Look, up in the sky! It’s a plane full of well-heeled tourists or conventioneers destined for Jasper! Wishful thinking? Perhaps for now, but if a new working group gets its way, the dream of dollars by the planeload could become a reality sooner than you think.

The group of tourism industry heavyweights and local government officials has been meeting to discuss the potential future of the Jasper-Hinton Airport. Presently a non-descript single-runway facility located just past the east park boundary, the airport has long been the subject of fantastical plans for improvement. In 1999, a proposal called for a massive expansion to the facility, including extending the runway to allow Boeing 737s to land. The price tag for that portion of the project alone came to more than $12 million, so it’s little wonder that nothing came of the grandiose scheme.

This time around, the proponents of airport improvement have their sights trained a little closer to the ground.

Representatives from Fairmont and Mountain Park Lodges were the first businesses to get involved, joining forces with Edmonton Airports and Edmonton Economic Development to commission a feasability study from an air travel consulting firm. This report suggested a range of small, but essential technical and operational improvements that could be made in order to enhance the viability of the airport.

Some of the measures outlined will have to go ahead, according to newly updated legislation for the maintainence of airports. Yellowhead County, which has managed the Jasper-Hinton site since 1995, will be on the hook for improving the lighting system and building a run-off lane for emergency situations. Beyond these legal requirements, the county is also willing to foot the bill for a GPS landing system, something that would allow more planes to land at the airport, and in all weather conditions.

Yellowhead County Chief Administrative Officer Jack Ramme said that while the county is glad to be part of the effort to increase traffic at the airport, the fact is that its taxpayers will see little benefit from major spending on the facility.

“Unfortunately, the county would benefit the least,” he said. “As we go forward, the various groups may have to come to the table and support some of the long-range improvements.”

For Marilyn Backman-Morton of Mountain Park Lodges, the important thing is to get started on marketing the airport as a destination for a “scheduled charter service”. Right now, the only traffic that comes into the airport is on a very ad hoc basis, and getting a charter airline committed to providing regular air access to Jasper and Hinton is key. She stresses that, for now at least, this does not mean there will be a regularly scheduled passenger service from the airport, something that Peace Air tried unsuccessfully to maintain several years ago.

“We’re looking at the tourist market first, so we don’t have to be all things to all people,” she said. “It allows us to take a very targeted approach.”

According to the figures in the feasibility study, that targeted approach could have some very tangible impacts on Jasper’s tourist traffic. The base figures for increased visitation as a result of scheduled charter plane access range from 5,000 to 7,000 new skiers, convention-goers or general purpose travellers.

“We’re quite excited about having the key players in place and working on this,” Backman-Morton said. 

The group is aware that similar improvements are already underway at the Valemount airport, about 120 kilometres west of Jasper. 

“Right now, a significant amount of energy has been put into the Jasper-Hinton project, and now we have some momentum,” she said. “At the same time, the more ways we can get people into Jasper or close to Jasper, the better.”