Medicine Hat airport shifting to one flight a day, business community wants frequency

“It’s over double the size and it’s also a bit more comfortable, a bit more spacious, so an upgrade there for the community,” Boyd told CHAT News on Wednesday.

“It’s the largest scheduled aircraft to be serving Medicine Hat in quite some time, definitely in the past two or three decades, so that’s a good news story.”

The airport was serviced by two airlines and 75,000 passengers filed through the gates in 2019 and that’s a level of activity the airport wants to get back to.

“There’s a lot of opportunity here, so we’re always striving for increased service to and from the community via air,” Boyd said.

READ: WestJet services impacted by transition to Encore

In the post-COVID economy, the numbers have been returning, albeit slowly.

In 2021-22, airport traffic increased by 13 per cent and in 2022-23, there was a 28 per cent increase in fliers. That trend is set to continue with another exponential increase this year.

The new Dash 8-400 aircraft is an upgrade the business community has long requested, according to a Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce official.

“That’s been something that we’ve been asking for, for our region,” the chamber’s executive director Lisa Dressler said.

“But the other elements are certainly related to flight frequency, connection times reliability [and] service reliability,” she added.

Medicine Hat Regional Airport once served 75,000 customers, in 2019. (Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News)

If the airport is able to attract other airlines or WestJet can increase the frequency of the Encore service after it launches in October, Dressler believes customers will fill the seats.

“We have a substantial catchment area withing the YXH region for the airport,” she said in reference to the area the airport has the potential to draw fliers from.

“If we’re able to improve flight frequency connection times and service reliability, we can certainly capitzlie on some of the leakage that we’re seeing,” she added, speaking about those who end up just driving to the airport of a larger city such as Calgary.

Lisa Dressler speaks on CHAT News at Noon on Tuesday. (Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News)

The Alberta government has highlighted its rural airport network as a critical piece of the provincial economy and has invested millions into improving service.

Medicine Hat’s airport this year received a total $275,000 to work on master plan projects that aim to improve its service.

Premier Danielle Smith earlier this month told business owners and politicians that strong rural airport network is important to the future of the region.

“As soon as you have direct air flights you can attract people here who can work from home,” Smith said during a Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce luncheon event.

Smith said her United Conservative government is focused on improving air access to medium and small cities across Alberta.

READ: Alberta premier says Medicine Hat has potential to be a technology hub

One of the ways the government could tackle a lack of flights is to do what airline executive have told her is a “reverse auction”.

In that scenario, the government would initially subsidize flights until there’s enough passengers for an airliner to make a profit.

“I see that as a really core business of the provincial government,” Smith said.

by Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat airport shifting to one flight a day, business community wants frequency

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