Central Mountain Air’s inaugural flight from Edmonton to Prince George arrived at YXS this morning 

Prince George, B.C. – The first commercial flight from Edmonton to Prince George was celebrated at YXS this morning.

The inaugural Central Mountain Air flight arrived on a 30-seat Dornier 328 aircraft and included Prince George Airport Authority president and CEO John Gibson.

“We’re absolutely thrilled, its long overdue,” he said, adding its been in the works for a long time. “It’s been seven or eight years working with Edmonton International Airport and various air carriers. Central Mountain Air thought it would tie into their network really well and ‘Bang O’, here we are.”

So, what does it mean for Prince George?

“I think it’s ties the North. There’s a lot of commonality between Prince George and Edmonton and you think of the cross-provincial boundaries – businesses, relatives, work-force and so on. It’s long overdue,” said Gibson.

Central Mountain Air agrees and will offer the connection six days a week.

“We’ve heard demand from both leisure and business travellers for quite a few years and recently with changes to optimize our schedule, we had the aircraft availability to now offer this service,” said marketing manager Johnathan Richardson.

“We think the 30-seat aircraft is actually a reasonable size for this market. And with the amount of connections it provides for B.C. and onto Calgary, we think it’s a great size.”

Is Gibson confident it will be a success?

“I’m as confident as the community is confident to make it work.”