Air travel takes major hit

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This article was published 20/03/2020 (2120 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like airports around the world, the global pandemic is gradually emptying out Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport.

WestJet had announced it would suspend international and domestic flights as of Sunday night while Air Canada said it would gradually suspend the majority of its international and U.S. transborder flights by March 31.

As governments called for people to stop non-essential domestic travel, airlines slashed their schedules.

“It’s like slow rolling into quicksand,” said Barry Rempel, the CEO of Winnipeg Airports Authority, the not-for-profit entity that owns and operates the airport.

With things changing by the hour for the air travel business no one can say with certainty what will happen next week. But Rempel said he’s pretty sure plane traffic will be well below 50 per cent of normal activity in and out of Winnipeg by next week.

For starters, only Delta Airlines intends to keep flying to the U.S. with one or two flights per week to Minneapolis and that’s only until it gets an official ruling on what governments mean by essential travel between Canada and the U.S.

The airport is a self-contained economy that typically employs about 4,000 people.

No one knows how many will need to be there by next week, but it is likely to be a small fraction of that.

Neither Air Canada nor WestJet, the Winnipeg airport’s largest partners/customers, have said precisely what their schedules will be like next week. Rempel said he’s afraid to speculate because the reality has been different from the information he’s already received from the airlines.

“I’m not saying they are lying. Thing are just changing so quickly,” he said.

As well, it’s not clear what is happening with the airlines’ workforces at the airport. A union official said on Friday that Air Canada is laying off more than 5,000 flight attendants. Airlines have not made any official statements about their workforce and did not respond to media queries on Friday.

As for the terminal tenants, Rempel said that by Monday about 80 per cent of the concessions will be closed.

Before the weekend, Stella’s on the arrivals side had closed as had the Plaza Premium lounge.

Tim Hortons in the arrivals area and the outlet inside the domestic security are likely to stay open. A person who answered the phone at the Winnipeg offices of airport food services master franchise operator, SSP, said Prairie Bistro and Urban Crave will remain open inside security. Harvey’s was still open in the arrivals areas on Friday.

The 175 Winnipeg Airports Authority staff are mostly still on the job. Rempel said that so far only a few contract employees working on planning for capital projects have been let go.

That’s because the athority has decided to postpone most of the $70 million in capital projects on the books.

But unlike airlines that in normal times can re-deploy assets to busier markets, the WAA’s cost structure can’t change much based on revenues.

“We can’t move a runway to another city because it makes more money there. We can’t not plow the runways,” Rempel said. “We have to keep the runways clear for one flight or 1,000 flights.”

Rempel has been through a few industry crises but because the rules of engagement are changing every day, he said this one is unlike any he’s seen.

“About five days after 9/11 people were talking about how to get things moving again,” he said. “This one appears to be fundamentally different in part because it is this rolling effect. It’s like changing the wheel while we’re driving. Two weeks ago, we thought there would be a 15 per cent impact. It has shifted quickly.”

While there’s already talk about bailout strategies for airlines around the world, the airport is effectively on its own.

In addition to shelving capital projects — such as reorganizing the east side cargo area — Rempel said they have identified potential cuts to about 15 per cent of the operating budget.

He would not go into specifics but said it involves mothballing parts of the facility, which would reduce maintenance costs.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca