Air Canada will be ceasing operations at Kamloops Airport indefinitely effective Jan. 23.
YKA Managing Director Ed Ratuski tells NL News the move is not come as a huge surprise and compares it to a similar move Air Canada took in the spring.
“This notice that we received this morning will see Air Canada’s daily service to Vancouver be suspended indefinitely. It is not unlike what we went through in April and May at the beginning of COVID when Air Canada temporarily suspended service for a two month period at that time,” he said.
“It’s not a complete surprise given the state of the industry right now and given the travel restrictions that were enhanced over the holiday period requiring COVID tests prior to boarding an aircraft of Canada. And then the increasing travel restrictions, inter-provincial that we’re seeing.”
Ratuski says though the move is still unfortunate noting they’re still working through what the impacts will be on the community and the scheduling at the airport. He says there are plans to reinstate the service to Vancouver down the road.
“Absolutely. It’s largely due to the uncertainty in the industry right now with the new travel restrictions that have been put in place over the holiday period by the federal government which impacts Air Canada’s services,” he added. “WestJet’s network is still functioning out of Kamloops. Three days a week they have twice daily to Calgary and four days a week is once daily. We were aware of that before.”
“Central Mountain Air is still operating into Prince George three days a week. So it’s unfortunate and we are looking at other opportunities that might be available to fill those voids that is left by this unfortunate transition.”
In a statement Air Canada says operating the Kamloops to Vancouver route would have not been sustainable given the situation.
“We continually evaluate our network schedule, particularly the effect of stifled demand from ongoing travel restrictions and blanket quarantine rules,” it said. “Our overall network capacity is currently down about 80 per cent from the last normal year, which was 2019.”
“Air Canada will continue to evaluate and adjust its route network as required in response to the trajectory of the pandemic and travel restrictions.”
The airline says it looks forward to returning to Kamloops when ‘economic conditions permit’.
