Despite the reduction in activity, Carter said as a critical piece of transportation infrastructure, Halifax Stanfield must remain open to safely move goods, essential workers, and facilitate medevac and other important services that support Canada’s economy and recovery. “But whether one flight lands here, or one thousand flights land here, we have substantial fixed costs associated with safely managing our airfield, terminal building and property,” she added. As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced passenger traffic, HIAA looked at every opportunity to reduce costs. The airport has consolidated operations in the terminal, closed parking lots, shut down esca- lators and even dimmed lights, when possible. HIAA also laid off 25 per cent of its workforce because of the pandemic’s impacts, which according to Carter, is a step they deeply regret having to take.
“Our people are a big part of the reason we are consistently recognized among the best airports of our size in the world. It has been a very diffi - cult time for our entire team.” It’s not just airports that have been affected. Airlines, businesses inside the terminal building, businesses on the airport property, and even supply chain partners, have all felt the effects of COVID-19’s extraordinary disruption to aviation. According to the Canadian Airports Council (CAC), tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in airport employment zones, with air sector unemployment as high as 50 per cent. The CAC expects airports will lose as much as $4.5 billion in revenue and add $2.8 billion in debt to cover operational deficits by the end of 2021. Tobeginplanning forwhatwill beyearsof recovery efforts, HIAA assembled a Recovery Task Force led by Paul Baxter, Senior Vice President Opera- tions & Chief Operating Officer. The Task Force’s goal was to produce a plan to help rebuild pas- senger confidence and manage evolving opera -
tional and human resource requirements. They looked at modelling the future to understand not only passenger recovery, but how the industry will respond to establish a safe, secure, efficient, and financially responsible post-pandemic airport operating model. According to Baxter, three major factors were identified as the biggest obstacles to the air - port’s recovery: federal and provincial border
restrictions, travel advisories, and quarantine measures; the financial viability of airlines, airport businesses and airport authorities; and consumer confidence in air travel. “We knew that when the time was right, instilling consumer confidence would be key to rebuild - ing passenger traffic and air service lost due to COVID-19,” said Baxter.
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JANUARY 2021 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JANUARY 2021
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