File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw / James Peters

Kamloops Airport

Kamloops Airport to lose Air Canada service indefinitely as of January 23

Jan 12, 2021 | 1:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — Starting January 23, Air Canada will suspend flights out of the Kamloops Airport indefinitely.

In an email to CFJC Today, Air Canada says “stifled demand from ongoing travel restrictions and blanket quarantine rules” has prompted the airline to suspend service to Kamloops.

The airline says its overall network capacity is down 80 per cent from 2019.

Managing Director Ed Ratuski says the news is disappointing for the airport, but not particularly surprising.

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“We’re just trying to see exactly how long that suspension might be in effect, but we suspect it’s going to go through February and March, for sure,” Ratuski told CFJC Today.

Air Canada previously temporarily halted service out of Fulton Field in March of 2020 at the onset of the pandemic in British Columbia.

“Similar to what we went through at the beginning of the pandemic, when passenger numbers were quite low,” Ratuski added. “With the second wave going through and the additional restrictions on travel being introduced by the federal government and then interprovincial travel restrictions – we’re just seeing the numbers drop way off.”

At Tuesday’s regular council meeting, Mayor Ken Christian said the news is very difficult for the airport – Air Canada employees — and the city’s economic recovery — as this severs the only direct air tie to Vancouver.

“That is very difficult news, certainly for the Kamloops Airport,” Christian told council. “It’s difficult news for the employees of Air Canada in Kamloops – both the staff on the tarmac and the station agents. But it’s really bad news in terms of the economic recovery that we are embarking upon.”

“When you have places like [BCLC] who have their provincial headquarters in Kamloops, it’s just unfathomable that you would have no air access for them to shuffle employees back and forth between their Vancouver operations and Kamloops without having to go through Calgary or drive the Coquihalla in the wintertime,” Christian lamented.

Christian says he has asked staff to engage Central Mountain Air, Pacific Coastal Air and Westjet to determine if one can pick up the slack and fly to YVR.

“That’s definitely a possibility,” responded Ratuski. “We were actually talking to Pacific Coastal, even prior to this, about opportunities at Kamloops. I know they’ll be looking at if there is an opportunity for them here with this latest news, as well.”