Airport and City addressing local air service
By Lethbridge Herald on July 12, 2025.
Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald
Profitability and cost efficiecies are key considerations for airlines, the Economic and Finance Standing Policy Committee of Lethbridge city council heard on Thursday.
Mike Perkins, senior manager of airport affairs for WestJet in Calgary, told the SPC online during a report on Lethbridge air service, that the local market is a unique one with the city being in a driveable distance to Calgary.
Perkins told the SPC that the company wants to make sure it’s doing what it can to make local service a success, noting that the company’s CEO is vocal about finding cost efficiencies.
City manager Lloyd Brierley told the SPC before a presentation by airport manager Cameron Prince that administration thought it was important to provide an update not only to council but also the community.
Using a duck on water analogy in that on the surface a lot doesn’t appear to be going on, Brierley said “below the surface, there’s a lot of work going on in the airport to obtain data. In the airline industry, you’ll hear it’s a very challenging revenue market in Canada because of a very few large cities that are very far apart and the ability to generate sufficient revenues.
He said a standard approach is to obtain relevant data that will determine what routes might be viable on an ongoing basis.
“There’s a lot of interest to fly to a lot of places but the ability for that to have sustained revenue every day, every week, every month, 12 months a year is the challenge.”
A consultant has been selected to help with the preparation of necessary information that will allow the City – which acquired the airport in 2018 – to engage with the incumbent and future air service providers “in relation to future air service growth.”
Prince told the SPC there are two main focus points of long-term strategic goals including to increase flight options and improve connectivity, which he called the most direct impact to the community.
A second focal point, Prince said, is “to improve the sustainability of the airport itself. So in the short term this means continuing to build on the relationship with our current airline partner, identifying new routes based on demand and then collaborating with community stakeholders.”
He said efforts will centre on developing domestic route options with international connections through other airports.
“It’s also imperative that the City, via the airport, lead any air carrier discussions to ensure that messaging is consistent and accurate,” he said.
Prince noted the airport has heard from the public that access to air service is a priority to them and “we’re working to convey that message to carriers, backing it up with objective data. However, if the community doesn’t show up once a service is in place, growth will inevitably be stifled.”
Circumstances won’t always allow for travel from Lethbridge but an effort needs to be made to use air services that are available before service can be increased, Prince added.
A presentation to the SPC showed that capital infrastructure investments in the airport from 2019-23 included renovation of the terminal building, functional airport improvements, and upgrades to the airfield and waterlines.
Total costs of those investments was $25.8 million with $16 million coming from the provincial grants, $7.2 million from federal grans and $2.6 million from the City of Lethbridge.
Those investments have brought the terminal building and much of the airfield up to current standards, said Prince, who added no expansion work was completed so airport capacity for aircraft and passengers remains the same “but at a higher level of safety, comfort and reliability. This work has created a solid base and now we’re refocusing on strategic growth to better utilize the available facilities.”
The presentation noted that major airlines have shifted to larger twin-propeller planes with 78 seats from smaller craft with space for 19 to 34 passengers.
Prince told the SPC the airport has importance beyond scheduled commercial service, serving as a base for medevac flights and private flights, the latter which range from small private planes to large business jets.
A large part of aircraft movement at the airport involves flight training which Prince said “is critical right now with the shortage of pilots.” Agricultural activities, including aerial applicators, is common during summer and with increased border security measures the airport has seen more traffic by helicopters.
Perkins said from an airline perspective profitability “is generally key. Having access to data is equally crucial for us to make these decisions. Lethbridge is a bit of a unique market for WestJet because it’s partially in a driveable distance to Calgary so the change of frequencies we’ve had recently have allowed sometimes I guess to have our travellers to have a better schedule that works for them if they do the drive market.
“We do want to see people use the air service because that gives us better access to that data. We do know that people generally are not flying from Lethbridge to Calgary, they’re flying from Lethbridge to Calgary and generally beyond” and that’s what makes that air service and the Calgary operations unique, Perkins said.
Airlines don’t have high margins and costs can add up on a route over a year, he pointed out.
“We definitely want to make sure that we’re doing things we can to make this route a success, said Perkings, adding the airline is working with Prince and the airport to understand what it can do differently.
“We have made some different changes to our schedules over the last couple of seasons trying to get it right as we changed our fleet and the aircraft we moved in there and we really want to make sure that we can continue to grow and build this market and make sure it’s one we can sustain for the future,” added Perkins.
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The unreliability of daily service to Calgary from the Lethbridge airport has flyers and travel agents shying away from using the Lethbridge airport. Frequent last minute flight cancellations, leaving travellers to find their own way to Calgary, is just bad business.
Hopefully we don’t spend more millions on “improvements” like we did when Spirit Airlines suggested starting flights to Tucson. Who the hell would want to fly to Tucson. Now if they suggested Vegas…
No one is flying to the US any more, for obvious reasons. But offering flights to Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria would attract new clients.
Time Air flew to Vancouver via Kelowna.
If we could recreate the service we had in the 1970’s , we’d all be thrilled. (Except for the flying boxcar)
About a month ago , had a friend visit from Halifax . His plan was to fly to Lethbridge, pick up a car and drive home. He got a one way flight to Calgary for $315. The Calgary to Lethbridge flight was going to cost him $600 plus 5 hours layover between flights. He just flew to Calgary and I drove up and got him.
We travel quite often, not only is flying in and out of Lethbridge too expensive, if there is a leg of your journey that is going to go south (pun intended) it’s always the Lethbridge leg. The connection times are almost always unreasonable going out. Coming back , if your flight is delayed and you miss your flight home to Lethbridge, you are faced with staying overnight in Calgary and getting the one trick pony flight back to Lethbridge the next day , or more reasonably renting a car one way … No , it’s not worth the cost or the risk , just fly from Calgary .
It’s a Shame that after all that work and tax money used to upgrade the airport , we are faced with embarrassing awful air service .
No. This duck isn’t paddling. It’s floating belly-up in a scummy pond, decomposing while city officials stand on the shore, clapping about how serene it looks.
Let’s talk numbers.
$25.8 million sunk into upgrades and consultants since 2018. In return? A ghost terminal with a single sad little Dash 8 hopping to Calgary once a day. If that’s paddling, then my garbage bin is a world-class figure skater.