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Saskatchewan-based travellers soon will have another option out of Regina.
WestJet announced Monday a daily, direct flight connecting the Queen City and Minneapolis. The flights are to be available seven days a week, 365 days a year, starting April 28.
Saskatoon has had a flight to and from Minneapolis since June.
James Bogusz, the CEO of the Regina Airport Authority, said passenger volumes at YQR are at about 90 per cent of their pre-pandemic levels, but the lack of a daily, non-stop flight to the U.S. has been a problem.
“This has been the No. 1 thing that I’ve been asked, as the CEO, to try to resolve,” Bogusz told reporters Monday. “Ironically, it’s not the airport that resolves these issues, it’s the airline, and I want to publicly thank WestJet for taking the opportunity to see the future of Regina’s economy and jump on board by bringing in this amazing service.”
The flight is expected to leave the Queen City each morning, with the return flight set for early in the afternoon. Each flight will offer 78 seats on a turbo-prop aircraft, but Bogusz said WestJet will evaluate the flight to see if that’s the appropriate aircraft for the demand.
“Based on what I’ve been hearing, we should be able to fill four of these planes, and I don’t say that lightly,” Bogusz said. “I have heard nothing but demand for a restoration of a major U.S. hub.
“I expect these flights are going to be incredibly popular and what’s so important today … is we’ve got to get the word out.”
The Regina airport used to have a direct flight to Minneapolis, but that service was discontinued in 2016.
Jared Mikoch-Gerke, WestJet’s director of alliances and airport affairs, said that fact was shocking given that Agribition itself attracts more than 100,000 international visitors to the city every year.
“It’s obviously critical for the economic benefits of this city and this region to be able to have something (as) a daily, year-round service, and we’re really happy to be the only airline that’s finally able to provide that,” Mikoch-Gerke said.
Mikoch-Gerke said the airline had been in discussions with the airport authority and the provincial government “for some time” about the flights. What sealed the deal, he said, was their commitment to getting something done for the summer.
Bogusz said the airport, the government and their partners never stopped pitching WestJet on the city, even after the COVID-19 pandemic reduced traffic at the airport to two per cent of its pre-pandemic levels.
“We knew Minneapolis was going to be a winner,” Bogusz said. “We just knew that it would be a matter of time to convince WestJet to put us back on the map.
“And those 70-plus connections from Minneapolis-St. Paul with a partnership and a code share with Delta Airlines, it’s going to allow our conferences, our sporting events, tourism and even visiting friends and family, it’ll be easier than ever to get to YQR.”
According to Bogusz, the provincial government offered YQR $500,000 per year for three years to help support a minimum-revenue guarantee. That, along with funding from the airport and other partners, will help WestJet generate the revenue required to keep the flight sustainable.
He added that over the next 24 months, the authority expects passenger volumes to be at or above pre-pandemic levels – and flights like the one announced Monday should help.
“The only way to get back to 2019 results is by adding more seats into our market,” Bogusz said. “This simply means that those new 78 daily seats is another piece toward getting back to what we call normal.”
He encouraged people in southern Saskatchewan who currently drive to airports in the U.S. to instead drive to Regina and fly to Minneapolis. From there, he said, they can connect to cities they can’t reach by flying through hubs like Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver.
Over the winter, the Regina airport will continue to provide flights to international destinations like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Orlando in the United States, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, in Mexico, Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, and Varadero in Cuba.
— With files from 980 CJME’s Lisa Schick
