The man who presided over recent expansions and upgrades at the West Kootenay Regional Airport in Castlegar has taken another job.
Maciej Habrych, who became the airport’s first full-time manager when he was hired in 2021, has accepted a position as CEO of the Muskoka airport. Habrych attended his final city council meeting this week, where he was praised all round.
City manager Chris Barlow said Habrych was presented with a recently-completed airport master plan when he arrived four years ago: “He sunk his teeth into it and definitely did a lot of work to get us a long ways forward.”
Barlow said much of Habrych’s job consists of “kind of boring behind-the-scene things that make an airport tick,” but that’s not what he will remember most about his colleague.
Rather, Barlow recalled how Habrych wanted to reopen the airport cafe, which had shuttered during COVID, so Habrych and a colleague brought their own tools and did a lot of the work themselves.
Barlow also pointed to the establishment of the cancellation bus, a shuttle service offering passengers free transport to a re-routed flight out of Kelowna if their plane can’t get out of Castlegar.
“It has made a huge difference in a lot of people’s lives,” Barlow said. “That was 100 per cent Maciej’s doing, putting all the right people in the room, breaking down some barriers, because we’d been talking about exactly this for 10 years.”
And he remembered how Habrych kept the airport terminal open until 9 or 10 p.m. and made sure people arriving late were able to get home.
One night, a family new to Canada came via the cancellation bus. However, they had no ride into town from the airport, so at 10 p.m., Habrych took them to their Airbnb himself. Something, however, had gone wrong with their booking. So they ended up spending the night with Habyrch and his family.
“They had nowhere to go and Maciej and his wife took them in for the night and gave them a safe, soft landing into Castlegar and got them on their way the next day,” Barlow said.
Mayor Maria McFaddin said she appreciated Habrych’s work: “He had a goal of leaving the place in better shape than when he came, and he has definitely done that.”
Among the larger projects Habrych took on were the rehabilitation of the airport runway and the expansion of the taxiway. He also set the wheels in motion to enlarge the terminal.
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” Habrych told council. “It’s an amazing story, building this airport. I’ll definitely be looking from a distance, cheering you on.”
The job posting for a new airport manager closed Friday. Council was told there has been a “very strong response” and interviews will start this week.
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