Ont. airport managers gather in Sudbury for 40th AMCO meeting

Giovanna Verrilli, the Northeast Regional Director of the Airport Management Council of Ontario, speaks at their 40th annual conference and trade show in Greater Sudbury, Ont., on October 6, 2025. (Angela Gemmill/CTV News Northern Ontario)

Members of the Airport Management Council of Ontario (AMCO) got an update from their Northeast Regional Director, Giovanna Verrilli, on Monday at the annual conference and trade show.

The 40th anniversary of the event is being held in Greater Sudbury this week at the Holiday Inn.

Although Verrilli shared good news from the airports across the northeast, the biggest concern is the recent news of Air Canada’s departure from North Bay, set to take effect next year.

“If it could happen to one of our sister airports it could happen to any of us,” said Verrilli, who is also the CEO for the Greater Sudbury Airport.

“We’re all trying to provide a service to our community. We’re all economic engines to our community but if you take an important service, it is a detrimental impact.”

Along with networking, the AMCO conference provides opportunities to learn from others across Ontario on how to address industry-specific issues.

For the northeast, those concerns continue to be recovering from the pandemic and airlines reducing services.

“Some of the airports are working together to speak with some of the airlines to come back and make sure that those routes are available,” said AMCO CEO, Laura McNeice.

“The airlines are going to put the planes where they’re going to get the most profit and so it’s the regional markets that really suffer from that,” said Terry Bos, Sault Ste Marie’s airport’s CEO.

“Because they’re going to do the international flights more than they’re going to focus on regional flights.”

Those regional connectivity concerns were made evident last month in North Bay when Air Canada announced it would be pulling all of its services out of the Jack Garland Airport.

But the airport’s manager said that departure has provided an opening for other alternatives.

“With Air Canada’s announcement the airlines that we had been working have certainly taken it as a higher priority to revisit serving North Bay and the community and the market that we had,” said Bryan Avery, manger of the North Bay airport.

“It does open up or reinforce some of the opportunities we have with them.”

McNeice said she was excited to be marking the 40th anniversary of AMCO, adding that the non-profit association started after aviation colleagues got together to discuss issues and work together to solve problems.