Don’t ask Diana Banke her opinion of the upcoming 2010 Olympics. If you do, her answer will likely be terse.

“I hate the Olympics,” she said. “When I see the Olympics I want to break the TV.”

Banke, the co-owner of short-haul airline KD Air in Qualicum Beach didn’t always feel that way, but with the new security regulations potentially forcing her business to close its doors, that feeling has become visceral and intense.

Banke, with husband Lars, has run KD Air out of the Qualicum Beach municipal airport for the past 18 years, but the new regulations, which require airlines without security to stop in either Victoria or Langley for security checks prior to flying into Vancouver International Airport, could prove fatal to the airline.

The Bankes have been calling for security to be installed at the municipal airport, but to date, their efforts have been unsuccessful.

Banke said the requirement to fly to Victoria would cost the airline $250,000 — a cost she said they can’t absorb. As well, it would turn a 20-minute flight into a two-hour odyssey.

“I’m angry, really, really angry,” Banke said. “We might move our operation somewhere else, or we might declare bankruptcy and leave the country. We don’t know what else to do.”

They do have one plan in place, however.

“We are going to sue,” she said. “We’ve got our lawyer and have already started procedures.”

That lawyer is Norm Evans, who has represented KD Air since its inception.

“We are probably going to be embroiled in a lawsuit at some point in time,” Evans said. “In my view, the governments of B.C. and Canada should look at this and ask how they can assist these people and meet the requirements of Olympic security. They should put in security at the Qualicum Beach airport for about $200,000, instead of going into a lawsuit that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Evans said the entire area relies on KD Air to access Vancouver International, and if KD Air closes its doors for the two months the security regulations are in force, the airline will be hard-pressed to recapture that business. Evans hopes he doesn’t have to launch such a lawsuit, and he’s taking steps to encourage the federal and provincial governments to change their approach.

“I’m optimistic that common sense will prevail,” he said. “What we are doing to assist the governments to deal with this matter is, in the next month, I’m sending a letter to MLAs, MPs, the Prime Minister and the Premier, putting them on notice of the concerns KD Air has and advising them we are not alone.”

Should a lawsuit prove necessary, he added, he is confident the Bankes, along with their 12 employees and the maintenance facility that relies on them, will win it, citing the recent case of a Cambie Street company in Vancouver that was awarded $640,000 for lost business because of rail line construction.

“This will set the stage,” he said. “My view is that the Supreme Court of B.C., by giving this judgment to the Cambie Street merchant, is the government must take into consideration the impact of their actions as they pertain to small business people.”

The case, he noted, is currently being appealed, but he said the court made the right decision and he’s hopeful it will stand.

Evans said he has a simple question for governments he believes they should consider.

“Having the Olympics is a feather in B.C.’s and Canada’s cap, but after the Games are over, do we want a string of lawsuits and bankruptcies?”

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