As mentioned in the foreword, this letter, and the Annual Report were written pre-pandemic, and are intended to report on the year that has just passed. While this is intended to celebrate the accomplishments of 2019, we do so with the knowledge that 2020 will be a vastly different year than we originally anticipated and planned for. I will comment further at the end of this note. In the meantime, I am pleased to share the highlights of the past year in a new, abbreviated format. You will still find a Five-year Review, Corporate Governance Overview and the comprehensive Financial Review. The Authority’s Strategic Plan still guides our activities, with items from all five Strategic Directions reported-on in the highlights.

The YOW+ terminal enhancement program moved forward well, with significant gains in all four pillars.

In June, we introduced SSP Canada and incumbent, Paradies Lagardère, as the new food and beverage and retail master concessionaires, respectively. The most exciting part of our launch event and announcement was sharing the local brands that will be introduced as the concessions program is implemented over the next three years. Familiar names like Big Rig Brewery, La Bottega Nicastro, Zak’s Diner and Bridgehead Coffee, along with independent, Subway, will join iconic Tim Hortons and several proprietary SSP Canada brands on the food and beverage front. In the retail world, Paradies Lagardère will be refreshing their offering, including new stores like Dylan’s Candy Bar, TripAdvisor, Maison de la Presse, and No Boundaries. They will also feature many local brands so that our passengers can take some flavours of the region home with them. Products from Purple Urchin, Split Tree Cocktails, Low Poly Crafts, and Saaboon, among others, will soon be available at YOW.

Phase one of the concessions rollout is now behind us, with changes most notable on Level 3, where Subway, a new Tim Hortons and Relay store, can be found. Phase two is underway, however, we hit pause per the government’s requirement to cease construction and other projects in the interest of social distancing. And while we remain excited to be partnered with these companies and brands noted above, the reality is that it may take more years to implement our concession program, and the final product may be different than previously imagined and scaled to a smaller passenger airport. We will continue to collaborate with our Master Concessionaires to ensure the right solution for our Airport going forward.

The noted Level 3 changes, along with the closure of the sit-down restaurant, cleared the way for the new pre-board screening checkpoint where the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) will deploy their CATSA Plus technology in summer 2020. A new floor over the Level 2, Gate 18 area was constructed last summer to accommodate the new equipment and significantly more queuing space. Most notable about this project was its completion in a busy airport. Completion of the overall project, which was anticipated in June 2020, will be delayed.

We announced last winter that Canadian hotelier, Germain Hotels, was the successful proponent in the Authority’s tender process to build an airport hotel. The new Alt Hotel Ottawa Airport, which will be Germain Hotels’ 20^th property in Canada, will feature a full-service restaurant on the top floor with views of the airfield, approximately 3,000 square feet of meeting space, and popular guest amenities such as flexible checkout times and ultra-fast Wi-Fi. An indoor skywalk will connect the hotel with the Airport for easy client access. The hotel was slated for opening in 2021, however we anticipate a later date due to the pandemic.

The City of Ottawa’s light rail transit system (LRT) Trillium Line South extension is now under construction. The Airport Parkway offers commuters a good view of the work on an elevated guideway that will take the line over the Parkway and to the Airport.

The Authority is also focused on LRT construction and completed several important projects that will facilitate the development of the airport station. These included the relocation of a water main in the airport’s main loading dock area, as well as several footings to support a walkway to the station. We advanced these pieces in our overall LRT schedule to ensure that the airport station project can proceed in 2020, after TNext, the City’s construction partner, builds the track. Construction of the station will be completed in the fall of 2021. Subsequent steps will include making the connection to the City’s track, testing, and commissioning for service introduction in 2022.

Concession revitalization + next generation pre-board security screening + airport hotel + LRT connectivity = YOW+. Visit yow.ca/yow+ to learn more about YOW+.

Every summer, we take advantage of the weather to complete airside infrastructure improvements. The 2019 project involved reworking Taxiway B from the main apron to Taxiway F, which was completed ahead of schedule and on-budget.

