Regional airports need policy changes, funding to increase service: Report
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Published May 26, 2025 • Last updated 5 hours ago • 4 minute read
A new report concludes that regional air service in Canada has declined significantly, resulting in reduced access to essential services and lost economic opportunities.
The report, Keeping Canada Connected: The Challenge of Regional Air Service and Federal Policy, was commissioned by the Canadian Airports Council and completed by InterVISTAS Consulting to highlight the critical role of regional air service in Canada’s economy.
It also pinpoints key policy recommendations to strengthen regional air service to strengthen the vital infrastructure to many communities.
It shows flight frequency has been down 36 per cent since 2014, which also brings about increased complexity for travellers trying to reach specific destinations.
Monette Pasher, president of the Canadian Airports Council, said Canadians want Canada to be more self-reliant and connected.
“We need people to be connected with people and with trade,” she said while releasing the report. “Regional air service is essential. It links people and communities to major hubs.”
The report studied 51 regional airports in Canada and concludes that recovery from the pandemic has been uneven across the country.
Data show significant reductions in air services across Alberta, Manitoba and Atlantic Canada.
“This is a trend that is going in the wrong direction and is straining our economy,” she said.
A regional route generates up to 210 jobs and $41.2 million in economic output.
Policy gaps between Canada and peer countries such as the U.S. and Australia are blamed for some of the reduction of services.
Pasher said that recommendations in the report include establishing a regional air connectivity fund, similar to that in the U.S. which encourages air carriers to establish regional routes, among other things, and offers subsidies to fly those routes to create a network to major hubs.
The need to increase funding for infrastructure investment in regional airports is also required. The fund hasn’t been increased in many years, but infrastructure needs and costs are soaring.
In addition, labour shortages in the airline industry, including the shortage of pilots, need to be addressed quickly as current staff are nearing retirement age and replacements need to be trained.
Finally, the report recommends that regulations need to be streamlined to decrease the costs for regional airports – costs that are eventually passed on to the customer.
Air travel, Pasher noted, is equally as important and fundamental as other modes of transportation across Canada and needs government support.
Terry Bos, president and CEO of the Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corp., said that the proximity to the Michigan regional airports is also a competitive factor locally.
“We are in direct competition within 15 minutes of us and they benefit greatly from their policy and essential service funding that we don’t have here,” he told The Sault Star.
The U.S. essential services fund provides airlines with funding to offset the costs of the regional flights.
Bos said the funding is substantial and has resulted in regional airports creating a network that moves passengers to several larger hubs.
He also wants to see infrastructure funding increase for regional airports.
While the Sault airport was successful in receiving funding during the pandemic for a runway expansion, he noted many airports have infrastructure deficits and a lack of funding to complete those projects.
“Shortages of pilots are still one of our biggest problems,” Bos noted.
Prior to the pandemic, Air Canada operated five flights per day from Sault Ste. Marie.
While the airline is currently using larger planes, it still has only about 70 per cent of the seats it once offered.
“If we had another flight, or even two, I think you’d see that they’d be able to fill them,” Bos said.
It’s too early to determine whether the U.S. tariff war will have a positive impact on travel numbers from the Sault airport, as more people choose vacation destinations in Canada.
“Our April numbers were positive, but we only have limited data, and it is too early to tell what type of impact we’ll see with that trade war,” Bos said.
The Canadian Airport Council will use the report to lobby the federal government to fund some of the recommendations.
Sault Ste. Marie’s airport was federally operated until 1998 when the Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corp., took over its control. It’s one of 23 Ontario regional or small airports that is governed in the same manner under the National Airports Policy, but it is the only one not affiliated with a municipality.
In 2018, the Sault airport reached a milestone where a record 216,172 passengers travelled through the terminal.
Once the COVID pandemic struck in 2019, however, travel fell drastically. Since then, while passenger numbers have rebounded somewhat, but are still roughly 20 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels on a month-by-month comparison. Officials say business travel has plummeted drastically
Air Canada Express, Porter Airlines and Bearskin, operate from the Sault Ste. Marie Airport.