What’s with all the air traffic?

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According to Schultz, summer is typically one of the busier seasons, although commercial traffic remains fairly consistent. Rise Air operates commercial flights out of Prince Albert, with 23 flights a week travelling to communities such as Saskatoon, La Ronge, Uranium City, Fond du Lac and Stony Rapids.

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“So we generally don’t see any seasonal variations in airline traffic. That’s fairly consistent from week to week. We will see a slight increase in the summer, whether that’s leisure travel for personal use or aerial activity that is easier to do in the summer, such as utility patrols, surveying or wildlife counts.”

SPSA water tankers are commonly stationed at the Prince Albert Airport throughout the year, whether there are active fires or not, and the airport is often used as a training facility.

That is not the only type of training that takes place at the airport.

If you notice what looks like the same plane landing at the airport repeatedly, you are probably right.

While there is no flight school in Prince Albert, the school in Saskatoon often flies students to Prince Albert to train at a quieter airport.

“Prince Albert is utilized by flight training entities as a destination and for touch-and-goes or flying circuits. There’s no flight training provider based at this airport, but we typically see aircraft from Saskatoon here due to the proximity. It’s a slightly different type of airspace here, so it provides a different experience for students.”

When it comes to smaller planes — the kind typically owned by crop-spraying operators or aviation enthusiasts — there are many similar-looking aircraft at the Prince Albert Airport.

While many commercial-sized planes seen coming and going may actually be the same aircraft landing and taking off multiple times, the smaller planes are more likely to be different aircraft of the same model.

“There are a lot of similar aircraft types here. So you might see one aircraft and assume it’s the same one you’ve seen multiple times, but it may just be that we’ve had several, for example, Beechcraft King Airs in and out. That’s a popular aircraft type.”

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com