Airport Prepares For Return Of Flights

Things have been pretty quiet at the Saint John Airport over the past couple of months due to the pandemic, but that will soon change.

Derrick Stanford, president and CEO, said some airlines are expected to resume limited operations in the coming weeks.

Air Canada is set to resume on June 22 and Porter Airlines on July 29. Flair Airlines is looking to launch for the first time on July 5.

“A lot of it links back to demand, so right now the demand is still pretty soft in Canada. Airlines typically plan 90 days to 120 days out, so they look to have a certain set of reservations before they go ahead and fly the flights or relaunch the service,” said Stanford.

When passengers return to the airport for the first time, they will notice a few changes from before.

Stanford said new measures are in place to help keep travellers and employees safe and healthy.

“It’ll be a lot like your shopping experience these days,” Stanford said about the new measures. “Social distancing, the decals on the floor, the airlines will be encouraging people to do as much ahead of time before they get to the airport.”

That includes things like checking in online and printing off your bag tags at home, he said.

Stanford said airlines like Air Canada have gone above and beyond to ensure their planes are clean and safe for passengers.

Air carriers will operate a reduced schedule to start and slowly ramp up operations as the demand increases, but Stanford said it could take years before they see a return to normal passenger numbers.

“We’re really hopeful that by the end of 2021, we’ll start to see maybe 65 or 70 per cent of what we used to see, but any industry analyst will tell you right now that it’ll take between 2023 or 2024 before we see passenger levels that we saw in 2019,” he said.

Early projections show the airport could lose between $1.5 million and $1.7 million this year because of the pandemic.

Stanford said they went into the global crisis in good financial shape and can weather the storm, but they are hopeful it is coming to an end.

“All that being said, 2020 will certainly be a year that you’ll want to forget,” he said.