Business View Magazine | June 2019

229 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JUNE 2019 fly to the Eastern U.S. and Europe. “When it comes to general aviation, there’s not a lot of facilities close to here, but there is a landing strip at Bar River Airport, Ontario; they’re about 30 minutes east of us, and, again, there’s a small airfield in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan that would provide competition for general aviation, as well,” he adds. “But for people flying into Canada, and Americans needing to clear customs, we’re close to the International Bridge, so there’s 24/7 availability of customs because our Airport is also open 24/7. Our air traffic control tower is only open 17 hours a day, but there’s a mandatory frequency outside of those hours, so, we do have a 24/7 operation and no restrictions.” Bos says that since the SSMADC took over the Airport, it has invested some $42 million in capital upgrades. “In the last 5-7 years, we’ve done several million dollars worth of upgrades to our terminal building, mainly on the airside. So when you’re arriving, it’s a brand new looking feature,” he reports. “We’ve expanded our holding room and redesigned its layout, and in the future, we want to do the ground side of our terminal because it’s a little older looking. Our terminal is named after Borden Gray, who is a military veteran and who won the Blue Cross. We renamed our entrance road a few years back, to the Dr. Roberta Bondar Parkway in honor of Dr. Roberta Bondar, who was the first women Canadian astronaut in space. We’re proud of her being from Sault Ste. Marie. “The original terminal is where our operations building is now and we still have to do some upgrades there - hopefully in the next 3-5 years,” he adds. “The main runway was redone in 2001, THE SAULT STE . MAR I E A I RPORT