Travellers looking to go on summer vacation got good news today with Saskatoon’s airport adding up to nine daily round trip flights to three locations around the country. This summer, there will be four daily non-stop flights from Saskatoon to Toronto and Vancouver. Additionally on June 2nd, a non-stop direct service to Montreal will be offered.
“It’s a really good fit for our market from both the point-to-point leisure and connecting opportunity,” said CJ Dushinski, VP of business development at Saskatoon airport.
Non-stop flights were offered from Saskatoon to Montreal in the past but were split with Regina however it meant that at least in one direction you would be making a stop at one of the two cities to pick-up or drop-off passengers.
“I think non-stops are very attractive for most people. If you can get to where you want to go in one stop, it reduces the amount of travel time and more time in your destination,” Dushinki added.
These increases represent a 24% growth in seat capacity out of Saskatoon, roughly 2,000 seats a day.
Dushinski says this announcement from Air Canada complimented both the airport and the companies’ strategies. “Our strategy is what’s called a ‘one stop strategy’. It means we connect those people that live in Saskatoon to anywhere in the world within one stop and the way we do that and are able to achieve that is by working with air carriers to drive traffic into major hubs.”
Dushinski says the airline is trying to direct people to their larger hubs located in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. She says their strategy is in response to the recent disruptions to the airline industry including pilot shortages and aircraft availabilities.
Since the pandemic, seat capacity has been an issue for most airports across the country. Saskatoon got roughly 80%of its pre-pandemic seating capacity back, but the airport is still recovering. Dushinski says demand from Saskatoon and the province is still high, but these new flights will help service the demand.
“This really gets us a lot closer to the number of seats that we would’ve had in a pre-pandemic environment. ”
Getting back to pre-pandemic seat capacity is still a top priority for the airport is approaches the new year.