The Regina International Airport is remaining confident in their precautionary measures even after two flights came into the Queen City earlier this month that had COVID-19 positive patients on them.
Regina Airport Authority CEO James Bogusz says since the pandemic began, cleaning and sanitation efforts have seen a major increase.
“Things that passengers would typically interacting with like kiosks, even the hand-railings on something like an escalator, really try to make an active effort to keep up on that and really adding some additional staff there during those peak times,” Bogusz said. “I use peak loosely; it’s obviously not overly busy in the airport right now which does give passengers a lot of room to spread out and practice social distancing when you’re here in the terminal.”
While masks are mandatory during security screening and on flights, James Bogusz says masks are not mandatory where six feet of social distancing can be maintained everywhere else within the airport.
“We’re obviously not a major hub like a Toronto or a Calgary, and we’re monitoring very closely in terms of how much space is available for customers,” Bogusz said. “Right now, frankly, there’s still plenty simply because there’s not a lot of activity out at the airport compared to pre-COVID days.”
With business historically low, Bogusz says he is calling on the federal government to support airports across the country, adding the airport in Regina has drastically cut their operating budget.
“We sadly had to lay-off a number of our team members — well over 30% of our staff — much like many businesses in southern Saskatchewan were struggling,” Bogusz said. “We are here for the community, but we have to keep our runways safe, our terminal building secure, obviously keep our emergency services at that full-capacity whether or not we have one flight an hour, or one flight every three hours, the terminal building is still here.”
In April, YQR saw ridership that was reportedly 1.8% of previous ridership levels. Bogusz says he is seeing business slowly resume, as June ridership will be up to 10% of normal levels.
