There is concern among the business community over flight changes at the Saint John Airport.
Air Canada recently announced that it is suspending three of its five daily routes to Toronto and Montreal.
Saint John will lose two of its three daily Air Canada routes to Toronto and one of its two routes to Montreal.
David Duplisea, CEO of the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce, said members are extremely concerned.
“The number one issue with this is it does prohibit the ability to get back and forth to Upper Canada in the same day,” Duplisea said in a recent interview.
Currently, travellers can leave for Toronto at 11:40 a.m., 5:35 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., with arrivals at 10:49 a.m., 4:49 p.m. and 6:49 p.m.
After the changes take effect, there will be one arrival at 11:58 a.m. and one departure at 12:45 p.m.
When it comes to the Montreal route, the 6:15 a.m. departure and 10:40 p.m. arrival are being eliminated. That will leave one arrival at 3:39 p.m. and one departure at 4:25 p.m.
“That has significant ramifications not only on doing business in the city but for those of our businesses whose clients and supply chain has to come here as well and then get back,” said Duplisea.
Duplisea said the route cuts will also impact economic development in the Saint John region and the ability to attract new people and businesses.
The Saint John Airport saw similar cuts last summer when Air Canada cut an average of 77 round trips, or 154 flights, per day in July and August.
At the time, Duplisea sent a letter to Air Canada’s president expressing concerns about the impact of the flight reductions on the city and business community.
The Chamber CEO hopes the community can band together once again to show Air Canada that more flights are needed in Saint John.
“Air Canada is willing to talk to us and we have a good relationship with them in terms of their ability to get back to us and to help us work our way through this,” said Duplisea.
“We’re hopeful that we will be able to get some kind of a change to the schedule and at least perhaps get so that we can get back and forth to Upper Canada in one day.”
Duplisea said he hopes they can get back to some kind of normality later this fall.
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