Air Canada will reduce the number of flights between Medicine Hat and Calgary but is switching to a larger aircraft - Dash 8-300.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
The number of Air Canada flights between Medicine Hat and Calgary are being reduced, but the aircraft will now be larger.
“Air Canada’s regional flights in Western Canada will be operated exclusively by Jazz Aviation LP as part of our new agreement with Jazz’s parent company – Chorus – and the smaller aircraft currently flying from Medicine Hat are being phased out of the Western Canada regional fleet,” said a spokesperson for Air Canada.
Since the beginning of May there have been two Air Canada Express flights daily from Medicine Hat to Calgary operated by Jazz, the spokesperson said.
“Previously, there were up to six flights operated with 18-seat aircraft and the two larger 50-seat aircraft (Dash 8-300) now provide essentially the same capacity,” said the spokesperson.
Jeff Huntus, Medicine Hat Regional Airport manager, says there are advantages.
“They’ve also aligned the flights to better match their connecting banks in Calgary,” said Huntus. “About 95 per cent of our traffic connects in Calgary. I think travellers now have more options.”
Flights now depart Medicine Hat for Calgary at 11:35 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Flights now depart Calgary for Medicine Hat at 10:15 a.m. and 7:40 p.m.
The schedule ensures that connections are maintained at our Calgary hub to our North America network plus London Heathrow and Frankfurt, said Air Canada’s spokesperson.
Huntus says the larger aircraft are equipped differently in terms of avionics and navigation equipment and the pilots are a little more experienced.
“The aircraft itself is quite a bit faster. It probably takes between 10 and 15 minutes off the flight,” said Huntus.
Huntus is aware of talk in the community about delayed flights or cancelled flights out of Medicine Hat. He says weather related delays are hard to predict and he does not think there have been more delays or cancellations per aircraft than before but more passengers are affected. With the options passengers have now to fly out of Medicine Hat more people are affected making it seem as though there are more.
“There have been increased discussion among the users related to the flights but I think that ‘s directly related to the fact that there are two airlines now instead of one, and twice as many people travelling,” said Huntus.
The difficult winter conditions we experienced are to blame for some of the conditions that caused delays or cancellations, said Huntus. Sometimes the aircraft could not leave Medicine Hat because the conditions in Calgary we unacceptable to land there.
