After a $16-million expansion, Kingston’s airport terminal remains closed to the public.
The last airline offering regular flights from YGK airport suspended service in December 2022.
At the time, city airport officials said the pause was temporary.
But there is still plenty of traffic keeping the runway busy, and airport staff and community partners say they’re pitching Kingston’s benefits to a number of potential carriers.
“I am not at a point in the conversations right now where I can say which airlines,” says airport manager Aron Winterstein.
Last fall, Quebec-based regional airline Pascan Aviation had been offering regular flights between Kingston and Montreal for a few months.
The service was suspended over booking issues stemming from what is known as a codeshare agreement with Air Canada.
“That is currently being worked on,” says Winterstein.
Winterstein adds that international flights are not out of the question either, but commercial flights are not the only regular operations out of the airport.
“The airport has about 80 per cent of the actual flights that we would have had pre-pandemic,” he says.
That includes daily medical transfer flights bringing patients from the Moosonee and James Bay region for treatment at Kingston Health Sciences Centre hospitals.
Daily freight flights also come through, as well as military operations and private corporate flights.
Still, the gap in services has repercussions.
“Certainly it has a significant impact on our economy,” says Shelley Hirstwood, director of business development at Kingston Economic Development Corporation.
Hirstwood says many large industries consider air service when they are looking to set up shop.
Still, there has been major economic growth in the region without passenger flights.
“Opportunities like Umicore will have a huge impact,” she says.
Hirstwood says growth will be used as part of Kingston’s business case, as officials continue to pitch the region to potential air carriers.
For now, Winterstein says he can’t confirm when an announcement may be coming, but that he hopes to have something about the return to report soon.