The $17-million expansion plan announced March 7, 2012 by the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority to develop the Ogdensburg’s Airport rang a few alarm bells this past week.
“If you plan on opening a new business in the Ogdensburg area, the cost is very cheap and being so close to the border does make it attractive,” said Martha Lee, Ottawa resident whose family owns a home in Ogdensburg, New York.
Ogdensburg is right across the St. Lawrence Seaway from Prescott, a town located 100 km south of Ottawa. It is home to 11,128 residents with 20 per cent living below the poverty line and with a median income per household of $34,148. “Ogdensburg has not been thus far very attractive to new business opportunities. The track record is not good,” said Lee. “Since I have been traveling back and forth to Ogdensburg for the last 60 years, I can tell you that lots of new businesses have opened and closed.”
The goal for the OBPA is to develop an attractive airport alternative for Ottawa residents, similar to the one provided to Montrealers by Plattsburgh International Airport and Burlington International Airport. Both of these airports make a strong effort to serve their clientele in French to attract Quebecers and Franco-Ontarians.
Ogdensburg Airport, which recently added a car rental service, is hoping to take advantage of more competitive prices. Fares in the US are much lower than in Canada due to federal taxes and airport taxes. Private companies mostly operate Canadian airports which add extra fees, while many American airports are heavily subsidized or even owned by the state. “If the reason for the expansion of the Ogdensburg Airport is to accommodate commercial airlines, then the Ottawa Airport may look at lowering their airport fees and taxes,” said Lee, who has worked as an Air Canada Airport Agent and Airport Manager for 35-years.
Ogdensburg Airport presently offers two destinations and is averaging 10 passengers per day, compared to 2,056 flying to the US from the Ottawa Airport. Cape Air is the only commercial carrier in Ogdensburg, servicing Boston Logan Airport with a stop in Albany. In late March, the airline announced its plan to open a ticket office in downtown Ogdensburg.
$17-million or half of the budget has been earmarked for the construction of a northeast-to-southwest-
The busiest transborder routes from the Ottawa Airport are to New York City’s LaGuardia and Newark Airports, Chicago O’Hare, and Washington’s Regan and Dulles Airport, all with 6 daily flights. With so many examples of successful American airports along the border, it is no surprise Ogdensburg plans to snag its own piece of the transborder market.
Only 100 km SW of Ogdensburg and 50 km south of the Thousand Islands Bridge is the Watertown Airport, where American Airlines began offering flights to Chicago in November 2011. If the rate of traffic continues, passengers boarding an aircraft will increase by 400 per cent since inaugurating the O’Hare flight. Once an American airport records 10,000 enplanements three years in a row, subsidies from the Federal Aviation Administration rise to $1 million from $150,000.
With 15 per cent of Canadians catching flights from the US, the lost market share negatively impacts the Canadian airline industry. Ogdensburg might be the next airport to lure Canadians, especially with the “mostly hassle free” and renovated Ogdensburg-Prescott border crossing.
