Air Canada jets out of the Hat

By GILLIAN SLADE on March 12, 2020.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade

Air Canada’s flights in and out of Medicine Hat will stop indefinitely on April 1.

Jeff Huntus, Medicine Hat Regional Airport manager says Air Canada has been operating out of the local airport since before 1998 through various contracted carriers.

“It’s not good news but it’s the reality of the airline business,” said Huntus. “I think there were some problems with load factors. It wasn’t a well performing route for them and with the coronavirus affecting air travel I think advance bookings just fell dramatically.”

Air Canada did not respond to a request for an interview Wednesday.

In May 2019, Air Canada reduced the number of flights between Medicine Hat and Calgary from six a day in 18-seater aircraft to just two a day in larger aircraft with 50 seats, the Dash 8-300.

At the time a spokesperson for Air Canada said its regional flights would be operated “exclusively by Jazz Aviation LP as part of our new agreement with Jazz’s parent company – Chorus” and the former smaller aircraft were being phased out.

While not getting into specific numbers Huntus said there has been a noticeable drop in airport traffic since coronavirus. That is not unique to Medicine Hat and Huntus does not believe Air Canada’s decision was made based solely on COVID-19.

“They have challenges in a number of locations,” said Huntus.

For now, WestJet is not making any changes to its schedule in Medicine Hat, a WestJet spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

WestJet has acknowledged the impact of COVID-19 on the airline industry and this week said it would be “undertaking immediate cost reduction initiatives,” including a freeze on discretionary spending and offering voluntary-leave options.

Last spring, Huntus said the larger aircraft that Air Canada was switching to is faster, reducing flights to Calgary by 10 or 15 minutes. He said any talk in the community about how often flights were cancelled had more to do with the number of people flying out of the airport. There were also the inevitable cancellations due to weather which is beyond the control of airlines.

Huntus had previously said he hoped that Air Canada’s decision to switch to larger aircraft, in addition to WestJet flights, would give more options to passengers and could reduce fares.

Huntus acknowledges that competition is good for consumers, but notes Medicine Hat Regional Airport still has a very good air service to Calgary with WestJet.

In a press release, the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce also commented on WestJet continuing its service.

“We hope that both business and leisure travellers will support this services so we can have continued air service from Medicine Hat in the future,” said Chamber president Tracy Noulett.

Noulett noted businesses would like to see more options to accommodate daytime business travel, flights to Edmonton and lower fares.

“Once the dust settles … we’ll ramp up our air service action program again and try and find new operators for the market,” said Huntus. “If the numbers are right, there’s no reason they (Air Canada) wouldn’t come back.”

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