REGINA -- The provincial government is selling its Executive Air buildings in Regina after the service was discontinued three years ago.
The hangar and passenger facility was home to government flights for nearly 75 years, first for air ambulance then executive flights.
It was used by former premiers and cabinet ministers when boarding government aircraft until 2017, when those flights were stopped.
Bids close on Monday, but there’s a catch: the buildings must be moved or demolished as they sit on property owned by the Regina Airport Authority, who are set to take the land back for a future airport terminal expansion project.
“So when the time does come for the airport to make some modifications to our roadways or to the configuration of our land, we’ll be able to do so quite easily,” said James Bogusz, the president of the airport authority.
“The structures are in good condition,” said Nancy Cherney, the Assistant Deputy Minister of Central Services. “The administration building itself was only constructed and added on in 2006 so in the whole scheme of things, it’s not an old building.”
The hangar was built 90 years ago by the City of Regina and is the last of the original buildings at the airport.
“It goes back to about 1929 when the construction of that hangar was authorized as part of Regina’s new airport. It was needed to accommodate the prairie air mail service that would be starting around that time,” said Will Chabun, a local historian.
Removal of the three buildings may be a little ahead of schedule, as the airport expansion was supposed to begin in 2025 but could be delayed as the airline industry recovers from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