We also completed significant repairs to the storm sewer located within the intersection of runways 14/32 and 07/25. Two lengths of storm sewer were repaired over the course of two weeks during the overnight hours to minimize operational impacts. To summarize the work, each night, the contractor would dig up a small section, complete the replacement work, backfill and compact the soil again before reopening for the first flight of the day. We created the ambitious plan in consultation with our airline partners and with approval from Transport Canada, and all went according to plan.

The Airport’s Safety Management System requires that we conduct a safety case for infrastructure work such as these projects. This level of diligence ensures that potential risk is acknowledged and addressed before any work starts.

Whether completing safety cases or getting involved in shaping policy and procedures for emerging issues such as drones, the Authority continues to step forward in the interest of airport safety and security.

To that end, last spring, I was delighted to be asked to represent Canadian airports on the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Mitigation at Airports to examine the issue of drone incursions. ACI-NA and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) commissioned the Task Force. It brought together a cross-section of stakeholders representing airports, UAS, and manned aviation communities in North America. The Task Force’s primary objectives were to refine procedural practices and provide a policy framework to address the timely and critical issue of incursions made by unauthorized UAS at airports and how best to mitigate the threat.

Published interim and final reports confirmed that airports and UAS partners collectively recognize the benefits that drones can offer. They also acknowledged the potential negative impacts that careless, clueless, or criminal use can have on airports, passengers, and local economies. Finally, they confirmed the need for comprehensive cross-industry detection and mitigation strategies. Key to these coming to fruition is the creation of government-backed policy frameworks, the necessary funding to support them, and the extension of authority to law enforcement to engage in UAS interdiction.

The Authority has also been very proactive closer to home, consulting, and collaborating on the drone file with regulatory, law enforcement, and industry partners and stakeholders. Their work drew conclusions that mirrored those of the Task Force, including the urgent need for Transport Canada’s clarification to all stakeholders in detecting and mitigating threats.

While awaiting this direction, YOW has adopted a risk-based approach to quickly access and react to reported drone sightings in the vicinity of our Airport. The approach also includes assisting in the timely sharing of information with the various stakeholders that could be impacted. This approach was documented in a Drone Incident Protocol, which we finalized and submitted to Transport Canada early in 2019.

Concurrently, we have partnered with NAV CANADA and QinetiQ Canada to trial their Obsidian Counter UAS System at YOW. The three partners will be working collaboratively to test the Obsidian micro-Doppler radar unit’s ability to function in an active airport environment. The pilot project commenced in late November 2019, and once concluded, will provide valuable information for trial partners and airports across Canada.

In a significant organizational change, the longstanding Airport Pass Office officially became the Airport’s Customer Service Centre (CSC) on May 1^st. The CSC provides a “one-stop shop” for the 5,000 plus campus employees. Restricted Area Identification Cards (RAICs), parking passes, and Airside Vehicle Operating Permits (AVOPs) requirements will all be handled through the CSC. It will also offer after-sales service for online parking sales and front-line administration for the airport’s commercial clients. These customer service elements require efficient processing, attention to detail, and quality customer service essential deliverables from this vital operation.

In keeping with the Authority’s mandate to develop Airport facilities and lands in support of the economic growth of Canada’s Capital Region, we focused on two important parcels of Airport land that we refer to as the Gateway development land sector.

To determine the highest and best use for the land, and to ensure that we are ready should a development opportunity present itself, the Authority looked to third party experts for support. WSP and Urban Metrics were engaged to assist in the preparation of a comprehensive sector master plan for two areas – gateways East and West – complete with a technical development feasibility study and market analysis and strategy.

We had great air service news to share in 2019, starting with Air Canada’s announcement that it would upgrade its non-stop flights from Ottawa to London-Heathrow. In other exciting news, Lufthansa Group planned to take over service from Ottawa to Frankfurt, Germany, which was previously offered by Air Canada. Travellers were to enjoy two Star Alliance member airlines, more onboard class options, premium economy options, enhanced in-flight comfort, and much more.

We also had good news for sun-seekers with Sunwing adding direct service from Ottawa to Mazatlán in Pacific Mexico for the 2019/2020 season.

