Owen Sound City Hall. (file photo)
City council will consider a staff recommendation at its meeting Monday night to initiate a process to sell the Owen Sound Billy Bishop Airport.
A report by City Manager Tim Simmonds includes six recommendations concerning the municipally-owned airport along Highway 26 just east of Owen Sound, including declaring the property surplus to allow for the sale of the asset by the city.
Simmonds’ report also recommends the city obtain a valuation to determine the market value of the Owen Sound Billy Bishop Airport — which is located on lands in the Municipality of Meaford — and to complete the sale by Dec. 31, 2022. Operations would cease at the airport on that date should the sale of the lands not be successful.
Owen Sound’s city manager explains the introduction of a $35 landing fee at the airport has not been successful in generating revenue to offset increasing costs of operations.
“The airport must be considered in relation to the operations of the entire city and selling the airport to a private entity is the most practical approach to its long-term viability,” Simmonds explains.
The Owen Sound Billy Bishop Airport has operated as a municipal asset since 1993.
The average operating cost on an annual basis to the Owen Sound ratepayer to keep the airport as a city asset increased from $100,000 annually in 2010, to around $235,000 by 2020.
City staff expect capital repair and replacement costs at the airport will exceed $1.5-million in the next two to five years.
A group of hangar owners presented a proposal to the city in March 2021 that would lower the annual cost to taxpayers of operating the Owen Sound Billy Bishop Airport to about $200,000, Simmonds acknowledges. Their plan was to remove the $35 landing fee but take other steps to raise revenues. Some of those measures included an annual airport user fee to be paid by hangar owners, the introduction of a dynamic fuel pricing model and assessing landing fees on commercial flights only at a higher amount of $235.
“The savings do not include any immediate or future capital costs,” Simmonds explains.
The Owen Sound aviation community is well-served by multiple airports in the area, Simmonds says. His report specifically points to the Wiarton Keppel International Airport as one with “a broader scope of operations” at more competitive pricing.
The Wiarton Keppel International Airport is owned by Georgian Bluffs.
The Township recently turned to Grey County to seek financial assistance to help it deal with annual operating deficits of about $300,000 at its airport, but county council deferred a decision on the proposal.