REGINA – Passenger numbers at the Regina airport were down 0.5 per cent for 2015, but according to the airport authority that’s good news.
CEO Dick Graham said losing United Airlines was difficult, but that other American and Canadian discount carriers have expressed interest in flying to the airport. Additionally YQR hasn’t seen as big a drop in passengers as similarly sized airports since the price of oil dropped.
Graham said overall passenger count for 2015 was 1,255,957, down 6,500 from 2014.
Both domestic and international travel was up four and 11 per cent respectively.
However, trans-border travel dropped nearly 33 per cent.
Graham also revealed that a hotel could be built in the near future.
“We’re not going to build an hotel just towards the entrance of the airport just to have to take a shuttle to and from it. We’re really intent and if we do it, we would connect it to the air terminal,” Graham explained.