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Lake Simcoe Regional Airport is solidifying its growing importance as a base for business aviation. During an official signing ceremony in Air Georgian’s newly renovated hangar, the County of Simcoe Warden Cal Patterson, City of Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman and Township of Oro- Medonte Mayor Harry Hughes signed an agreement that now makes the County of Simcoe the airport’s third co-owner at a 20 per cent equity. The City of Barrie holds a 60 per cent equity and the Township of Oro-Medonte the remaining 20 per cent.
“The City of Barrie has enjoyed a long-standing collaborative relationship with the County of Simcoe and we look forward to this new partnership,” said Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman. “The County of Simcoe’s economic development goals align well with both the City’s and the airport’s needs. This is a valuable partnership that will help us grow business at the airport and provide a valuable service and economic engine for our area,” he added.
With construction on another 34,000-sq.-ft.hangar and VIP lounge facility about to begin, the airport is building momentum as a corporate aircraft facility with more fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft calling Lake Simcoe Regional Airport home. In the past two years, six business jets have established their new home at CYLS. An air ambulance operator, the provincial headquarters of Hydro One’s rotary-wing fleet, as well as the OPP air traffic service are also based at the modern airport north of Barrie. Toronto’s L.B. Pearson International Airport is only an hour’s drive away via direct highway connection.
One major player in Canada’s aviation industry has recently returned to the airport where it started in 1991, the year the airport became operational. Barrie-based Georgian International completed major renovations of a hangar that now houses twin engine Beechcraft King Air 90 business aircraft. However the company is considering even bigger plans for the airport, where its subsidiary Air Georgian Ltd., a partner of Air Canada Express, was founded.
Jamie Massie, co-founder, president and CEO of Georgian International, said that the airport and the vision of its owners “has allowed our company to invest and grow and actually helped to create jobs.” He pointed out that “Air Georgian now has 400 employees and moves about a million passengers a year out of bases in Toronto, Halifax, Calgary [in Canada] and Kabul, Afghanistan. So, huge growth for a little company that started here.”
The company has remained in Barrie over the years of rapid expansion. Asked whether the company is considering expanding its business at Lake Simcoe Regional Airport by adding more aviation activities, like aircraft maintenance, Massie revealed that “we have talked about that. We would have to invest in a bigger hangar for us to do that. We fly Bombardier Dash 8s, CRJ 100s and we have Beech 1900s. They all are on scheduled maintenance for which we are currently utilizing a high-expenses base in Toronto to do heavy checks. We have looked at, very seriously, moving them here. We actually have a base at Kingston where we do some of that now and we would transition that work here. But it would mean the investment of another hangar and we certainly will continue to look at that.”
Airport general manager Mike Drumm said, “We have 15 acres of fully serviced land available for immediate development and an additional 150 acres of airside lands slated for commercially based development for aviation-related industries.” He added that businesses that do not require direct airside access can be directed to developers of suitable land adjacent to the airport.
With the next major airside facility preparing construction start-up, current hangars occupied, more corporate aircraft moving in, high cost and congestion at Pearson Airport driving business its way, the growth of Lake Simcoe Regional Airport looks set to pick up even more momentum now.
