Derrick Stanford says despite losing Air Canada flights, the Saint John Airport has other private clients it serves, as well as the Coast Guard and Medivac flights.

Air Canada will be suspending all flights in Sydney, N.S., and Saint John, N.B., and suspending four routes in Deer Lake, N.L., Charlottetown, Fredericton and Halifax.

Air travel in the region was down 92 per cent year-over-year from April to the end of August in comparison to 2019.

Air Canada said the cancellation of the flights was due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions and low demand. 

The CEO of the Saint John Airport said it will lose about $2 million, and that's if a modest schedule of commercial traffic resumes in a couple of months.

The port was expecting a record 90 cruise ships and more than 225,000 passengers and crew to call on Saint John this year, beginning late next month.

There seems to be differing opinions on the state of negotiations between the two sides.

The volume that is served by the Saint John Airport stands to benefit from the modernization efforts for years to come.

By about noon the runway had been reopened and by 1 p.m. the plane was towed from the runway as operations have returned back to normal.

Premier Brian Gallant and Federal Transportation Minister Marc Garneau were at the announcement of the $20M modernization project on Wednesday.