Graham Armour says he’s been a pilot since the eighties and you don’t see buyers lining up to buy a bankrupt airport.
Stephenville-Port au Port MHA Tony Wakeham says he hasn’t been involved in any of the negotiations or agreements reached with the local airport. Wakeham says the announcement that the facility had been sold to Carl Dymond was nearly two years ago. He says there was a lot of hype around that announcement. Wakeham says everyone is waiting and hoping. Earlier today, Bay FM news reported a pilot, who lived in Ottawa for 27 years and was involved in the aviation industry, says no one has even heard of Carl Dymond. Graham Armour says he’s been a pilot since the eighties and you don’t see buyers lining up to buy a bankrupt airport. He says Stephenville hasn’t had a regularly scheduled air service since Pal pulled out in 2021 and there’s too much competition with the airport in Deer Lake. Armour says it’s time people start talking and realize the deal isn’t real. He had to explain that to his 101-year-old mother in law who worked at the base for years who got so excited but he had to tell her it wasn’t true. Armour says since he moved to the Stephenville area in 2003, the decline of the airport has been nothing short of phenomenal. He says to get Air Canada to travel to hubs that weren’t major, like Stephenville, government offered subsidies, but when they stopped, airlines consolidated to the Deer Lake Regional Airport.