Air Canada’s last Red Deer-to-Calgary flight leaves at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
While the service will be missed, Red Deer Airport CEO Graham Ingham remains convinced Central Alberta has much to offer an airline aimed at providing regional service.
“We’re quite optimistic about the future,” Ingham said Monday. “We’ve got a lot of interest from the low-cost air carriers.
“It’s all about having the right service. We’ve never had an ultra-low-cost carrier in Canada. We’ve got Swoop now in the marketplace, and there are two others hoping to jump in in 2019.
“That type of service is very conducive to regional airports.”
Ingham said Air Canada’s decision to pull out is not a sign there is no market for scheduled flights out of Red Deer. When the service was introduced four years ago, Air Canada carried 23,000 passengers, although the numbers dipped slightly each subsequent year.
“We had very strong interest when it first started in 2014. So, there is a lot of demand in Central Alberta for passenger service.”
Other factors besides passenger numbers came into play with Air Canada, he said.
“It’s my understanding from Air Canada that they are phasing out that specific type of airplane that they were using.
“They’ve got other routes that were more profitable, or that they needed to protect from competition, which they did not have here.”
A 2014 study reinforced the notion there is a lucrative market to be tapped. It determined 750,000 Central Alberta passengers are travelling by air every year, generating $250 million in airline revenues.
The airport has ambitious plans to upgrade, including a new $4-million terminal and an expanded apron to handle bigger aircraft, also expected to cost about $4 million. A $1 million parking lot project rounds out the proposed improvements.
A $9-million grant application has already gone to the provincial government, with an answer expected in the spring.
“We’re hoping by this time next year, we will be in a newer terminal,” said Ingham.
In the short term, the airport plans to spend about $1 million to upgrade an apron and purchase a backup power generator. Red Deer city council plans to discuss the expenses in its upcoming capital budget talks.
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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