Two of Vancouver’s biggest floatplane companies say hundreds of thousands of tourist dollars will be grounded by a ban on sightseeing charter flights during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
“We’ve been talking and talking until we’re blue in the face and it doesn’t appear they’re going to accommodate us,” a disappointed Randy Wright, senior vice-president of Harbour Air Seaplanes said Wednesday.
And Rick Antonson, president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver, said it means a lost opportunity to promote Vancouver’s “wonderful backyard” through float-plane sightseeing tours.
“Float planes are to Vancouver like the Star Ferry is to Hong Kong, or the trolleys are to San Francisco,” Antonson said.
“They define part of our personality to the world.
“Being able to experience them is such a remarkable taste of Vancouver and our preference would be that, when the world is watching and so many people are here, people get to sample this.”
The Vancouver 2010 Aviation Security Regulations were pub-lished in Ottawa Wednesday and
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provided mixed blessings for coastal float-plane operators.
On the minus side, say Vancouver float-plane operators, are the sightseeing flights ban and the length of time it will take to screen passengers going on scheduled flights.
On the plus side, a security screening portal is being opened at Ganges on Saltspring Island, to allow passengers from the Gulf Islands to fly into Vancouver without a time-consuming detour through Nanaimo.
“We’re going to take a big hit,” said Wright. “We’re crunching the numbers now. It’ll be hundreds of thousands for sure.”
John Ring, operation vice-president for West Coast Air, said the temporary security screening at Coal Harbour for West Coast Air and Harbour Air will handle only 60 passengers per hour.
The two airlines fly up to 100 customers per hour and may have to cut schedules, Ring said.
But the biggest blow is the ban on scenic flights, he said.
“We see the potential of the Olympics with all the visitors as being huge — it’s a big dollar,” he said.
“Now we’ll have to say, ‘Sorry, we can’t take you up in the air, even though we’ll fulfill all the requirements under the security regulations.’ “
Ring said the airlines talked to the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit and offered to fly different routes that don’t interfere with Olympic venues airspace but to no avail.
“They just say it’s security,” he said. “They want to control the airplanes in the zone.”
For Philip Reece, marketing director and co-owner of Saltspring Air, the regulations brought good news, however.
Reece said his airline faced losses of $250,000 by having to fly through Nanaimo and would have cut staff from 22 to a “skeleton” crew of five during the Games.
“We’ve got four airplanes,” he said. “We were going to park three of them but we won’t be now.”
He said 2,800 residents signed a petition to be allowed to go through security in Ganges.
No one from Vancouver 2010 ISU was available Wednesday for comment.
dinwood@theprovince.com
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