Sunwing’s Flights Out of P.G. Cancelled
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 @ 3:59 AM
Prince George, B.C.- Sunwing Airlines will not be flying out of the Prince George Airport this fall as had been announced.
The airline has decided to drop its planned Prince George to Puerto Vallarta flight schedule. But there is a positive side to this story.
President and CEO of the Prince George Airport Authority, John GIbson, says he is hopeful Sunwing will be back next year offering a different destination. "Perhaps Cabo San Lucas, or maybe Cancun" says Gibson, who adds Cancun would be a logical next step, but the airline would have to have a stop in the U.S. to refuel as the neither WestJet nor Sunwing have the planes that could handle the added distance to Cancun without that stop.
But for the Sunwing situation, he says it was simply a matter of the market not being able to support two flights to Puerto Vallarta. There are other options that can be considered, for instance, Sunwing may look at bringing other airports into the plan, picking up passengers in Grande Prairie or Fort St. John, then a stop in Prince George before carrying on to the sunny destination.
The plan originally had Sunwing operating flights from YXS on Wednesdays as of December 19th. But anyone trying to book a flight on line would see that Prince George is no longer an option as a departure city in the drop down menu on Sunwing’s website.
That leaves West Jet as the only direct international flight out of Prince George.
There is good news from YXS as passenger numbers are on track to exceed the record high of 417 thousand set back in 2008. Gibson says it is likely the passenger numbers will top 420 thousand in 2012, and that bodes well for trying to attract new flights. Talks are set for the end of October with West Jest about adding a direct Prince George to Calgary flight, but Gibson says the airline likely won’t make any decision until at least January.
Comments
Unless our population increases, I don’t think the PG Airport will ever be anything more than a place you go when you want to get to Vancouver for a conecting flight to somewhere else.
We are now the optional airport, when you are out of options there is always YXS
Seems to me that the original plan for Sunwing was to originate a flight in Grande Prairie, and then go Prince George to Mexico.
Doesnt look like it worked out. West Jet tried to run flights from Ft McMurray, Pr George to Mexico. and Victoria, Pr George to Mexico, a few years ago, and that didnt work out either.
If you go from anywhere in BC to Vancouver, the whole world opens up. If you fly out of Prince George you are severley restricted.
Not withstanding the small area set aside for international arrivals and customs, YXS is really just a regional airport.
Being within one hour by jet of a major international airport (YVR) does not help the cause of those who would have our airport attain more international clientele.
metalman.
Kamloops sits around 300,000 passengers per year ….. so looks like we are doing better by a good margin.
The airfair business is just like the cost of gas in PG. Flights to Mexico and that area are dirt cheap but try to fly to Kamloops or Cranbrook it cost $500.00
Cheers
When I was in Davao Philippines, from that airport one would have the choice for $79 to fly to either Hong Kong, Singapore, or Manila… all 2.5 -3 hour flights on a 747.
If you are to fly anywhere internationally your best be is to first get out of Canada and then from their jump off to other destinations.
Eagleone might be just a slight difference in passenger volume.
Retired there is a difference between a weekly full plane and regular flights that are not always full.
Kamloops competes with Kelowna and Vancouver.
BCRacer did you predict the downturn of the economy.
We need a PG to Long Beach CA direct flight , it would be a good seller for people to visit disneyland, NHL hockey games, nice January weather, beach etc
You can also connect to anywhere in the globe from LA
Anyone who flies to Kelowna to pick up a flight to Vancouver must be a bit light in the head.
The key difference between Kamloops and Prince George is likely that they are less than 4hrs drive to Vancouver.
I understand that the reason why Canadian flights are more expensive than USA flights is because the USA subsidizes their airports because they consider them part of infrastucture, similar to roads, which promote business. Canada, on the other hand, treats airports as a business and to hell with other considerations.
Gus. The major Airports in Canada are leased to the Airport Authoritys, which are run by a board of directors, etc; that are appointed by the Feds, Provs, City, Regional Dists, etc;
These Airport Authoritys pay a annual lease fee to the Feds. In the case of Vancouver it is about $50 Million a year. In the case of Prince George it has (up to this point in time) been nil; because the PG Airport cant seem to make a dollar.
The Airport Authoritys have the right to apply an Airport Improvement fee, and this money is used to fund infrastructure at the Airport. It cannot be used for anything else. In the case of Prince George this amounts to approx $2 Million dollars per year.
So Canadian Airports are subsidized by the Federal Government and by the Airport Improvement Fee’s, much like American Airports.
The real problem with Canadian Airlines, is the taxes that are applied on tickets; Ie; Fuel Tax, NavCan. AIF, HST/GST, and God knows what else.
On the surface the increase in passengers from 417000 in 2008 to (projected) 420000 in 2012 looks like a good news story.
However they failed to mention that the number of passengers 420000 will be handled by substantially less flights. As some of you will remember West Jet cancelled one direct flight to Vancouver per day this year. So what do we have.
1. An increase of 3000 passengers per year, that would be the total for in and out. So outbound we are looking at 1500 passengers for the year 2012. This amount to an increase of approx 4 outbound passengers per day, or 8 in and out. This is less than 1 passenger per flight per day ex Prince George. (There are approx 8 flights per day to Vancouver)
2. 1500 outbound passengers paying the Airport Improvement Fee would generate an additional $27000.00 per year for the Airport Authority.
3. The downside is that the because these passengers are handled with less flights, the Airport loses the landing and take off fees, for a minimum of 365 flights per year, which would be in the area of $550,000.00.
4. Less flights also means less fuel, so the Oil Companies would be taking a huge hit.
5. To further aggravate the situation, if West Jet changes over to the Dash 8’s next year, they will probably handle the same number of passengers with the same number of flights, however they will consume even less fuel.
Sooo. Did we win or did we lose. Increasing passengers does not necessarily mean increased revenues.
The only thing the Prince George airport is good for is to act as an auxiliary emergency runway capable of supporting the forced landing of commercial aircraft (9/11). Nothing more nothing less. It is a regional airport with an international designation under Transport Canada Guildlines. It is neither secure enough nor staffed properly for anything else but regional service with the odd exception to the occasional international flight (vacation flights). All this fluff about being BC Northern Gateway is just a load of public relations baler dash.
Comments for this article are closed.