Millar could move to Nanaimo, Comox (Courtney) or Ft St John and his problem would be solved.

Air Canada cut their direct flight to Calgary a number of years ago. Right after the City subsidized Horizen Air flights to Seattle. Kinsely had a meeting with Air Canada after which they announced that they would continue the flights at a cost of $800,000.00 per year if the City would make up for any losses. In other words a program similiar to what was offered to Horizen Air.

Horizen Air flights to Seattle were in direct competition to Air Canada and West Jet flights to Vancouver, and the City had no business subsidizing Horizen Air.

One has to wonder whether or not we would still have the Calgary flight if the City had not got involved.

In any event, we have nothing but the direct Vancouver flights at this time. With the stagnant population in this area, it is highly unlikly we will get any better service.

Lets keep in mind, that West Jet and Air Canada, get the revenue from Pr George to Vancouver and then Vancouver to Edmonton, Calgary, or Ft McMurray for those who need to go that way.

By implementing a direct service they would probably make less money overall.

They have to look at the big picture, and profits, not necessarily on the needs of a few people who live in Prince George and work elsewhere.

Increasingly the work in the oil and gas and mining industry are fly in fly out jobs where people can live anywhere in western Canada. These people choose to live in communities that focus on quality of life and value tax wise in the location they choose to base from.

PG fails on all fronts when it comes to attracting people to want to live in PG, and so it comes as no surprise that we are passed over for direct flights as it becomes increasingly apparent that people employed in these sectors do not wish to spend their down time in a city over run with social problems, pollution, and inept politicians representing us.

I think if we had a urban core that wasn’t located right next to major industry including a highly VOC toxic refinery things would be different. PG has no quality rental units of the type fly in fly out workers would feel secure owning and happy to spent their down time in and that more than anything is a major problem.

I think if an urban core for residential, retail, and entertainment was developed along the Cranbrook hill crest or between Pine Center and Superstore, than PG would attract people that wanted to live in PG and we would be on the map for these types of resource industry workers. I think the sole focus on changing our downtown at the expense of developing the rest of the city and utilizing our strengths has sapped this community of momentum and installed a negative image that defines Prince George to anyone that would have considered living here in the past. I blame the downtown centric political class for running down our future prospects.

PG could still be a late bloomer, but we lost the momentum we should have had when the university came to town, and our city council and administration has blown all our potential to influence events by burying the city in debt at a time when interest rates are set to increase. It will be a tough climb to get out from our current state of affairs and I think it should start first and foremost with new leadership.

Furthermore, we have the perception in PG that development of the resource industry will lead to growth in PG. That is simply not the case. There use to be a day when resource industry development meant people lived nearby and had local factories. I don’t see local factories in PG’s future beyond what we have now… the only growth for PG will come from people wanting to locate and live here for reasons of quality of life and ease of access through quality transportation options to their work sites.

Canada long ago decided to be a remote resource based economy and so PG just didn’t get the memo I guess.

One of PG’s greatest assets is our proximity to the forest… yet PG has neglected developing our forest trails around the city and all the forest recreation sites we use to have have been closed, not maintained, or discouraged so as to not complication multinational resource development potential. This says that planners have PG planned for a logistics base, and not a place where people should choose to live and recreate.

I talked to a crown land planner in PG once about buying a clear cut block for a camp ground base for eco-tourism and he flat out said it will never happen on his watch… said in thirty plus years on the job he has never approved a crown land sale for recreation or tourism purposes because it simply does not bring in the revenue for the provincial government. He said large corporations bring in the revenue and no crown sales will go through for tourism or recreation purposes in this area because it is considered a working land base for revenue purposes. There in lies the problem… workers on their downtime do not want to locate where recreation infrastructure is considered a problem… they want to go for a hike, or a bike ride, or camp a their favorite camp site… not party at the generator or walk the streets of downtown PG after dark.

Good points Eagleone.

Everytime I go to various lakes and so called camp sites, I am appalled by how they have allowed them to go to waste and ruin.

They seem to look aftr the major camp sites along the Highways but once we get off highway it seems that they do everything they can to keep you from going into the bush. Decommissioning roads, taking out toilet facilities, and not supplying wood etc; What happens is people chop down tree’s and dump on the ground, which is just great as a Tourist attraction.

We certainly need to do more in many areas, however Im not sure how this will get done, with the situation we are in now.

