The survey says Yorkton business likes the idea of the development of regularly scheduled air passenger service at the Yorkton Airport.
The Yorkton Airport Authority had enlisted the aid of the Rotary Club of Yorkton to do a survey of local business to gauge interest in not only using passenger service, but in supporting its arrival by purchasing advance tickets to help attract a carrier.
Last Wednesday Ron Evinou and Ross Fisher made a presentation to the Rotary on behalf of the YAA.
Ross Fisher said the survey was undertaken because regularly scheduled passenger survey could provide the YAA with access to federal Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) dollars.
To qualify for ACAP dollars an airport needs 1000 scheduled passenger take-offs and landings in each of three years. That translates to 500 return flights a year.
"Unfortunately freight movement doesn't count for ACAP funding," noted Evinou.
Fisher said the ACAP dollars can be substantial, pointing to Swan River receiving $5 million, and Flin Flon $21 million, money which can go toward a range of airport improvements, including runways, security fences and terminals.
"The survey was to see if it would be commercially viable to operate an air service out of our airport," he said.
It was recognized business usage of air service would need to be the heart of creating a viable clientele for a passenger service, and not expecting casual individual use to pay for the service.
Evinou said the survey was well received.
"We ended up getting survey responses from 80 per cent of businesses that we targeted," he said.
The survey has a twofold purpose, explained Evinou, to determine probable business usage, and a willingness to prepay for the tickets.
Evinou said "the important issue is getting there and back in a timely fashion."
For business that is important, said Evinou estimating a businessman's time is worth $300 an hour."That's the opportunity costs of not being with your business," he said.
In terms of cost, the survey seemed to suggest a threshold cost of about one dollar per mile was acceptable to 66 per cent of the respondents.
In terms of actual service, Fisher said daily flights may be unlikely, but respondents indicated flights three days a week would meet their needs.
"They didn't require daily flights to do what they needed to do," he said.
Among the respondents 30 per cent said they would use the service once a month, 68 per cent would use it one-to-five times a month, and 1.7 per cent would use it more than 10 times a month.
The survey was also used to determine what destination would be preferred by business fliers.
Saskatoon topped the list with it being included on 76.5 per cent of the returned surveys. Winnipeg was second at 58.8 per cent.
"Interestingly enough Calgary was first as a write in option," said Fisher. He added, " There was a surprisingly high number of people, at least to me, would like to fly to Regina."
As for paying in advance, Fisher said there is some support for that as well, with 52 per cent saying yes to prepaying for five flights a year.
Overall Evinou said the survey was positive in regards to the YAA promoting passenger service."There's enough interest out of the business community There's passion out there for this subject," he said.
