Oliver pilot Bill Michael takes off from the Oliver Aiport on the afternoon of Dec. 10. The Town of Oliver is hoping to develop a new vision for the airport and Osoyoos wants to get on board. Photo by Paul Everest Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-December 15, 2010
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
Osoyoos’s community development manager envisions a day when a person could step off a plane in Oliver and be lounging at one of Osoyoos’s resorts only minutes later.
That’s why Jim Newman recommended that Osoyoos council put its support behind a grant application from a committee looking to develop the Oliver Airport.
Newman has been working with Osoyoos’s resorts since August to find ways to bring more people to town during the fall and spring, what are referred to as shoulder seasons.
One of the ideas that came up during the discussions between Newman and the resorts was the development of charter airplane services that could bring travellers from Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton into Oliver where ground transportation services could bring them to local resorts.
Such services, he said, could allow the community to market activities offered in the area outside the busy summer tourist season.
For example, tourists and vacationers could come for wine-touring earlier in the spring and golf later in the fall.
Newman said he met with a representative of a Calgary-based charter service that could fly into the South Okanagan who told him the runway at the Osoyoos Airport would not be able to accommodate charter flights using Dash 8 aircraft because it is too short.
In order to accommodate such flights at the Osoyoos Airport, the Town would need to invest money to upgrade the facility.
But Newman said the representative told him the Oliver Airport, with its 975-metre runway, could accommodate the takeoff and landing needs of the aircraft that the charter company would use.
Since an Oliver Airport Advisory Committee, created by the Town of Oliver last spring, is looking to develop a strategic plan for the Oliver Airport, Newman approached them with the charter services idea.
Last month, he, along with councillors Ted Cronmiller and Margaret Chadsey, attended a meeting of roughly 20 stakeholders with an interest in the Oliver Airport and the concept of bringing charter services to the airport to benefit local resorts and wineries was discussed.
Newman said the committee was very open to the idea.
He added that the Penticton Regional Airport was also considered for charter flight services that could benefit local resorts, but the concept is not as attractive due to the distance between Osoyoos and Penticton and the high costs of ground travel.
“It’s not seen as sexy,” he said. “They fly in to Penticton, then they take an hour bus ride or taxi ride or whatever down here versus getting off a plane at the Oliver Airport and within 15 minutes they’re on a patio deck at Watermark or Walnut Beach or Nk’Mip and they’re saying ‘Hey, this is pretty sweet.’”
Graham Jenkinson, chair of the advisory committee, said the group was formed by the Town of Oliver to help manage the airport.
It decided earlier this year that a vision was needed for the airport and kicked off a strategic planning process, he said.
To develop a strategic plan, the committee wants to hire a consultant who will be tasked with looking at a list of priorities for the airport such as improving taxiways, adding services and creating the ability to accommodate charter services.
The consultant will then determine what the airport already has that can be used towards fulfilling these goals and what the airport needs, Jenkinson said.
“If a stakeholder said ‘We want to land Dash 8s with 20 people on board and handle baggage’, the consultant could say, ‘You’ve got 3,200 feet of runway now, that’s sufficient for a charter Dash 8 to land in, so we don’t have to do anything there,’” Jenkinson said. “‘However, what you don’t have is a taxiway to a jet aviation fuel facility. That airplane needs that kind of fuel, so, No. 1, build that taxiway.’”
The total cost of the strategic plan is $43,030 and the committee is applying to the Real Estate Foundation of BC for a grant of $26,580.
That cash will be used to bring in the consultant, Jenkinson said.
He added that the committee hopes to finish the plan by next summer and then look for more grant money to execute any recommendations or priorities included in the plan.
Jenkinson said the committee was excited when Newman approached them about the idea of bringing in charter flights for travellers and business people looking to stay at the area’s resorts and wineries.
“When we heard about that we said, ‘Let’s join forces. We’ll invite the Town of Osoyoos and the surrounding businesses to become stakeholders in our strategic planning process.’”
Don Brogan, general manager of Osoyoos’s Walnut Beach Resort and chair of Destination Osoyoos’s board of directors, said the area’s resorts have become interested in the idea of charter flights into Oliver due to the lack of affordable ground transportation from larger airports in Kelowna and Penticton.
“Sometimes your flight from Vancouver to Penticton would be less money than the cab ride from Penticton to Osoyoos,” he said. “So if there was a cost-effective way of getting into the area, then that takes that aspect out. You don’t need to worry about driving here, you can fly into Oliver and be picked up.”
Ground transportation between Osoyoos and Oliver is inexpensive, Brogan added.
He said local resorts and Destination Osoyoos would consider supporting the charter services concept with cash for the marketing of such services once plans for the development of the Oliver Airport were more concrete.
As for demand for charter flight services, Brogan said it comes down to the philosophy of “if you build it, they will come.”
“I think the demand is not much based on what I have experienced in this industry over the last 10 years, but if you have a number of organizations marketing the fact that flying into Oliver is a viable option for visiting and meeting in the South Okanagan, the demand will grow.”
Osoyoos council agreed at its Dec. 6 meeting to issue a letter of support for the committee’s grant application.
Newman said if the charter services concept becomes a reality and Osoyoos continues to support the idea, the Town may have to consider a “change in scope for the Osoyoos Airport lands.”
Such a change, he said, could include developing the airport for industrial purposes.
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