Diana Banke vows she won’t close her airline’s doors during the Olympics, and new developments in the security issue could mean she won’t have to.

Banke said she has registered as an airline flying to Vancouver during the Olympics and has rejigged the company’s schedule to take account of possible delays due to security checks.

“Just in case we don’t have the security in Qualicum Beach we are going to do only three flights per day,” Banke said. “We will start in Qualicum Beach and fly to Nanaimo [for security checks] or, if they’re fogged in, to Victoria. Essentially, the schedule will be the same, but the portal we go through for security could be different.”

Banke said lobbying efforts by Alberni-Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser and other area politicians has been helpful.

Speaking in the B.C. legislature last week, Fraser went toe-to-toe with Mary McNeil, the Minister of State for the 2010 Olympics, demanding answers to Banke’s concerns.

“Airlines like KD Air are going through ... extreme hardship because of the Olympics,” Fraser said in the legislature. “They will have to deplane their passengers. They’ll have to remove all the luggage. They’ll have to go through security clearances. They’ll have to wait for clearances to get back into the air again. Their 20-minute flight, which is their lifeblood is now pushing two hours.”

In response, McNeil said she has discussed the plight of small airports with the Integrated Security Unit and has also consulted with several small airports.

“The only thing I can really do is to commit to make sure that the right people are talking to each other and make sure that happens,” she said. “However, it is an ISU issue.”

McNeil pledged to meet privately with Fraser to discuss the issue further.

Fraser said he was encouraged by the minister’s tone.

“She was very sympathetic and didn’t want collateral damage and she committed she would meet with me to discuss it,” Fraser said. “She has repeated a commitment to ... try to make sure the parties involved actually did consult with KD Air.”

He noted he has put in a formal request to have both Lars and Diane Banke at the meeting.

Regardless of the outcome, Banke said KD Air will not close its doors.

“Even if we don’t get security it doesn’t mean we will be shutting down,” she said. “We’re just re-routing, that’s all. We are not going to close our doors. That’s not an option. We will take the financial hit.”

Banke noted KD Air may have to add an Olympic surcharge to the price of the tickets,, depending on how much extra the company has to pay in fuel and time for the extra security stops.

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