Prince George, B.C. – WestJet is going to be scaling back service on its route between Prince George and Vancouver, but the airline company says it is only a temporary measure while it straightens out some operational issues.

Media Relations Advisor Brie Ogle at WestJet’s corporate headquarters in Calgary says one of its Encore runs, utilizing the 78-seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft, will be removed from service from March 2nd to April 25th.  She says it’s “an operational issue about having the right amount of pilots and flight crews to operate our planes.”

So flight 3294, departing Prince George (YXS) at 7:20pm and arriving in Vancouver (YVR) at 8:36pm, and flight 3287 departing YVR at 9:30 and arriving YXS at 10:55pm will be removed for six weeks, returning, says Ogle, on April 27th.  She says “we are still in the process of hiring flight and cabin crew in order to meet operational needs.”

Prince George Airport Authority spokesperson Lindsay Cotter says the reduction in service will have no effect on airport operations here.  “We’ve been told its just WestJet having operational issues and they require cutting back some of the aircraft and that it’s just one of them that they are taking away for those few weeks.  We have the most seats in the market that we’ve ever had so we’re not overly concerned with this.”

Cotter says “our passenger numbers are really high.  January saw an 8% increase over 2013 which is huge.  Really at the end of the day we’re at the exact same number of flights, even with the loss of this one plane for those six weeks, that we were  at last year, so we’re not concerned at all.  If it carries into something a bit larger or a longer period of time then absolutely we would be concerned.  But what we know and what we have been told by WestJet it’s just operational cutbacks.”

Word of the reduction here follows news earlier in the week that WestJet is ending its daily flights between Kamloops and Vancouver on March 1st.  Those flights, which were launched on WestJet’s Encore regional service last November 25th, same day they were launched here, were not performing to expectations.  The cancellation means there will be no WestJet flights between those two cities unless, says a spokesman, the company takes delivery of additional aircraft.