$16 million runway refurbishment finishes on time and on budget

A runway refurbishing project at the Saskatoon International Airport which took two construction seasons and cost around $16 million is now finished.

For the people of Saskatoon, that means air traffic is back to its usual flight patterns, as of this afternoon (Tues). President and CEO of the Saskatoon Airport Authority, Stephen Maybury, explains that with all the planes using the secondary runway, that meant a change in direction for landing and departing for many flights, which in turn meant some neighbourhoods were experiencing more traffic than usual while others were seeing less.

Maybury says airlines will see the biggest change because with the main runway not available, some airlines had to change the size of aircraft to land here in some instances. The secondary runway isn’t quite as long.

The project included almost five kilometres of drainage lines, new pavement, runway edge lighting, and the approach lighting is now at both ends of the runway, and all the lighting is LED so it takes less power. The federal government covered 50 per cent of the budget.

Maybury notes that because the Airport Authority is a not-for-profit corporation operating on a user-pay model, it relies on Airport Improvement Fees to finance significant capital projects.