A handful of regional air operators and flight schools have taken their ongoing battle to receive federal government compensation for the nosedive in business they experienced during the Olympics to the Supreme Court of B.C.
In May, regional members of the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) told BIV some air operators in the Lower Mainland suffered as much as an 80% decline in year-over-year business during the Games. (See “Flight school fight escalates” – issue 1070; April 27 to May 3.)
Former ATAC chairwoman Pat Kennedy, who is now COO of the Pacific Flying Club based out of Boundary Bay Airport in Delta, told BIV at the time that Olympic airspace restrictions, including closures, were to originally run from January 29 to March 24.
Integrated security unit (ISU) officials decided on March 3 the restrictions could be lifted on March 12, but Kennedy said the damage had already been done. Her company generated just 38% of expected normal revenue for the period.
On November 19, the Pacific Flying Club and five other ATAC members filed suit against the Attorney General of Canada and Canadian Airport Security Authority, seeking damages for nuisance related to the losses they experienced due to the air restrictions.
The other plaintiffs are: Parksville’s KD Air Corp., Vancouver’s Pacific Coastal Airlines Ltd., Delta’s Pacific Professional Flight Centre Ltd., Vancouver’s C. Morin Aviation Inc. and Delta’s Montair Aviation Inc.
The plaintiffs claim in the suit that prior to the Games, they made efforts to convince the federal government to strike a “reasonable and tolerable balance between the need for adequate security and the need to protect small air operations and their employees from serious economic detriment.”
The plaintiffs claim the government did not attempt to mitigate damage caused to the plaintiffs by the air restrictions.
The restrictions, the plaintiffs claim, did not constitute a reasonable and tolerable burden they, as small operators with tight margins, could absorb.
According to Transport Canada, the companies are not entitled to federal compensation for costs resulting from security restrictions required during the 2010 Games.