Discussions

I found this letter to the editor in the Carberry news express (http://www.carberrynews.ca). It's worth a read.  
 
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Want air service to Brandon?  
 
What can you do?  
 
To increase our chances of having regular scheduled air service we need three things:  
 
1) An ILS System. (Instrument Landing System) This system would allow aircraft to land safely with 200' vertical visibility and 3/4 mile horizontal visibility. At present the landing system in Brandon allows air carriers like West Jet to land with 468' of vertical visibility and 1 1/4 mile of horizontal visibility.  
 
Last winter a vacation carrier flying out of Fort McMurray, AB scheduled to land in Brandon and on to vacation spot Mexico: was forced to land in Winnipeg because of weather. This was a huge additional inconvenience and cost for the airline or tour operator. Flight crews need to be replaced, busses chartered, and schedules are delayed for both crew and passengers. The inconvenience for both crew, passengers and airline are multiple.  
Air ambulance can be a life line serving as a critical link for someone in an accident or suffering with critical health problems. In the event that we need the service of the air ambulance and the weather is below minimums, the patients would be transported by ground travel. In our ‘usual’ Manitoba winters, ground travel in poor weather is also a risk.  
 
I am not sure how many flights of this nature come out of Brandon but I do know that Virden had 27 flights in the first two years after a paved runway was in place in that community.  
 
 
2) We need a better laid out terminal building at the airport accomodating the safety and security for each flight.  
 
 
3) When I look around in our community and think of all the residents who would rather fly out of Brandon rather than drive and fly out of Winnipeg, it is not a small number. We need only to multiply that across south western, western and north west Manitoba to realize that the numbers are huge.  
 
Consequently, we need an air carrier to provide this service. It appears that passenger numbers are there as past ‘test’ runs have shown Brandon to be a busy terminal.  
 
I am asking that we approach our MP Mr. Merv Tweed by email, letter or phone call.  
 
When I began asking about what was holding back commercial air service to Brandon it was brought to my attention that when Brian Mulroney was elected, there was an ILS system in Winnipeg waiting to be installed in Brandon but instead ended up in Quebec!  
 
A number of years ago as I was visiting with friends in Regina, commenting on their terminal upgrade I was informed that local MP Ralph Goodale was a member of Chretien's Cabinet...so they get their upgrades!  
 
Today, we have Merv Tweed in parliament who is Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, when is it our turn to have the upgrade? What can we do? As I said above, we need to let Mr. Merv Tweed know that we need to have this upgrade for our part of the province and make calls, email or write letters to this end.  
 
 
To contact Merv Tweed, email at tweedm1@parl.gc.ca or call 523-5170 or 726-7600.  
 
Respectfully submitted,  
A.P.