Air travel is indeed made easier if travellers can depart from their home base to connect to flights in larger centres, rather than having to drive hours to take off to world destinations from a more metropolitan hub, including Calgary or Edmonton.
Lethbridge Airport has become the first departure for many travellers heading to other destinations abroad, as the City of Lethbridge continues to take strategic steps to enhance air service at YQL.
According to the City, the goal is to improve regional connectivity, support economic growth and make air travel more convenient for residents, businesses and the region.
Options are being explored by the City to support expanded flight availability and better serve regional travel needs. These options vary in cost, complexity and risk, and will be evaluated using detailed origin and destination travel data, which is currently being collected.
Airport Manager Cameron Prince believes it’s the right time to take a comprehensive look at the data, utilizing the latest technology to analyze current travel patterns. “By leading with data and a collaborative approach, we can help City Council make informed decisions that strengthen our ability to improve air service.”
Beyond passenger travel, YQL supports essential services such as medevac flights, flight training and private aviation.
“The biggest thing we’re looking to do right now is gather data on where people from southern Alberta are travelling. That is critical for airlines when they’re making decisions on whether or not to grow or introduce new service in Lethbridge,” adds Prince. “In the next year or so, we will be doing all that work and working with airlines to add more options to Lethbridge.”
It’s challenging right now with the current conditions within Canada and aviation, in general. “It’s something high on our priority list. We’re working to improve,” notes Prince.
Once the study is completed, Prince says, the City will see what routes are in demand and this information can be taken to air carriers to show routes that would be successful and work with them to build that up. “Hopefully later this year, that will be something we’ll be able to push forward with.”
Lethbridge is very similar to what is seen across the country at regional airports, Prince explains. “Airlines are moving to larger airplanes and that makes it more difficult to serve regional airports with enough frequency that allows you to connect and move onto other destinations.”
“Across the board with regional airports, we’ve seen a big dip in passenger movement. That largely comes down to the aircraft are too big, and frequency comes down. We’re keeping track of what everyone else is doing. We’re all in the same boat and working almost as a team to find a way to make regional air travel more accessible for small airports.”
As far as building air travel, Prince says, Lethbridge Airport needs the community to use the service that’s available. “If we want to grow more service, we need to show the airline there’s demand. The best way to do that is to use the available service. We know it’s not always the most convenient and the timing might not always be right, but we just want to encourage everyone to start with YQL as their departure point and move on from there.”
