The new $18.5-million Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre opened Wednesday, but B.C.'s largest float plane company is still refusing to fly there.
So far only two seaplane operators have moved into the new facility: Seair Seaplanes and Tofino Air. Both companies have been pushing to work out of the Vancouver Harbour instead of the Vancouver Airport and various other B.C. coast terminals for years.
The province's largest seaplane operator, Harbour Air, still refuses to move into the new seaplane terminal because of high rents.
Seaplane companies say the high rents will result in a fee between $9.50 and $12 for every flight in and out of Vancouver Harbour.
Harbour Air CEO Greg McDougall has vowed to remain at the temporary terminal out of Coal Harbour.
Seaplane companies have been operating from the temporary terminal for the past seven years, but cannot stay because of city plans to close the facility when it was replaced by the new terminal.
"We're not moving over there unless we get a reasonable deal," McDougall told CTV.
The high rent – Harbour Air would have to pay between $3 and $4 million per year – will be passed onto passengers.
"We can't pay for it, we'll go broke," McDougall said. "It has to be passed on."
‘Flying should be affordable'
Other seaplane businesses have followed Harbour Air's lead.
Mike Quinn, Whistler Air president and owner, is biding his time and waiting to move into the facility until a more satisfying agreement has been struck.
He says he hopes the company won't be kicked out of the temporary terminal.
"A different model has to be found in order for us to operate out of that new facility," he said. "We're hopeful that the city is going to give us some breathing room in order to come to a resolution."
The Vancouver Commercial Seaplane Operators Association – comprised of eight member businesses, including Harbour Air, Seair Seaplanes and Tofino Air – issued a petition to have the new Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre changed into a not-for-profit facility.
A "Save Our Seaplanes" website has popped up to urge seaplane customers to support the movement.
McDougall, Quinn and Salt Spring Air director of marketing Philip Reece posted an open letter on the site.
"We believe flying should be affordable," it begins, and continues by outlining why the group advocates a not-for-profit terminal.
For its part, the facility says any licensed operator can make a deal to fly out of the centre.
"We're looking forward to the facility being an incredible success," Laura Ballance, media representative for the centre, told ctvbc.ca.
The facility has already received positive feedback both from passengers and from the two companies operating from it.
The province has brought in a mediator in the hopes of reconciling the dispute.
Seaplane safety
Every year, 300,000 passengers fly out of Vancouver Harbour to destinations around B.C.
Float plane crashes in Canada have killed 76 people since 1989. Safety officials believe many deaths could have been avoided by implementing its recommended safety changes, as most people who die in float plane crashes are not killed on impact, but rather drown, often because they are trapped inside the wreckage.
Following a 2009 B.C. float plane crash off of Saturna Island that killed six passengers, the Transportation Safety Board recommended pop-out doors and mandatory lifejackets.
Six people survived the crash impact only to drown because they could escape the fuselage. The incident ignited calls for more stringent safety regulations.
Those recommendations have yet to be implemented by seaplane operators.
