Regional airport grant will support plans to certify airport

Cold Lake, AB - The City of Cold Lake will use a $144,000 grant from the Province of Alberta to complete a study for airport certification that could ultimately see scheduled air services brought to the airport.

The Regional Airport Development Grant, provided through Alberta's Ministry of Jobs, Economy and Trade, will allow the City of Cold Lake to build off of a draft Cold Lake Airport Expansion Implementation Strategy. This strategy was started in August of 2023, and is in its final stages of completion. A draft of the strategy points to several next steps in planning required to understand the infrastructure upgrades, procedures, and manuals that must be put in place before airport certification is achieved.

"Ultimately, our goal is to see screened, scheduled flights come to Cold Lake, but this is a complex project that comes with a significant price tag," Mayor Craig Copeland said. "We are confident that the community will get there, but first we need to make sure that we make the right investments in the airport."

Initial estimates of the cost of upgrading the infrastructure at the airport to support screened passenger service are coming in at around $19 million. An interim step could be to secure unscreened scheduled flights, although airport certification would still be required.

To that end, the grant will allow the city to conduct a thorough gap analysis that will list any shortcomings for aerodrome standards and practices, create an updated Airport Operations Manual, Safety Management Manual, Wildlife Management Plan, Snow Removal and Ice Control Plan, and an Emergency Response Plan. It will also include a cost analysis of bringing the facility in line with federal aerodrome standards.

A number of upgrades have been undertaken in recent years at the Cold Lake Regional Airport, including the establishment of GPS approaches, a runway overlay, installation of LED airfield lighting and precision approach path indicators, a new fuel facility, paved taxiways, and a new terminal building.

"When the time comes to implement screened or unscreened flights in Cold Lake, we need to have our plans and the right infrastructure in place," Copeland said. "The window of opportunity in these cases can be small and so if it's going to happen, we need to take the proper steps to be ready."

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