Montreal only desired destination for flights at Charlottetown Airport

© Kirk Pennell/CBC
There hasn’t been much demand for air vacation in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests the airport’s CEO.

Until at least Feb.10 — possible for a longer period — all travellers departing from Charlottetown Airport will have to go to or through Montreal.

Passengers looking to travel on somewhere else will have to make connections from there. The adjust is just one of a series of flight reductions for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Certainly the desire for air travel is not that strong provided the weather and the limitations,” said Charlottetown Airport CEO Doug Newson.

“Truly, our precedence is to make positive that those travellers that do require to vacation, in particular for workers that are rotational employees that have to have to get to exactly where they’re likely, that we have a flight schedule that they can do that.”

© Kirk Pennell/CBC
The departure board now displays only one particular flight leaving Charlottetown Airport.

The flights from Charlottetown to Montreal leave each day at 6:15 a.m., indicating travellers with a link can get to western Canada by “lunchtime,” Newson reported.

The flight from Montreal arrives in Charlottetown at 9:36 p.m. The airplane continues to be at the airport overnight right before leaving once more in the morning.

Until finally Monday, Air Canada had been giving five weekly flights to Toronto and two to Montreal, but final thirty day period it announced that would change to a everyday flight to Montreal from Jan. 11-Feb. 10. WestJet suspended all of its flights in and out of Charlottetown on Nov. 2.

Saint John, N.B., and Sydney, N.S., had all their flights suspended.

Newson reported it can be very likely Charlottetown’s new flight plan will extend over and above Feb. 10.

“We actually think that we are going to be in this predicament at the very least as a result of the 1st quarter, possibly into the spring.”

Newson said talks are ongoing with airlines and governing administration about what could happen this summer time.

“We might clearly like to see a lot more flights but the truth is we you should not have the demand for a lot more flights correct now and we are hoping in the coming months, when things begin to get much better, we are going to see people flights return.”

Newson reported the new flight timetable did not final result in any supplemental layoffs at the airport.

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