Medicine Hat Regional Airport is serviced by WestJet Encore with one departure and arrival daily. Oasisamuel/Dreamstime.com

By Eli J. Ridder

WestJet changes course on new Medicine Hat flight times after feedback

Oct 22, 2024 | 8:58 AM

WestJet revealed Tuesday it will change its daily Medicine Hat-Calgary arrival and departure times once again after feedback from business, political and community leaders.

The WestJet Encore flight will depart Medicine Hat Regional Airport at 7:30 a.m. and touch down at Calgary International Airport at 8:16 a.m.

Later in the day, the flight will leave Calgary at 6:35 p.m. for a 7:30 p.m. arrival in the Gas City.

The new flight times will come into effect on Dec. 5.

WestJet on Oct. 1 transitioned its Medicine Hat-to-Calgary service from Link to Encore, cutting down the number of outbound and inbound flights from three to one each.

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However, it replaced the older 34-seat Saab 340 aircraft it used for those flights in favour of the newer 78-seat De Havilland Dash 8-400.

Graphic/CHAT News

The new permanent route was initially planned to have flights depart at 7 a.m. from Medicine Hat in the morning and then have a return flight arrive at 12:35 a.m. from Calgary.

Those times will still launch on Oct. 27, and will run until Dec. 4.

Medicine Hat’s business community has since the spring expressed frustration at WestJet’s frequency cutback.

The change to a later departure and earlier arrival comes after senior WestJet officials received feedback during a roundtable on Oct. 2 at the airport, according to a city news release.

The session, hosted by the City of Medicine Hat and the Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce, took place in the Super T Aviation hanger and was closed off to the media.

After the roundtable was complete, reporters were allowed back in.

WestJet’s alliances and airport affairs director Jared Mikoch-Gerke acknowleged then the new departure and arrival times “aren’t necessarily optimal.”

“But we know that the majority of users who are traveling are connecting to somewhere else,” Mikoch-Gerke told CHAT News.

Medicine Hat airport manager Logan Boyd said at the time that seats needed to filled on WestJet’s current offerings to see an expansion of service.

In 2019 and before the pandemic struck, Medicine Hat’s airport had 75,000 passengers a year filing through its doors with two carriers and seven departures a day.

That number has dropped to about 30,000 passengers annually, according to Boyd.

The Alberta government has highlighted the importance of rural and regional airports like the one in Medicine Hat.

The province in April granted over $1 million split up between 10 airports to develop business cases and feasibility studies for improved infrastructure and air transportation.

Medicine Hat’s airport this year received $150,00 through that regional development airport grant, plus an additional $125,000 from the northern and regional economic development grant.

Premier Danielle Smith said earlier this year that Medicine Hat has the potential to be a remote work hub as Canadians flee high costs of living in larger cities.

But easy access to an international airport like those found in Calgary and Edmonton is essential.

Smith, who also serves as MLA for Brooks-Medicine Hat, said in May her United Conservative government wants to improve air access to medium and small cities across Alberta, including in Medicine Hat.

She floated the idea of government-subsidized flights that could help grow rural service.