The Chronicle-Herald
Business, Friday, May 6, 2011, p. C1

The longer road to success; Airport hopes extended runway will boost cargo, passenger traffic Cargo; Passenger Traffic Were Up Last Year At The Halifax Stanfield International Airport, But As
Business Editor Chris Lambie Reports, An Impending Runway Expansion Could Boost Traffic Even Higher

MAYBE SIZE DOES MATTER, at least when you're talking air cargo.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport cargo numbers were up 5.7 per cent in 2010, with about 28,450 tonnes of cargo moving through the facility last year, compared to 26,910 tonnes of goods in 2009.

But that number was off the airport's peak of 31,841 tonnes of cargo in 2004, despite the new Gateway Facilities ULC $15-million cargo complex that opened at the airport last June. It boasts the largest refrigerated space north of Miami with direct airside access.

"I tell you what's going to do the trick for us. It's going to be the combination . . . of that terrific facility and when we get the runway lengthened," Peter Spurway, a Halifax International Airport Authority spokesman, said Thursday.

"It's all part of the same package." Federal and provincial taxpayers will foot half the bill for a $28-million project to lengthen the airport's main runway to 3,200 metres from 2,682 metres. The authority will pay for the rest. "We have the money now," Spurway said. "We issued a $135-million bond last fall." The longer runway's slated to be done by the fall of 2013. "That means a fully loaded 747 can land and take off from here without issues, regardless of weather," Spurway said. Asiana Cargo Canada used to bring a Boeing 747 to Halifax once a week on a route from New York to Belgium but stopped two years ago because of safety and weather concerns.

The longer runway is expected to eliminate those fears. The airport is anticipating it will see a lot more cargo, mostly in the form of seafood, once the runway's done. "A lot of our seafood now gets trucked to Montreal and Boston and then flown overseas," Spurway said.

The new 40,000-square-foot cargo facility at the airport has 7,000 square feet of refrigerated space. "From a producer's viewpoint, the sooner we can get this (seafood) to markets in Europe . . . faster and fresher, then obviously they'll get better prices," Spurway said. "But, in some cases, behaviours need to change. This is what the guys at Gateway Facilities are marketing. That's what we're marketing.

But one of the key linchpins in this whole thing is that extended runway." Three daily US Airways flights between Halifax and Philadelphia drove transborder passenger traffic up at the Halifax airport by 7.3 per cent last year, with 369,767 passengers last year compared to 344,712 in 2009.

The non-stop flights to the major hub began last June. "People, certainly in our catchment area, have now caught on to 'I don't need to go to Toronto or Montreal to go through (U.S. customs) preclearance there; I can go through it here," Spurway said. "It opened back in 2006, but people's behaviour takes time to change." Domestic passenger numbers were up 2.8 per cent last year to 2,838,051. International traffic was down four per cent, falling to 300,335.

In 2010, overall passenger traffic increased by 2.7 per cent to 3,508,153 passengers, compared to 3,417,164 in 2009, making last year the secondbusiest year in the airport's 50-year history. "Our highest traffic number in absolute, all-time history was 3,578, 931 (passengers) in 2008," Spurway said. "It went up in '06, in '07, in '08, and then it slid in '09, in the economic downturn."</p>

The Chronicle-Herald
Business, Thursday, March 31, 2011, p. C4

BUSINESS IN BRIEF

Air cargo traffic at Halifax Stanfield International Airport grew by 5.7 per cent in 2010, the airport authority said Wednesday. The airport moved 28,450 metric tonnes of cargo last year. The Halifax International Airport Authority said traffic increased because of the opening of a new, $15- million, 40,000-square-foot cargo complex.

Authority officials say the Gateway Facilities ULC facility, which opened in June, has the largest refrigerated space north of Miami with direct airside access. "For a client in the seafood business, the ability to ship their high-value products directly to Europe, just hours out of the water, is a tremendous competitive advantage," Jerry Staples, vice-president of marketing and business development, said in a news release. Air cargo traffic is forecast to increase seven per cent this year.

Haynes Law, a Halifax law firm specializing in insurance litigation law, is joining forces with McInnes Cooper. The law firms announced the merger Wednesday. The move takes effect on May 1. "The move reinforces and expands our provision of top quality legal services in the insurance sector," Bernie Miller, managing partner of McInnes Cooper, said. For more than two decades, Haynes Law has provided insurance defence services in the courts and through alternative dispute resolution.

McInnes Cooper is an Atlantic Canadian law firm with seven offices and more than 200 lawyers throughout the region.

FinnAir - since December 2010
Air Transat - since February 2011

For many visitors to Atlantic Canada, the idea of boxing up a lobster or two at the airport for a little plane ride home can be an integral and charming part of the iconic Atlantic experience.

But flying over 40 tonnes of it across the Atlantic ocean each and every week — to be served up on beautiful platters in exotic destinations from Europe to Asia — represents a much bigger challenge.

And it’s a challenge Nova Scotia business partners Doug McRae and Steve Christiensen are taking up successfully.

Today, their dream of flying lobsters and other maritime fare to markets around the world has become reality thanks to their company Gateway Facilities — one of the largest refrigerated air freight warehouse facilities and cargo businesses in North America.

“When you’re dealing with a product like seafood, getting it to market fresh is your main priority,” explains Doug from their base of operations at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. “And that’s where we first saw opportunities for refrigerated air cargo — shipping by air is fastest, which gives our local seafood exporters better access to potential foreign markets.”

With more than 650 square metres of refrigerated warehouse space and an apron that allows large cargo planes to taxi right up to the building to move freight, Gateway Facilities now offers refrigeration and loading capacity that exceeds major centres like New York and Boston.

In fact, the ability to move cargo from refrigerated storage space to the cargo door in under two minutes is a significant improvement over trucking cargo to planes from smaller, off-site storage areas — and a significant competitive edge in the North American shipping industry.

“We believe the quality of seafood products today — including lobster and oysters — are improving because of faster, better transportation options,” says Doug, “and that’s a source of pride for us because it’s helping exporters get seafood products on tables far from home.”

Meanwhile, Gateway Facilities continues to seize on opportunities for growth.

Thanks to some help from ACOA’s Business Development Fund, the company is busy adding new equipment to their facilities and expanding their employee base.

“We’ve never accessed government funding before and the experience with ACOA has been a good one because they are as enthusiastic about exporting as we are,” smiles Doug.

With so many lobsters now riding the skies, it seems only the sky is the limit for this cargo company that could.

Published in February 2011.
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency | Agence de promotion économique du Canada atlantique
http://www.acoa-apeca.gc.ca/eng/Pages/GatewayFacilities.aspx