Despite this good news, we know that much of the announced service is at risk, particularly the Lufthansa service to Frankfurt. It is difficult to predict which of our 45 non-stop destinations will continue to be served. Our airline partners have suffered a tremendous blow and will be re-evaluating their networks and how best to deploy their aircraft assets. The Authority will continue to work closely with each airline to rebuild our service as quickly as economically viable.

When the passenger numbers for 2019 were finalized, it confirmed our expectation of flat growth resulting in a total of 5,106,487 passengers. There was a high degree of disruption in the industry caused by the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX. For Canadian carriers alone, this accounted for 41 aircraft resulting in a decline in available seats. While we had projected growth of 2.0% in 2020, we will be recasting our projections to reflect the impact of COVID-19 on volumes, and anticipate a drop of more than 50.0%. We will also update our financial projections to reflect this steep decline.

The Canadian economy’s resilience through much of 2019 began to fade in the second half of the year with the softening of key financial indicators and employment trends with some improvement in global trade tensions near the end of the year. These factors, combined with a federal election and constraints in air carrier aircraft capacity resulting from the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, were the backdrop for flat year-over-year results, where 2019 passenger volumes of 5.1 million passengers was 4,000 passengers and 0.08% lower than 2018. Domestic passenger growth decreased 0.2% with decreased flows to Toronto and Edmonton, and was slightly offset by increases to Montreal and Charlottetown. Transborder volumes declined 4.8% due to the temporary suspension of United flights to Chicago (reinstated March 2020) while International passenger volumes grew 10.0% through increased frequencies to warm weather destinations. Revenues in 2019 were similar to 2018 at $138.1 million with continued strength in ground transportation, car rentals and lease revenues, and offset by lower than expected aeronautical revenues resulting from flat year-over-year passenger levels. The Authority finished 2019 by generating earnings before depreciation of $36.2 million compared to $38.3 million in 2018 and net earnings after depreciation of $5.1 million compared to net earnings of $7.0 million in 2018. As always, any earnings continue to be reinvested in airport operations and development in the interests of improving safety, efficiency, and the customer experience.

Our people made the difference again in 2019. As the Chair mentioned, we have a mighty team that consistently goes above and beyond. We use a program called Top Flight that relies on peer recognition to identify these instances when employees stand out in areas such as customer service, commitment, safety or security consciousness, innovation and creativity, and teamwork. We received numerous worthy nominations in 2019, which were put to an employee vote, ultimately naming Claire Lalande as the Top Flight Employee of the Year. Claire’s colleagues from the Hendrick Building nominated her for streamlining training materials for the Field Foreman team, and for her many teambuilding efforts. Congratulations, Claire.

Since the pandemic was declared on March 11, 2020, our employees have once again demonstrated their commitment and adaptability with many moving their offices home, and others taking on the various tasks required to keep the Airport open and operational. They ensured that repatriation flights could continue to bring our passengers home, they took care to ensure that our Airport was clean and sanitized to keep passengers and employees safe, and they helped us shut down systems and areas of the Airport that were not needed as our passenger volumes dwindled. I want to thank them for helping us weather this virus as best we can.

It is difficult to say what the future looks like for YOW with any precision. I can say with certainty that it will not be business as usual for some time. I believe it will take years to build our passenger numbers back to 2019 levels. It will take many more years to see some of the capital projects we had in short term plans come to fruition. We have a lot of work to do if our Airport is to return to its role as a significant economic enabler in Canada’s Capital Region. I can assure you that we will continue to work with our partners in government to ensure that we can take advantage of any programs available to assist airports. Their support is also critical for our partners in tourism who have suffered. Our collective recovery is important for our local community and our country.

I want to conclude with a few words of appreciation. To Chair Code Cubitt and the Board of Directors, thank you for your continued trust in the Authority team, and the tremendous support that goes along with it. To my team, a huge thank you for never losing sight of the excellence that you put in all that you do. My sincere appreciation to our Infoguide volunteers for always providing the best first impression to our passengers and visitors – while we have suspended the program temporarily, we know they will be back when we are ready. Finally, thank you to the community for supporting us through the crisis and continuing to believe in the work we are doing. Rest assured, we will continue to treat this valued community treasure responsibly and with the great care it deserves.