NEWS FILE PHOTO Air Canada will cease it operations locally at the end of March.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
Air Canada says the route between Medicine Hat and Calgary was simply not sustainable.
Flights in 50-seater aircraft that had been operating twice a day, will cease on April 1.
“Such decisions are not taken lightly,” said a spokesperson for Air Canada in an email. “The Medicine Hat-Calgary route had not performed at the levels that were required to ensure that it was commercially sustainable and with the current environment, a difficult decision was made to suspend the route.”
Air Canada has declined to provide details of how many employees are affected but said it is in contact with the “third party ground handlers who were under contract to handle the Medicine Hat flights”.
Any passengers with existing bookings are being advised and offered travel options including full refunds, the spokesperson said.
Jeff Huntus, Medicine Hat Regional Airport manager noted that Air Canada has been operating out of Medicine Hat Regional Airport since 1998.
Prior to May 2019, Air Canada had been operating 18-seater aircraft on this route six times a day. The decision was then made to switch to 50-seater Dash 8-300 aircraft and reduce the flights to two a day.
WestJet continues to operate out of the airport and currently has no plans to change that.
Huntus hopes to see service increased in the future “once the dust settles.”
“We do review opportunities to restart routes, and any such decision would be made based on commercial factors such as demand, aircraft availability among other economic considerations.,” said the Air Canada spokesperson.
