(The President and C-E-O of Saint John Airport Bernard Leblanc)
(Photo by Brian McLain)
2009 was still a very good year for Saint John Airport in spite of a 9 per cent drop in the number of passengers. The airport still earned a profit of 900 thousand dollars with Airport President and C-E-O Bernie Leblanc predicting modest growth in passenger numbers this year. There were also discussions with major airlines in Canada and the U.S. about expanding or creating new flights but nothing has come to fruition. Leblanc concedes 2009 was not a good year to be negotiating new routes with the major airlines which want guarantees that any new service will be profitable. The number one American destination for Saint Johnners is Las Vegas but the numbers are nowhere high enough to warrant a direct flight. The Airport is projecting passenger numbers will rise from over 222 thousand last year to more than 242 thousand in 2014.
