(Photo supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

YQF

New logo, high hopes for Red Deer Regional Airport

Oct 1, 2019 | 5:17 PM

Red Deer Regional Airport has unveiled a new rebrand with the hopes of helping future economic growth take off.

Along with a new logo and website, the rebrand also includes newly-signed agreements with Rice Group (a Toronto-based major land development firm), EFC Developments (an aviation focused land development firm from Calgary) and Saturn Power (an Ontario-based solar and wind power storage company).

Airport CEO Graham Ingham says they’ve been working hard over the past couple of years on shaping a new vision and developing new strategies to achieve their business goals.

“We also wanted to go back to the original roots of the airport itself in that of being a regional airport,” explains Ingham. “It’s something that is really important to not only the tenants of the airport that have been here a long time, but the community as well. We thought it would better represent not just Red Deer but that of central Alberta as well, so we’re pretty excited about it.”

Ingham says their goals include business development in air service and land development, as well as operational excellence, community leadership including charitable donations, and financial sustainability.

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Ingham says each of their new partners will be key in those efforts.

“With the Rice Group, they’ve got about 750,000 square feet of property located at the north end of the airport,” says Ingham. “They’re out looking for large scale development projects, whether it be cargo-type operations, or aircraft manufacturing, maintenance repair and overhaul, those types of things. Building that part of the airport out could bring an additional couple million dollars in lease revenue.”

With Saturn Power, Ingham says there is a great opportunity to develop lands west of the airport for a solar farm project.

“They’re kind of in Phase 2, which is the viability stage, so they’re out looking for potential buyers,” explains Ingham. “I think it will be somewhere in the range of about 5-10 megawatt project. They’re hoping that the City and County could be potential buyers of the energy and then the airport itself is able to generate revenue through the leasing of that land, so we’re hoping something is going to come to fruition in maybe 2021.”

With EFC Developments, Ingham says they too will have the option to lease lands near the airport.

“They’ve got some land just south of the terminal that they’re looking to put some commercial, as well as aviation-related businesses on about 40,000 square metres,” adds Ingham. “So in total with our three projects, we’re looking at about $2.3 million just in lease revenue which would lead the airport towards a path of financial sustainability which is really good.”

Ingham says the ‘option to lease’ agreements signed with all three new partners could lead to significant economic growth in the region.

“That gives them the option to go out and market and potentially develop that land,” he explains. “If they do, then that will bring in a tremendous amount of not only revenue for the airport, but the most important thing is all about bringing in economic activity. So the jobs, tax revenues, and helping the region to further diversify and bring in other businesses that aren’t necessarily native to this type of area.”

However, Ingham notes the airport’s existing tenants stand to grow their businesses as well with the help of the new website.

“Whether they want to lease a hangar or they’ve got some job applications or openings that they want us to advertise on their behalf, we’re also doing that. It gives us an opportunity to help our existing tenants a little bit more.”

Ingham says they are finalizing the 2020 Capital Plan to be reviewed by the City of Red Deer and Red Deer County in November. The plan will include $2.6 million to rebuild the airport’s secondary runway that is used primarily by flight training schools.

Preliminary design work has been done on a new terminal building, but Ingham says that’s been put on the side for now as they focus on their land development opportunities. It does, however, remain a big part of their future plans.

Passenger air service is also on the backburner for the time being.

“We’ve not moved away from it, just kind of parked it for now,” shares Ingham. “The opportunities we’re looking at with land development are really positive. Those are the ones that really generate the economic activity.”