This summer, Air Canada will be keeping something similar to its current once-per-day schedule out of Smithers Regional Airport (YYD) to the chagrin of the mayor and contrary to earlier indications.
The airline used to fly out of YYD twice a day and there were plans for that to start up again this summer.
However, the company said in an email to The Interior News their express flights operated by Jazz between Smithers and Vancouver will be daily this summer due to operational considerations.
“As Air Canada continues to rebuild its network, we are making adjustments to the summer schedule across our regional service, which are required in an environment of some resource constraints,” the statement continued.
Mayor Gladys Atrill said this is hard news for the region.
“I have responded to Air Canada and I hope there will be a follow-up discussion, I also followed up with our MP,” she said at Tuesday night’s council meeting. “Council needs to get involved, I don’t know what our success rate will be, but it is not good news for our community.”
Skeena Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach said he has a meeting scheduled with the company.
“It has a serious impact on our economy and our quality of life. Ten years ago, we had two airlines flying two flights a day each. And now because of Air Canada’s decisions, we’re down to a quarter of that capacity. So it’s hard to not feel like we’re sliding backwards,” he said.
Bachrach added he is going to keep pushing for solutions.
“I’ve seen some of their correspondence. The argument they’re making is that it’s about limited resources and decisions to allocate those resources elsewhere. It’s extremely frustrating. We live in what is mostly a free market economy. And we depend on the private sector and competition to deliver affordable services. But in rural Canada, we’re often let down by that system.”
He said he also hears from a lot of people who want the federal government to rebuild the passenger rail service and the bus service so that there are other viable modes of transportation that are more affordable.
READ MORE: Air Canada officially back to Smithers Oct. 1
@MariscaDekkema
marisca.bakker@interior-news.com
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