The City of Kamloops will be approaching WestJet, Pacific Coastal Airlines and Central Mountain Air about providing a flight to-and-from Vancouver.

Mayor Ken Christian says it’s “beyond disappointing” that Kamloops won’t have a direct flight to Vancouver starting in just over a week, when Air Canada pulls that flight indefinitely starting on Jan. 23.

“That is very difficult news certainly for the Kamloops Airport. It’s difficult news for the employees of Air Canada in Kamloops, both the staff on the tarmac and the station agents. But it’s really bad news in terms of the economic recovery that we are embarking upon. That is the only connection to Vancouver that is direct,” Christian says.

“When you have places like the British Columbia Lottery Corporation that have their provincial headquarters in Kamloops, it’s just unfathomable that you would have no air access to shuffle their employees back and forth between their Vancouver operations and Kamloops without having to go through Calgary or drive the Coquihalla in the winter time.”

Christian says he also has concerns for Sun Peaks as a lot of guests land at the Kamloops Airport on route to the ski resort.

Kamloops Airport managing director Ed Ratuski told NL News today that Air Canada’s indefinite suspension of flights isn’t a huge surprise, given the state of the airline industry during the pandemic.

“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.