Editorial: Don't jump to choose single airport

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We take columnist Duncan Dee’s point that New Brunswick, as a whole, faces some disadvantages by having three small airports serving the three largest cities. A hypothetical larger airport, serving a provincial customer base, could improve some aspects of travel, such as possibly attracting new routes beyond Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

But we aren’t convinced this would solve everything, or come without tradeoffs. There’s no guarantee, for example, that the total quantity of flights to Central Canada would actually increase.

This issue is bigger than the scope of air service quality, however. Rather, it gets to the heart of the province’s structure, economy and identity. It’s why we would caution against jumping too quickly, and foolishly, to coalesce the provincial air sector around one facility.

The fact is that New Brunswick isn’t Nova Scotia, with one, indisputable leading major centre. Our neighbour is for all intents and purposes a city-state, and there has never been much debate as to which locale would be the engine of that province’s transportation, politics and economy.

A defining characteristic of New Brunswick is that its three similarly sized cities all offer something distinct to the whole. Fredericton is the centre of government and education. Moncton has an industrial base, a retail hub and has become a capital for francophone New Brunswick. Saint John is the province’s export engine, driven in part by its harbour, port and transport links.

With their individual niches, all three cities benefit from direct air access, even if only to Toronto and Montreal. To take these links away would deal a major blow to the cities affected.

Mr. Dee, a former airline executive, argues in his most recent column against the three cities competing with each other. But the inter-city rivalry would only become fiercer if it were announced that only one will have a commercial airport.

That’s in part because it’s not clear to us which facility should be chosen. Moncton has the largest airport, meaning that expansion there would probably be less expensive. But geographically, Moncton is tucked in the southeastern corner of the province, with a big airport within reasonable driving distance for its residents. To give as many communities access to air links within a two-hour drive, Fredericton or Saint John would make more sense.

But the issue goes beyond logistics. To choose one city to host our only real airport would be equivalent to picking a horse to lead the province moving forward, and consequently giving up on the others. This is something politicians for generations have avoided doing, and for good reason.

Unlike Halifax, none of our three cities has the ability to carry the province on its shoulders. But all three play their role in supporting the whole. It’s actually in everyone’s interest that all three cities play co-captain.

Until and unless one of the cities organically evolves to be head-and-shoulders above the rest, no government should jump to assign a leader – which such an airport decision would signal.

Barring the possibility of a new, central airport concept – “YNB,” so to speak – it makes more practical sense to focus on using the political levers at hand to get the best service possible to our three southern airports, rather than choosing a winning town.