The Greater Sudbury Airport is exploring options to offer international flights and bring customs to the city.
Currently there are no Canada Border Service Agency officers at the airport. People travelling internationally clear customs either prior to leaving Canada, at a connecting airport or once they arrive at their international destination — meaning travellers often have to make an extra stop in southern Ontario.
“The challenge that we’re having is that if we self fund the customs situation right now, we’re upwards of probably $100,000 a year for customs for the few flights that we would have,” Chief Executive Officer, Todd Tripp said.
“What we’re looking at doing is getting a carrier in that will help fund that with us and then we can get the international traffic that we need.”
Tripp says they need to draw more carriers into Sudbury, to show that there is a demand for customs at the airport. He says they’re hoping to work with carriers like Delta, which is expanding into Canada.
“If we can show the demand then we’ll get customs to come. To bring customs in first is sort of putting the cart before the horse and it will not work for us. We need to bring the carriers in first and slowly building the traffic,” Tripp said.
