Castlegar Airport no more
By Castlegar Source
Photo by Phil Markin: City council members unveil the new name, sign and logo what was once the Castlegar Airport.
Monday night’s regular council meeting saw the final report for the Castlegar Airport – from now on, reports will speak to the progress and traffic levels of the West Kootenay Regional Airport, instead.
This meeting’s report said traffic was down more than nine per cent at the airport – a statistic the new name, which was unveiled Monday, may help improve.
“The name change was inspired by a branding initiative started in 2008 that solidified our focus on the emergence of Castlegar as a regional service centre for the West Kootenay and Boundary area,” said mayor Lawrence Chernoff. “The re-naming will help us solidify our position and expand airport-related services for all 80,000 residents in the valley, including Trail and Nelson.”
That’s not to say, though, that the airport won’t still be Castlegar’s own …the logo boasts the Castlegar flower design, but with an airplane instead of an arrow pointing to its centre.
“It’s still Castlegar’s airport, and still under city administration – we didn’t hand over the responsibility to the regional district or anything like that,” said councillor and chair of the Transportation and Civic Works committee Russ Hearne. “The name change reflects, not the governance of the airport, but instead the importance of the airport to the entire region.”
Castlegar is not experiencing the same difficulties with Olympic travel that have plagued the Trail facility, because of state-of-the-art security equipment that allows screening on par with federal security requirements during the 2010 games.
Castlegar’s chief administrative officer, John Malcolm, said re-branding was a sound investment for the city, as the airport serves as a vital transportation link to Calgary and Vancouver, and is an important component of the city’s economic development strategy.
“We are working to attract commercial services that are drawn to Castlegar’s trade area of 80,000 people and central location in the Columbia valley,” Malcolm said. “We are also targeting entrepreneurs and independent workers currently in large metropolitan centres like Calgary and Vancouver who are seeking a better lifestyle offered in Castlegar, and have freedom to move because of the enabling effect of the Internet.”
In a city press release, Chernoff also pointed out “that for the independent entrepreneur or telecommuter in particular, air connection to Vancouver and Calgary is important, and branding of the airport as a regional facility will enable the community to expand services and flight schedules over time.”
At the same time, installation continues on new, million-dollar airport beacons on surrounding hillsides to allow for nighttime departures, increasing the airport’s functionality, particularly through the winter months, for both commercial and medical traffic.
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