Virden eyes airport upgrades to help attract new business
Southwest Manitoba town looking for funding to widen, lengthen airport runway for larger planes
Yu Kotaki left his home in Japan in search of a career as a pilot, but he never imagined the journey would take him to a small airport in southwestern Manitoba.
"I want to try for working in the major airlines like WestJet and Air Canada in the near future," the 25-year-old said. "That's my end goal."
The R.J. (Bob) Andrew Field Regional Aerodrome in the town of Virden is already home to an aviation school — where Kotaki works as an instructor — and hosts several hundred flights each year.
But officials in the community of roughly 3,200 people, which lies about 70 kilometres west of Brandon, want to upgrade the municipally owned and operated airport to help attract new businesses to Virden.
Bruce Dunning, a town councillor and appointee on Virden's airport commission, said improvements could draw more corporate flights from companies in the agriculture and oil sectors, as well as those in the investment and insurance industries.
"What we're seeing more and more … now is they're getting bigger planes in, to where they can't land here," Dunning said.
"They have to land in Brandon and then catch rides out, so that's one of the reasons we're looking at upgrading this airport."
Dunning said the town is considering plans to widen and lengthen the runway in order to accommodate the larger aircraft. The town wants to do the work in phases, but in total it could cost more than $7 million.
Virden has applied for funding through a provincial infrastructure development program, but has already received a $2.5-million commitment from Scott Andrew and his brother, Brock, of Air Andrew.
The family-owned company has corporate aircraft, and also runs the aviation school and does crop spraying.
Scott said the company's Cessna Citation X, a business jet used for corporate travel, currently can't take off from the airport with a full load of fuel because the runway's too short.
"There's some traffic — some operators we used to see come in and out of there — we don't see them anymore," Scott Andrew said.
"It's not that they're not operating, it's that [our runway is] 1,700 feet too short and we're 25 feet too narrow for the equipment that's being used now."
Upgrading the runway is critical for the town, he said.
"In order to attract people and keep them … it's just required infrastructure."
Ability to land in more adverse weather
An upgrade would allow planes to land in more adverse weather, including conditions of reduced visibility or low cloud cover, due to Transport Canada regulations that changed in 2018.
The rules now allow for a minimum ceiling — the lowest point landing pilots can descend to before making visual contact with the runway — of 250 feet (about 75 metres) for aerodromes like Virden's. The minimum ceiling is currently 500 feet in Virden.
"The difference between 500 feet and 250 feet … pilots just go, 'well that's huge,'" Scott Andrew said.
The airport can go to 250 feet as long as there's enough clearance on either side of the runway, but four hangars would have to be relocated.
Andrew said the new ceiling is important for both corporate and medical flights, the latter of which have been increasing in Virden after Shared Health expanded the use of air transports to move patients from rural areas.
The rest of the project hinges on how much funding Virden can get, and town council will have to decide how much work the community can afford to do.
"There will be some upgrades done regardless. It's just whether we'll do the lengthening and the width at this time," Dunning said.
While Kotaki, who moved from Vancouver to Virden in July, doesn't plan on staying forever, he said Virden's airport has already helped him pursue his dreams.
Due to the cost of living in B.C., he said he would've needed a second job in addition to working as a flight instructor, but in Virden he's been able to focus on flying.
"So that's different from other parts of Canada," Kotaki said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
