Westjet has announced the number of daily flights from the Edmonton International Airport will be reduced, and it’s citing the poor economy in Alberta for the change.
On Monday, Westjet officials confirmed daily service between Edmonton and Nanaimo, and Edmonton and Kamloops was being cancelled, while reducing service between the city and Abbotsford, Grande Prairie and Calgary.
The company is blaming the change on the slump in oil prices, saying less workers are travelling to and from Alberta.
“We’re expecting that the overall amount of demand for 2016 will be less than 2015,” Westjet Executive VP Bob Cummings said.
While some flights are being cancelled or reduced, the airline is expanding other services, including long-haul flights. Starting later in 2016, the airline is expected to fly from Edmonton to London.
“It would make sense that they’re going to take advantage of the strongest market sectors,” Traci Bednard with the Edmonton International Airport said. “In Edmonton we have a very strong international market sector now.”
However, the number of passengers at the airport was down 2.7 percent in 2015, compared to the previous year – an Edmonton travel agent said the low Canadian dollar is keeping travellers from heading to the United States.
“Transborder has been a bit of an issue,” Lesley Paull with Paull Travel said. “We still have service everywhere but where we may have had three or four flights like Phoenix, we’re down a flight, San Francisco, we’re down a flight.”
In addition to the changes for Westjet in Edmonton, six daily flights out of Calgary are being cancelled.
The cancellations and reductions from Edmonton will go into effect March 5 – the company said it hopes to bring back some of the suspended flights in November.
With files from Kim Smith
