For 14 years, the federal government has had a hard cap on the number of airports designated with the necessary security clearance to accommodate commercial airlines.
The cap was put in place after the attacks on the World Trade Centre on Sept. 11, 2001 and, until this week, was unwavering at 89 airports.
That all changed, July 28, when Yellowhead MP Jim Eglinski announced that 10 new airports were approved for Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) status, including Edson鈥檚.
For anyone that hasn鈥檛 been hanging around Jasper for the past few years, this might not seem like big news, but, let us assure you, it most certainly is.
Tourism Jasper, along with the towns of Jasper, Hinton, Edson and Yellowhead County, has been working toward this goal since 2012, in hopes of closing the gap between Jasper and an airport.
In 2012, Jasper鈥檚 destination marketing organization completed its first study on the feasibility of commercial air service in Edson, showing there are 200,000 annual airline seats available in the airport鈥檚 catchment area. If all goes as planned and the airport starts offering commercial flights, most of those seats will be used for oil and gas, with the remainder filled by tourists, likely bound for Jasper.
Since Tourism Jasper first started advocating for regional air service, it has touted it as a way to put Jasper on par with Banff National Park, which is an hour and 45 minutes from Calgary International Airport.
Attaining CATSA security clearance was likely the biggest hurdle the region had to face in bringing commercial air service to Edson, and truthfully it easily could have become a deterrent.
But it didn鈥檛.
Tourism Jasper took it as a challenge and quickly got to work lobbying the provincial government鈥� garnering support from former premier Alison Redford and former West Yellowhead MLA Robin Campbell鈥攁nd later utilizing the province鈥檚 support to lobby the federal government.
In 2013, Tourism Jasper鈥檚 CEO told council that to achieve this goal it had to happen before the October 2015 federal election, as it would otherwise end up lost in the shuffle.
With that in mind, our hats are off to Mary Darling and her team, as well as to the participating municipalities, for achieving their collective goal.
CATSA was the first鈥攁nd most important鈥攕tep toward landing commercial flights in the region, and although there is still a significant amount of work to be done before the first plane lands, at least that work can now begin.
