TRAVEL AND LEISURE CLOSE-UP-1 February 2010-Aeroports de Montreal Announces Increase in Airport Improvement Fees

Aeroports de Montreal, a Canada-based airport authority responsible for management, operation and development of the Montreal-Trudeau and Montreal-Mirabel international airports, has announced that airport improvement fees (AIFs) for passengers departing Montreal-Trudeau International Airport will be increased effective April 2, 2010.

The company has reported that AIF will be increased to CAD25 from CAD20 per passenger from April 2, 2010.

The company president and chief executive officer, James C Cherry, said, 'This increase is essentially warranted by the major improvements that have been made to Montreal-Trudeau airport in recent years, a large part of which we have financed by issuing long-term bonds that we must now pay interest on every year. We are also anticipating a decline in our cash flows because of major increases in rent paid to Transport Canada and in taxes paid to the City of Montreal. Under a new calculation method imposed by the Government of Canada, we estimate that our annual rent will rise from CAD21.6m in 2009 to more than CAD45.3 million in 2014. Our municipal taxes, for their part, will increase from CAD36.7m in 2009 to CAD46.1m in 2014, or CAD9.4m more. In fact, the increased AIFs will not even entirely offset the higher rent and municipal taxes.'

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