MONTREAL — From his office overlooking the runway at Gander International Airport, Reg Wright can see all flights in and out of his corner of Newfoundland.
“In Newfoundland, we have a saying called the fisherman’s widow, which is typically anyone that keeps eyes to the sea to see that their husband will return. During the pandemic, I did spend a lot of time in the posture of looking out the window, counting numbers and wondering when recovery was coming,” Wright said.The airport has lost four routes since 2019, including a WestJet route to Halifax, he said. “A third of our passengers have vanished into thin air …. By no means are we recovered.
Correspondingly, airfares fell between two and 11 per cent on those routes despite rampant inflation and widespread fare increases.A random sampling tells the tale. The number of direct flights plunged 49 per cent for Sault Ste. Marie-Toronto, 41 per cent for Regina-Calgary and 100 per cent for Quebec City-Rouyn-Noranda between May 2019 and May 2024. Driving between those cities would take at least five to seven hours, with zero stops.
Competition on many routes has declined too. WestJet withdrew from virtually all short-haul markets east of Winnipeg during the pandemic. Air Canada mirrored this move, remaining in Central and Eastern Canada while scaling back in the West. She and others have demanded a funding boost from the federal Airports Capital Assistance Program. It funds upgrades for small airports, but its $38-million limit has remained unchanged since 2000. Airports are calling for $95 million annually.
Back in Gander, where residents' hardiness and hospitality became known to the world via the Broadway hit Come From Away — the play chronicled their experience hosting more than 6,500 travellers from 38 planes that unloaded at the airport on 9/11 — Wright takes stock.
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