The suspension of overnight (between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.) staffing of Terrace Regional Airport’s (YXT) flight service station could be shorter than the 120-day period announced by Nav Canada earlier this month.
It could also be longer.
Speaking to the Kitimat Northern Sentinel, a spokesperson with Nav Canada explained 120 days was the current plan but that the ability to shift service is important.
“Currently we’re looking at a 120-day-period but there is the possibility to extend subject to ongoing condition as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “If traffic levels were to suddenly increase we’re paying close attention to that and we’d be in a position to resume service real quick.”
Flight service specialists (FSS) give localized situational awareness to the pilot, including sharing things like information on weather and letting them know if there are other aircraft in the sky.
However the company says just because YXT has lost overnight service temporarily it does not mean something like a business chartered plane or medevac (the two most likely kind of aircraft to be flying in between the hours of suspended service) would be coming in blind.
The company says pilots will still have access to a limited weather information system which provides them with all the necessary information they need to make a landing. They can also make contact with another human if need be through another one of Nav Canada’s nearby facilities that still does have full service.
“They’ll be able to be in contact with another one of our facilities to be aware of the situation, so we’ll still have communications capability as well as access to weather information.”
The spokesperson with Nav Canada added that for the sort of aircraft coming in during these times flying in without full (or any) services is not exactly uncommon.
“Medevac pilots are used to flying to smaller locations, a lot of them … don’t have Nav Canada services so they’re used to landing in that environment and doing so absolutely safely.”
YXT has said their lights will remain operational overnight for pilots to land through a remote program which gives pilots radio control of the lights so they can turn them on before landing, saving energy and giving the pilot more autonomy over their landing.
Of the 18 closures, 11 of them are in British Columbia: Abbotsford BC (CYXX), Cranbrook BC (CYXC) Fort Nelson BC (CYYE), Fort St. John BC (CYXJ), Kamloops BC (CYKA), Kelowna BC (CYLW), Penticton BC (CYYF) Port Hardy BC (CYZT), Sandspit BC (CYZP), Terrace BC (CYXT) and Victoria Intl BC (CYYJ).
Nav Canada said the decision on what facilities to suspend services at was based on what their data showed them were locations that could have a reduction in services without affecting safety of traffic.
“The main factor with the list of sites was basically due to the smaller staff size, the current level of traffic at night and the need to ensure adequate staffing during busier periods,” the company said. “So basically there’s little-to-no traffic at these locations overnight, meaning that we can effective suspend on a temporary basis the midnight shift without impacting the safety of traffic.”
The company has currently implemented a crew system at its larger facilities to keep workers more segregated and have backup teams in case one group has to go out of rotation due to a member testing positive for COVID-19.
However they said this wouldn’t necessarily be feasible at stations where services were reduced, meaning the company is taking steps to make sure they can provide quality service throughout all their sites during the pandemic.
“At smaller sites there’s not as much staffing so if someone needed to self-isolate or tested positive for COVID-19, there’s a risk that we would have to discontinue service because we wouldn’t have adequate staff, so this was really to protect service.”
