Alberta government continues to explore options to restore passenger air service to Medicine Hat

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Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshen said during a news conference on Tuesday that work is underway.

“If I had a magic wand, I’d love to be able to see different providers being interested in having additional passenger service out of Medicine Hat and other regional airports across the province. And that’s the work that we’re undertaking right now to figure out how best to do that,” Dreeshen said.

“When you look at Saskatchewan, they have a model where the provincial government subsidizes a certain number of seats per route that they choose to make sure that you can at least maintain that level of service,” he added.

“If you have enough passengers, that subsidy never kicks in. But if you don’t, at least the air provider knows they’re not going to lose their shirts being able to have that service. So that’s something that we’re looking at as an option.”

Dreeshen said the opportunity to combine passenger and cargo service is also a consideration.

“Every case is different, but there are some providers that can also do passenger and cargo at the same time, and to see those economic benefits of being able to do cargo flights as well as passenger flights is something that we’re looking at as well,” Dreeshen said.

“We’re working with the regional airlines and the regional airports to make sure that we can increase service.”

He says the work is ongoing and the province is trying to determine which providers could best fill the gap left by WestJet.

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READ: Final WestJet flight departs Medicine Hat leaving passengers concerned on future of air travel (June 24, 2026)

by Jesse Gill

Alberta government continues to explore options to restore passenger air service to Medicine Hat

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