If and when the West Kootenay Regional Airport receives the go-ahead for a GPS-based landing system, a marketing campaign will be needed to regain the confidence of travellers to fly out of Castlegar, according to the airport manager.
Danny Clarke told city council it would “be very nice” if they receive federal approval within 16 to 18 months, but he doesn’t know if it will happen by then. He said the city’s updated application for a lower-ceiling landing approach is now held up in a 200-day Transport Canada review.
If the application passes Transport Canada’s scrutiny, it will be passed on to Nav Canada to further vet the approach. If that department also gives its blessing, Air Canada would have to update equipment on its planes. But with all that in place, the chances of successful landings in Castlegar in the winter should greatly improve.
“There’s a lot of pieces to put the puzzle together, but everyone is working hard to achieve that,” Clarke said.
Dating back to 2017, Castlegar and other local governments have spent at least $1.26 million on the project, including borrowing $1 million from the Columbia Basin Trust. The city also recently approved borrowing $5 million to expand the terminal, in anticipation of increased flights.
Between March 23 and April 7, ten of 12 scheduled flights successfully landed in Castlegar, with passenger loads averaging about 50 per cent. There is one daily flight to and from Vancouver. One frequent flyer has complained that changes to Air Canada’s schedule make it difficult for passengers from the east to get to Castlegar in one day.
Reduced passengers
Councillor Shirley Falstead said she was surprised to learn Medicine Hat is poised to lose commercial air service, despite a population of over 65,000. Lethbridge is similarly affected. As of June, WestJet will stop service to both cities.
Clarke said before the pandemic, Lethbridge had seven commercial flights per day, but the proximity of both cities to Calgary makes it challenging for airlines to operate profitably when faced with higher fuel and staffing costs.
He said other cities like Kamloops are also losing traffic to larger airports that offer better connections and cheaper prices, even when extra travel time by car is factored in.
Clarke said Castlegar has seen a “drastic” reduction in passengers since the pandemic and the future is uncertain.
“Post-pandemic, people have chosen to drive or just not travel as much,” said Clarke, who has been involved in the air industry since the mid-1990s.
He pointed to online meetings that have replaced business travel as one factor for the decline. Reliability is another major challenge, he added, but that has always been the case in Castlegar.
“So it’s really hard to sell the airport until we have that reliability piece. But anticipation is certainly high to gain back some of that lost traveling public.”
