Lethbridge Airport. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Air Canada halting service to Lethbridge as of March 31

Mar 12, 2020 | 10:45 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Air Canada will only be serving the Lethbridge Airport for another couple of weeks.

The airline announced that it is “suspending service indefinitely” for their Lethbridge to Calgary route as of the end of March 2020.

Mayor Chris Spearman says he was disappointed to learn about this development.

“Since we have taken over the operation of the airport, we have placed great emphasis on our desire to increase the viability of the airport. We know our airport has great opportunity for growth of passengers as well as growth of economic development. The airport continues to remain one of city council’s top priorities.”

Spearman believes the COVID-19 outbreak at least has a role to play in the cancellation of services. The airline, however, reportedly told the city that they are suspending many flights that service fewer than 200,000 passengers per year, which also includes Medicine Hat to Calgary.

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A recent report from Modalis Infrastructure Partners found that the Lethbridge Airport had a total of 104,078 passengers in 2019 between all of its carriers.

Air Canada issued a statement to LNN, saying, “Such decisions are never taken lightly. These routes had not performed at the levels that were required to ensure they would be commercially-sustainable, and now, with the current environment, a difficult decision was made to suspend these routes.”

The company said they have looked at commercial factors such as demand, aircraft availability, and other economic considerations. LNN asked if COVID-19 had anything to do with the suspension of services, but they did not mention it in their statement.

Either way, Spearman says this would not be the first time that a pandemic has impacted airline travel in the city.

“Generally, there’s an impact of about two-to-three months of the rollout of the virus, and then, the following seven-to-nine months, there’s a recovery in the airline industry. What we want to do in Lethbridge is position ourselves for the recovery.”

Once the coronarivus outbreak cools down, the mayor hopes to speak to Air Canada again about potentially resuming service for the community.

Anyone with questions about canceled flights is asked to reach out to Air Canada directly.

A spokesperson with WestJet told LNN that they “have made no announcements regarding any suspensions or capacity reductions across our network at this time. Our schedule is unchanged at this time, but as per the note, we are reviewing it.”