As Air Canada announced a temporary suspension of flights from Kamloops to Vancouver, the CEO of Tourism Kamloops was pleased to see a pair of regional airlines announce that they were going to be filling the gap in service.
Beverly DeSantis says tourism officials have been wanting to see more airlines flying in and out of Kamloops Airport for a while now.
“The conversation has been ongoing about expanding service into the Kamloops Airport with non-traditional airlines so we have had conversations with numerous airlines and it’s nice that some of these are sticking,” she said on the NL Morning News.
Central Mountain Air will begin flying to Vancouver in April while Pacific Coastal Air intends to begin flying here on Feb. 9.
“They’re really concentrating on those people who are working with government, medical assistance, getting people to their medical appointments between here and Vancouver and beyond and their commitment is long term,” DeSantis added, noting she hopes people keep these B.C.-based airlines in mind when booking travel down the road.
“I think that Air Canada has been a good partner for Kamloops and I’m looking forward to welcoming them back [in April] but I think our community needs to really support these airlines that are coming in to fill the gaps once the larger ones return.”
“I think there’s room for them all and let’s make sure that we support those that have really considered us during times of need and this is exactly what Pacific Coastal and Central Mountain Air are doing,” she added.
“It’s very disappointing to see Air Canada pull out but from a business perspective I can see why it would need to happen.”
New data from Kamloops Airport shows just 123,675 people through the terminal in 2020 compared to a record 361,586 back in 2019.
No Non Essential Travel Ban
While the B.C. government says it cannot ban inter-provincial travel after a review of legal options, DeSantis says she appreciates the government for trying to limit the spread of COVID-19.
That said, she notes there is no data to show that the tourism sector has led to the significant spread of COVID-19 in the province.
“It is social behaviour within communities and within local region and you know the tourism industry has had those conversations with government saying regardless of what you do to stop travellers from coming in, that’s not where the issue lies in transmission,” she said.
Premier John Horgan says the government will impose stronger restrictions on non-essential travel, if it sees COVID-19 transmission linked to inter-provincial travel in the future.
“We have engaged with Mr. Horgan and Bonnie Henry last week as an industry and they seem very open to having conversations prior to maybe some more significant orders that come down,” added DeSantis. “This is uncharted territory for so many people so I don’t really want to point fingers, but its nice that they’re keeping the conversations open.”
“We’re at the table and hopefully they’ll continue to reach out to our industry before broad sweeping bans and orders are put down.”
– With files from Victor Kaisar
