Timmins airport sees soaring prosperity: passenger traffic climbs 40 per cent.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: TIMMINS

There are many way to gauge the economic health of the city, Timmins airport manager Harley Nikkel says, but what he uses is one simple glance.

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"I can tell how things are going on a daily basis, without having to spend much time looking at facts and figures, by looking out the window at my public parking lot, and that's my economic barometer," says Nikkel.

"After 35 years of doing this, you can get a sense of flight activity and such just by looking out there, and it's full, even after expanding it to 200 spaces a couple years ago. Full."

At a time when many Canadian airports are struggling to maintain ridership levels, passenger traffic statistics have climbed strongly over the last three years at Timmins' Victor M. Power Airport.

While the national average increase in airport activity has climbed between two and three per cent, Timmins numbers have increased 40 per cent. Statistics are not yet available for the past six months.

Flight activity has also seen some recent strength. In 2006, there were roughly 27,000 takeoffs and landings, a number now approaching 32,000.

Despite this growth, the numbers indicate that although there are more flights, there are also more passengers on each flight, translating to much less empty seats.

Much of this activity can be attributed to the continuing good fortunes seen in and around the city in recent years, says Nikkel, thanks in no small part to mineral exploration projects and the construction of the De Beers Victor Mine.

Even though the Victor Mine was complete and operational as of 2008, contributing to a slight softening of the flight numbers, the company still conducts three scheduled charters every week through its ongoing contract with Air Creebec.

Other charter business for moving people, goods, and freight at the facility is handled by Air Bravo, Wasaya Airways, and Thunder Airlines.

Though this aspect of the business has been steadily growing, the major traffic component for...