WestJet suspends Fort McMurray to Kelowna service amid oil slump

WestJetissuspending its service from Fort McMurray to Kelowna, as workers report "scary slow" times at the northern Alberta airport due to the economic downturn.

• Fort McMurray's workers desperate to find jobs
• Alberta forecast to lose 31,000 construction jobs amid oil slump

The Kelownaflight, which was scheduled five times a week, will end starting Feb. 15,FortMcMurrayairport president ScottClementstold CBC News.

Servicebetween FortMcMurrayand Red Deer has already been cancelled, along with adaily flight to Denver, and the airport's flight toMexico.

'Suspended,' not cancelled

We went from seeing 10 planes a day, down to one plane a day.- DaveBellew, Airport worker

Oil workers wouldregularly fly in fromKelowna, but with so many jobs lost and oil below $30 US a barrel, there isn't enough demand, airportofficialssay.

"[WestJet is] not using the term 'cease,' they're just using 'suspended' because there's 35,000 trips a year of workers coming back and forth," Clements said.

"When the trigger happens and the economy turns around, that flight will be re-established, we're assured by WestJet," he added.

FortMcMurray's$250-millionairport terminalopened in 2014.

While more than one million people passed through the terminal last year, passenger numbers are down 16 per cent.

'Scary slow'

The biggest drop occurredwith charter flights, where numbers were down 50 per cent.

"The amount of volume and traffic is just non-existent," said ground handler Dave Bellew, who works on the non-commercial side.

"We went from seeing 10 planes a day, down to one plane a day, if that. It's scary slow," he added.

Clementssays,at the moment, it's a matter of weathering the downturn.

"We can pretty much survive at even another 10 per cent downturn without doing anything crazy, like raising our rates and charges," said Clements.