The next time you see Gord Duke at the Prince George Airport, he will likely be heading out on a well-deserved vacation following an action-packed five-year term as YXS President and CEO.
In his final holiday travel rush at the head of PG’s airport, he is expecting a 20 to 25% bump in foot traffic through the holiday season.
In addition, Duke is also projecting around 450-thousand passengers to pass through YXS once 2024 is done, putting them pretty much on par with pre-COVID traffic levels.
In an interview with Vista Radio, Duke told MyPGNow.com December is usually a pretty busy month even prior to the holiday traffic.
“Pretty solid load factors in and out of Prince George anyways with a lot of workplace movement and this time of year you have students heading home after the semester. We do see a bump and it’s already a pretty full flight anywhere you go.”
“From an airport perspective, we do staff up for the winter season as it is and those folks are doing the runway maintenance and the grounds maintenance as well so they are all set to go and the ground handler will bring in additional staff for the extra operations that happen.”
Duke noted sun destinations like Mexico and California are becoming more popular for travellers who want to spend Christmas elsewhere.
YXS offers a direct flight to Puerto Vallarta via Westjet. Weekly flights out of PG run every Saturday from December to April.
He reminds travellers to give themselves a little extra time prior to flying to your destination.
2024 will be another resurgent year for the Prince George Airport when its all said and done.
Duke stated the last couple years have seen some good recovery.
“We are anticipating that we will finish the year somewhere around 450,000 passengers – it is about 8.5% higher than last year and when we look back to the pre-COVID years we averaged around 500 thousand a year – we are getting back to about that 80 to 85% range.”
He added with Prince George considered a regional hub, the airport has done quite well for itself.
“This airport is a real gem for the communities that we serve. I look forward to following the growth as Prince George expands along with the airport. I think it is a really good news story as to how this airport contributes to this community.”
Duke adds almost 2 thousand medivac operations occur at YXS every year.
This will be the last hectic holiday season Duke will be overseeing as he is set to retire from his role at YXS following a five-year run.
While his tenure didn’t go according to plan due to the pandemic turbulence that grounded the aviation industry for two years, it’s been a fun ride regardless.
“I have been so lucky to have been here in Prince George. Yes, it didn’t unfold exactly as planned arriving here in November of 2019 followed shortly by COVID and that certainly impacted the things that we might have been able to do as an airport.”
“However, I am really proud of the work we collectively did as an airport and management team, the union and our board through COVID to position ourselves forward after that,” added Duke.
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