I'll start, and then I'll turn it over to Derrick.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to speak to you today.
There are 12 airports in Atlantic Canada that are part of our association. It is all of the airports in the region with commercial traffic—or should I now say, the ones that used to have passenger traffic prior to the pandemic, because sadly that is the situation we are in. Seven airports in our region have seen their Air Canada service be indefinitely suspended: in communities like Gander, Newfoundland; Goose Bay and Wabush in Labrador; Bathurst, Saint John and the capital city, Fredericton, in New Brunswick; and Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Pre-pandemic, these were well-managed, profitable and fiscally responsible small airports. They have now gone through 10 months of using their cash reserves—accumulated over two decades and normally earmarked for safety infrastructure projects. These airports have cut staff, and they've cut expenses, but they can only cut so far, as our airport runways must stay open for medevac and essential community services.
The impact of COVID has been great, seeing air service that has been in place since 1942 severed, cutting off entire communities and regions. For Gander, Newfoundland, Air Canada has served that market since it was Trans-Canada Airlines, before Newfoundland was even part of Canada.
In Sydney's case, it is cutting the economy there off from the rest of the country. It is five hours from the next nearest airport in Halifax. Think about that for a minute. This is Nova Scotia's second-largest city entirely without air access. It's an economy that relies on tourism, mobile workers moving to the oil fields, and immigration.
We know that government does not want people to travel right now. We are here to serve the essential movement of people and goods, but our infrastructure expenses do not scale, and our revenue model is entirely based on passengers. This government has recognized the need for support for the air sector in the fiscal economic statement, and we look forward to those programs rolling out. The support is urgently needed.
I'll turn it over to my colleague, Derrick.