City to incur extra expense when taking ownership of airport

The Lethbridge Airport is well positioned financially, but the City will incur some extra expenses to run it after it changes over from Lethbridge County ownership on July 1.

The Community Issues Committee of city council got a preview of the proposed 2019 airport operating budget during its meeting on Tuesday. City controlller Barry Sawada presented all the facts and figures for council’s information — with debate, discussion and decision to follow at next Monday’s regular council meeting.

According to Sawada’s report, the the airport is requesting the approval of an operating budget of $2.6 million for 2019, up from about $2.2 million in 2018. Approximately $2.3 million of that will be covered by revenue generated by the airport itself, leaving the City to pick up an extra $343,000.

Sawada told the CIC Tuesday most of these extra costs, about $270,000, are associated with transferring current County personnel into the City’s civil service. About $58,000 of it comes as a result of the City absorbing Lethbridge County’s yearly debt servicing incurred from past airport upgrades as agreed upon in the ownership transfer agreement signed in 2018.

The airport generates revenue in three main ways, Sawada explained. First, the airport receives $20 from each passenger that uses the terminal. Second, the airport charges landing fees to the airlines of $5.73 per thousand kilos of aircraft using the airport. And third, the airport charges air terminal fees based on the number of flights landing multiplied by each aircraft’s seating capacity.

Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter