Image: Saint John Airport
Atlantic Canadian airports are applauding the federal government’s plan to provide billions of dollars of financial support to Air Canada.
The federal government agreed this week to give Air Canada $5.9-billion to help the airline through the Covid-19 pandemic.
As part of the deal, Air Canada must bring service back to airports it abandoned during the Covid-19 pandemic, including six in Atlantic Canada.
The airline will bring back weekly flights to Montreal from Saint John, Fredericton, and Bathurst. It will run a flight between Sydney and Toronto, another between Gander and Halifax, and another between Goose Bay and Saint John.
Each must fly a return trip at least three times a week, starting at the beginning of June.
RELATED: Federal Government Signs $5.9-Billion Aid Deal With Air Canada
Monette Pasher is the director of the Atlantic Canada Airports Association. She says the organization is pleased with the support, which helps prop up the biggest partner for the region’s airports.
“A number of our airports have been without service for many months now and it’s been quite a challenging year. I think this is really a sign of the government’s commitment to the air sector and noting our value to the Canadian economy,” Pasher said.
Greg Hierlihy, the interim president and CEO of the Saint John Airport, agrees.
Saint John hasn’t had any commercial flights since Jan 11. The runway is still open for private operators and emergency flights but Hierlihy says “it’s very quiet at the terminal” with people in and out only on an “as-needed basis.”
“It will be a welcome change to have people back in the terminal,” Hierlihy says.
He calls the government’s investment in Air Canada “a really positive sign [of its] commitment and confidence in the air sector overall.”
“But also, it’s the first step of getting the recovery going,” Hierlihy says.
Along with the Air Canada’s returning flights, Saint John is also poised to welcome two more commercial flights this summer: a new Flair Airlines flight to Toronto and a PAL Airlines flight to Halifax.
Hierlihy says the three flights will bring the airport up to about 20 percent of its pre-pandemic capacity. That will have a downstream effect on jobs, as security personally, rental agencies and other related businesses come back to the airport.
Along with Air Canada, Pal, and Flair, Westjet has also announced it will bring several flights back to Atlantic Canadian airports as well. Pasher says this is an encouraging sign that there is a pent-up demand for travel in the region and the country.
RELATED: Westjet Restores Service To Atlantic Canadian Airports
RELATED: Flair Airlines Adding Flights in Halifax, Saint John
In order to capitalize on that demand, she says, the government needs to give even more support to the industry, as well as communicate a strategy for opening the country back up to air travel.
She says giving money to Air Canada was “a really encouraging and great first step” but that the federal government can do more. That starts with supporting airports themselves.
Airports are generally run by not-for-profit airport authorities that rely on passengers for revenue. But most airports have seen their traffic shrink by a staggering 90 percent since the pandemic began.
“It’s been a really challenging year to navigate those revenue losses,” Pasher says. “A lot of our airports have used their safety capital and some of them have been borrowing since the pandemic started. So you can just imagine all the additional debt that our airports have taken on.”
The government has promised $40-million dollars of support for Atlantic Canada’s regional airports through its Regional Air Transportation Initiative. It hasn’t said exactly how that money will be spent, but Pasher is encouraged by what she’s heard from the government thus far.
She also wants to see the government give airports a longer break on their rent.
The federal government has already stopped charging ground lease rent to airports. Pasher wants that clemency extended for five years, which is how long many believe it will take for air travel to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Beyond financial support, however, Pasher says the industry craves certainty around when and how air travel in the country can restart.
“We know now is not the time to travel, the government has clearly said that. But we want to be able to plan ahead. [We need to know] what is that window? And what are we working towards? And how are we planning for that safe restart?” she says.
“That’s really still the single biggest question: what is public health going to determine as the key target to reopen to fellow Canadians? Is it when 80 percent of our population is vaccinated, 70 percent?”
She acknowledges that specific dates can change as the pandemic evolves (the delayed Atlantic Bubble timelines are a great example) but concrete benchmarks or metrics will allow airlines some degree of planning.
Trevor Nichols is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
