Newfoundland and Labrador heavily subsidizes ferry services to island communities around the province, and a businessman says it’s time to do likewise to improve air access.

John Steele, who used to be president of Steele Communications, the owners of the VOCM-Big Land Radio Network, addressed the Energy NL conference in St. John’s yesterday.

He noted that the thought behind the expenditure of $80 million dollars on the intra-provincial ferry system for 10,000 residents with a return of only $5 million should also apply to air transportation.

Steele’s family used to own Eastern Provincial Airways in the 1980s and he says airlines’ move to eliminating smaller, unprofitable routes in favour of a few larger, profitable routes is not going to change anytime soon.

Steele says we should not be afraid to invest significant amounts of money to secure routes to Heathrow and Newark.