Canada to invest an additional C$700m in airport infrastructure

Canada has set aside C$700m to support the country’s airport infrastructure as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. The country’s transportation minister, Omar Alghabra, says on 11 May that airports “are major contributors to our country’s economy, and play a key role in sustaining the social and economic well-being of our communities, and our local airport workers”. “These programmes will help ensure that, as Canada works towards recovery and travel restart post-pandemic, our airports remain viable and continue to provide Canadians with safe, reliable and efficient travel options, while creating and maintaining good paying jobs in the airport sector,” Alghabra adds. Transport Canada introduced two new programmes - the Airport Critical Infrastructure Program (ACIP) that will provide nearly C$490m for critical infrastructure related to safety, security or connectivity, and the Airport Relief Fund (ARF) which will have almost $65m to distribute to targeted Canadian airports to help maintain operations. In addition, Transport Canada’s Airports Capital Assistance Program (ACAP), a programme that targets local and regional airports with safety-related infrastructure and equipment costs, will receive a top-up of $186m over two years.<br/>