Air Canada and WestJet's logos are pictured at the Medicine Hat Regional Airport. (Pohoto by Ross Lavigne)

By Charles Lefebvre

Airport traffic up in 2018

Jul 19, 2019 | 1:39 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The city’s airport has seen a noticeable increase in traffic after the arrival of a second airline in the city.

According to Logan Boyd, airport operations manager with the city, last year, approximately 48,000 passengers flew in or departed from the city’s airport.

The number was up 10,000 from 2017, where approximately 38,000 passengers travelled through the airport.

In 2018, WestJet Link arrived at Medicine Hat Regional Airport, and has been flights daily between Medicine Hat and Calgary. Air Canada is also offering flights between the two cities.

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Boyd says having the choice between the two airlines is prompting people to choose to fly out of Medicine Hat rather than driving to the Calgary International Airport.

“Now that we’ve got that healthy competition in the community, we’ve started to see fares lower, and it’s become more palatable to take the flight from Medicine Hat, whereas before, it was a little bit more expensive,” he said. “We’re really happy with both of our carriers, and obviously that’s shown in the statistics, with more passengers coming through the facility.”

Although current year to date numbers for the airport are not tabulated, Boyd says the airport has remained at a similar passenger level compared to 2018.

WestJet has reported success with its WestJet Link service, which also runs in Lethbridge and Lloydminster in Alberta, along with Cranbrook and Prince George in British Columbia.

According to WestJet, since the service launched in June 2018, more than 195,000 passengers have used the service.