Airport travellers doubled since WestJet touched down

By Gillian Slade on September 22, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

In the three months since WestJet commenced flights out of Medicine Hat Regional Airport, the increase in passengers has been significant, says the airport manager.

“Our traffic has more than doubled since June 22 when they (WestJet) started (flights),” Jeff Huntus told the News on Friday. “I would suggest that it’s almost exclusively new travellers.”

Huntus has reached that conclusion, he says, because Air Canada’s passengers, for its flights from Medicine Hat to Calgary, “have not dropped significantly.”

“I think what you are seeing is the result of competition,” said Huntus, noting this has been the pattern almost everywhere WestJet has introduced a new service. “They stimulate demand, brought fares down and generally speaking it is far more affordable to travel by air now.”

WestJet Link contracted with Pacific Coastal Airlines to provide three flights each day to Calgary from Medicine Hat in a 34-seater Saab aircraft effective June 22. Calgary, being WestJet’s largest hub, gives passengers the opportunity to choose connecting flights from that hub to numerous destinations.

“I look at a city the size of Medicine Hat and we have access to the two major air carriers in Canada that, with one-stop, you can get pretty much anywhere in the world. I think that is a significant advantage,” said Huntus.

The travelling public can be vocal about service and they have in the past voiced a desire for increased competition, said Huntus.

Some of those past grumblings had been cancellations or significant flight delays.

“The travelling public, when they’re inconvenienced, they tend to resent in rather colourful terms,” said Huntus.

Airlines do not cancel flights without valid reasons and these can include bad weather or mechanical issues, he explained.

In the past three months both WestJet and Air Canada have done a good job maintaining schedules. Obviously weather can be more of an issue affecting flights in the winter though, said Huntus.

“It’s about safety, not about not being enough people on the aircraft.”

Handling double the traffic at the airport has gone fairly smoothly, said Huntus, noting they were well prepared. Additional services were anticipated and taken into account before the remodelling and expansion of the facility.

“We have to be a little more strategic when we’re planning maintenance activities because there are more flights,” said Huntus. “In terms of staffing and hours of operation we’ve been geared up to operate regardless whether there are five flights a day or 10 flights a day.”

Security screening of passengers is the responsibility of Canada Transportation Security Agency, and it hired new staff prior to the expanded service.

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