Seems all our money and political will is spent on business, and vested interests, and to hell with everything else.

We certainly have the potential to do better.

As an example other than for Photo Ops what are our MP;s and MLA”s doing to improve things for Prince George other than paying lip service??

That’s disappointing. It’s a service my wife and I would have used 3-4 times a year.
Hard to argue with the points being made on here though.

My husband works in oil and gas in Alberta and flys or drives home once a month and whether he flys or drives he loses at least two days. The direct flight service would be a nice perk. We have debated whether moving closer would benefit us but we both love BC. Our goal now if for him to gain the experience in the mining field and come back home to work in the mining industry around Prince George. Lets hope Westjet (encore) or Air Canada take a look at Prince George for direct flights to Edmonton or Calgary.

You can bet that Westjet did market research and determined that they would make more money by offering direct flights from Fort. St. John and Nanaimo, than they would in offering direct flights from PG and one of those other locations (I’m assuming that they have constraints with how many new locations they can add on).

My guess is that they figure those previous markets were completely served by Air Canada (and they want to take business away from them), that not enough people from PG are connecting to Calgary to make it worthwhile (certainly possible) or that people headed to Calgary can just use the existing connection through Vancouver, thereby opening up capacity to add the two new markets and thus maximize revenues.

At the end of the day, I highly doubt that a direct flight to Calgary would attract enough new business over and above the people that use the existing connector service through Vancouver, to make it worthwhile. That’s probably why it wasn’t offered.

OR our representive from PG selling PG to Westjet did more damage than good. As usual

PG ceased being the hub it always touted itself as a long time ago. This is a dying city. Not only is it ugly; the air is killing you.

Does anyone know of any other airline that will spend millions on aircraft etc and supply them to a city just because there are a scant few who could use their service?

“people headed to Calgary can just use the existing connection through Vancouver, thereby opening up capacity to add the two new markets and thus maximize revenues”

I think you got the key consideration right there, NMG. I would think that they would add very few more seats by adding a direct service. They have a successful milk run going right now. It works. Convenience of flyers only comes into play when there are enough to warrant providing the convenience without reducing the net income to the carrier.

The real question is whether the old model under CP and Air Canada in the 1970’s where PG was more of a hub could be re-born and, if so, under what conditions. It would be nice to know that information from the YXS Board or manager. They are the service provider for this city and adjacent community. The flyers from here are providing AIF tax to YXS. Airport improvement not only deals with physical infrastructure improvement but, more importantly, service improvement shown by transportation accessibility and convenience.

I am starting to wonder whether anyone at YXS gets that part of their accountability. I think the mindset of this community is just not going there in so many areas of service to the community.

“Does anyone know of any other airline that will spend millions on aircraft etc and supply them to a city just because there are a scant few who could use their service?”

Central Mountain Air among others in Canada.

Central Mountain Air

PG to FS John to Edmonton to Calgary = around $560 including tax, one way.

Westjet via Vancouver and Kelowna = $400 to $500

These are all for flights next week … cheaper with more notice ….

Direct flight PG to Calgary should be about $200 … and could easily sell for $300 incl. tax …. and would be (and was) a one hour flight.

I think we have a problem with flying to Alberta … it has two cities, each with reasons to go to one or the other. BC has one city, Vancouver, in which all those things one needs to accomplish can be done. Thus, we have a divided market when flying to Alberta.

BTW, one could fly to Toronto with westjet from PG for just under $500 …..

There are advantages to hooking onto popular flights between high populated cities.

My understanding of this announcement is that Westjet (Encore) had just acquired 2 planes. There is only so many cities that 2 planes can service. There are about 30 more planes to be brought into service over the next few years. Give it some time for these other planes to enter service. Then we can see service increases in PG.

I hate to burst anybody’s bubble, but PG is not the centre of the universe and we should not all be upset when initial announcements are announced and we are not part of it. Service to FortSt John is well over due. Those people were getting hosed with the service offered by Air Canada.

Maybe the citizens of PG can learn a lesson from Fort St John. That city & the citizens lobbied Westjet very hard to get service to their community. And it worked. Maybe someone get do it here?

It’s not about lobbying, it’s about dollars and cents. There is simply more demand for a Ft. St. John to Calgary flight than there is in PG.

Really??? I find that hard to believe.