Yorkton Regional Airport holds open house for new terminal building

After a long construction period the Yorkton Regional Airport opened its doors to visitors Thursday.

Yorkton Regional Airport (YQV) held an open house and unveiling event for its new terminal on Thursday.

“In 2010, the city actually identified that the former building was identified for replacement. It was past its useful life,” said Michael Eger, director of planning, building, and development for the City of Yorkton.

In 2019, the city invested in repaving the main runway, which—as he put it—was a very big expense for the city, but the works never extended to the terminal building itself.

He said the costs were to too high and the idea to rebuild the airport building was shelved until 2022.

“Then ultimately in February 2024, we hit a price point the council was comfortable with,” he added. “We had finances saved and ability to pay off the internal loan.”

The total cost of the project, which included the demolition of the old building and paving the parking lot for utilities, was about $2.3 million, and Yorkton had to tender it twice.

“We did some revisions and were able to cut the costs, approximately $400,000 to get it back out of that $2.3 million, which at the time seemed like a lot, but was still better than what we had seen previously.”

The old terminal building served the town for roughly 80 years, and the director of development hopes that the current one will be able to last just as long.

He said the city didn’t do an impact study for the project.

“To be honest, it’s really difficult to quantify the economic impact of things. There’s lots of ways you could look at it,” he explained.

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Eger said the focus was on direct employment. “That’s out here alone probably justifies the investment that we have here, let alone all the opportunities.”

He says the number of people working with the airport is 60 at any given time, and the rest is seasonally adjusted, such as spray pilots.

According to Eger, there are lot of major corporations in the area that anecdotally stated that the airport was an important factor in their decision to locate in Yorkton.

“Without the city or the government putting in these types of things, it’s probably not feasible for any entity alone to take on. We’re going to competition with other municipalities in areas that offer similar things that we do,” he explained why the city invested in the infrastructure.

Other than business interest, the airport also serves the public directly.

“The most important part of that would be the medevac service that we have. So that provides emergency access whenever it’s required. STARS will utilize this site, although they don’t always with the helicopters,” Eger told CTV News.

Eger hopes that the new terminal building, which boasts a conference room, a smaller lounge area, and a hall, will benefit tourism and those who are going for appointments.

The building was named after the Popowich family, who have a long history in the town.

During the speeches, MLA for Yorkton David Chan presented a written recognition on behalf of MP Cathay Wagantall to Terry Popowich.

“Presented to the Popowich family in appreciation of your valued support of Yorkton Regional Airport and your lasting contribution to the community,” Chan read the message loud.

Spectators were served a grilled meal to support the Brayden Ottenbreit Close Cuts for Cancer and were given a chance to go on an airplane ride.