A Word from the President and the Chair

Nobody could have predicted the extent to which the global pandemic has affected everyone, especially for the air transport industry.

Travel restrictions, border closures, concentration of flights to a limited number of airports: many factors contributed to a marked decline in airport traffic in 2020. Based on forecasts by industry experts, traffic likely won’t return to 2019 levels for at least five years.

Naturally, the pandemic has had repercussions for YQB, which saw its forward momentum abruptly brought to a halt at the start of the crisis. However, 2020 did start off with a bang: the airport welcomed record numbers of passengers in January and February. We experienced 6.8% and 9.1% growth, respectively, over the previous year.

Then the pandemic hit. The resulting border closures caused YQB’s flights to evaporate and its revenue to plummet by 90% in the space of two weeks, even though its status as an essential service meant that it still had to cover 60% of its expenses. As a result, the forecast for 2020 was then re-estimated at 600,000 passengers, subject to the reopening of borders, the spread of the virus worldwide, scientific discoveries, airline business strategies, government aid for the aviation industry, and the willingness of people to travel by air. In fact, even though YQB had some of the grimmest forecasts in its industry, the reality was even harsher than the worst-case scenario. YQB ended 2020 with a total of 535,111 passengers, compared to 1,789,005 in 2019.

Passengers travelling through YQB, by month: 2019 and 2020

Remaining steady through the storm

Our organization had to react quickly to a crisis that affected every part of its operations. Like everyone else, we had no choice but to weather the storm. This has required the airport to tighten its belt and make difficult but necessary decisions. In order to limit our cumulative financial losses, we had to make the hard but unavoidable decision to permanently adjust our organizational structure. That meant assessing our staffing requirements based on the new operational reality, financial forecasts, and medium-to long-term air traffic recovery forecasts. Despite reducing its fixed costs by one third, YQB will have absorbed losses of $26.7 million in 2020; it estimates that those losses will amount to $100 million by the time it returns to profitability

It’s true that we have little control over our industry’s trajectory as we emerge from the global pandemic. However, we were—and are—in the best position to think about how we can emerge from this ordeal stronger than ever, equipped with levers to generate growth. While we had adopted a five-year strategic plan that focused on business development in early 2020, the crisis prompted us to review the prioritization of projects therein. It was clear that our short-term success could not depend on a return of passenger traffic, so we decided to focus on levers that would allow us to develop differently and remain a driver of economic development for the greater Québec City area.

We are determined to turn this pandemic into a lever for growth and repositioning. As such, we presented our recovery plan to the Québec City area business community in late 2020 and early 2021. The plan is, of course, designed to ensure that airport activities recover, but also to strengthen our role as a driver of regional economic development, diversify our sources of revenue, and be part of governments’ recovery efforts. It is a five-pronged plan that includes significant economic benefits. It will strengthen and improve the economy of not just the Québec City area, but all of Northern and Eastern Québec

Bouncing forward together

The air transportation industry is one of the hardest hit by the current crisis. We were the first to be grounded and will likely be the last to take off again. An entire ecosystem in our economy has been weakened and will take years to recover.

Over the past few months, we have been working hard to ensure that YQB continues its strategic development despite the more challenging context. At both the Board of Directors and YQB management levels, we are working tirelessly to lay the groundwork so that our airport can quickly regain the momentum that was so abruptly halted. The same can be said for our entire community and our business partners, with whom we have been working closely since the beginning of the crisis. We will need to continue relying on teamwork and the region’s driving forces to support a sustainable recovery.

Of course, we do not have the means to go it alone. This plan will not see the light of day without the financial support of the provincial and federal governments and the support of all of our stakeholders in our area. This needs to be a project for the whole region, supported by its business community and its leaders.

Looking to the future

We are extremely proud of our employees’ and business partners’ commitment and resilience over the past year. When faced with adversity, we kept a cool head and remained focused on the goal. We’ve had to make difficult decisions, but we’ve also shown humanity and humility. Even as the storm raged around us, we focused on the known and built a recovery plan that will support, mobilize, and sustain our region.

A region’s vitality and attractiveness depend largely on the strength of its airport. While we cannot predict how or when our industry will recover, we are confident that YQB has put itself on the best possible footing to move forward. It will certainly take time to get back to the passenger traffic we had before the pandemic. In the meantime, we will know where to invest our efforts to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to offer the people of the Québec City area an airport of choice that operates on a human scale and is as ambitious as its region, connected to the needs of its passengers, and a source of pride for the entire population.

Learn more about the recovery plan