

“We’ve lived through the worst possible event in the history of aviation when it comes to crushing demand, which was COVID. I lived through a world where what was once a 1.2 million airport drop to 250,000 passengers; we had no flights in May of 2020 for 10 days,” he said.

Bogusz doesn’t believe that the Regina Airport will see anything close to that drop in passengers due to the rising fuel prices.

However, he does think that airlines will adjust to the fuel prices in order to remain profitable, with potentially trimming or tweaking of existing routes, or an airline not bringing back a particular route that was popular because it lacked profitability.

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Bogusz also reacted to the news of possible privatization from the federal government in airports across the country.

“We’re having those conversations early [on] now about how the government may invest in our airport to help us offset some of these significant infrastructure items that we need to look at. And those conversations will continue. And I will say that there’s been an openness and a willingness to have those conversations with airports, certainly the Regina airport,” he said.

Bogusz went on to say that in the case of the Regina airport, government privatization might look like a pension fund or investment instead of having a debt from the bank.