Air Canada cuts are 'final nail in the coffin' for air service on Cape Breton Island: airport CEO

A decision by Air Canada to indefinitely suspend its operations in Cape Bretonwill have an "absolutely catastrophic" effect on the Nova Scotia island, the CEO of the airport in Sydney, N.S.,said Tuesday.

Mike MacKinnoncalled the airline's move "a massive blow" to the J.A. Douglas McCurdySydney Airport, which he said was alreadystruggling to survive during a pandemic that has brought air travel to a near standstill.

"Our airport has been repeatedly slashed by air service cuts ever since the pandemic began and now this announcement, on top of the recent WestJet route suspensions, is effectively the final nail in the coffin for air service to/from our community for the foreseeable future," MacKinnon said in a news release.

Air Canada suspended service between Sydney and Halifax earlier this fall. On Tuesday,the airline saidservice between Sydney and Toronto, now offered five days a week, would cease as of Jan. 11.

New challenges, costs for rotational workers

The move is a major blow forrotational workers who regularly travel outside the province for work.

Josh Rambeau of North Sydney is a workplace health and safety advisor in the construction industry. He's been doing rotational work for 10 years and currently worksaround southern British Columbia.

He saidhis usually 20-minute drive to the airportwill now turn into a journey of more than four hours so he can catch a flight out of Halifax.

"It's very disappointing," Rambeau said Tuesday. "It's going to take more time away from my family. It's going to add expenses on for me for travel, it's more fuel costs."

Since he has to get on a flight one way or another, Rambeau said in the winter, he'll likely have to spend nights in a Halifax hotel when rough weather is expected. He'll also have to budget for public transit, taxi cabs or the cost of leavinghis car at the airport for weeks at a time.

If he is able to get a drive with friends or family, they will then have to isolate for two weeks in accordance with provincialCOVID-19 regulationsand miss out on work themselves.

Rotational workers in the province can spend time with their families in their own homes without physical distancingbut can't go into stores and other public places.

Although Rambeau said some Cape Bretonershaveapplauded the announcement because they assume the cancellation of flights will help keep COVID-19 out of the area, he fearsthe opposite.

He said workers like himwill now increase their exposure risks because of longer journeys, with more stops along the way, includinginmore-populated cities, such asHalifax.

He also sympathizes with the airport staff who will lose their jobs as a result.

"There's nothing good about this," Rambeau said.

Airport using reserve funds

MacKinnon noted that before the pandemic, Sydney was served byboth Air Canada and WestJet. The airporthad regular service to Halifax and Toronto, and seasonally to Montreal.

Service cutbacks to the regionand other parts of the Maritimes began this fall with WestJet; Air Canada suspended some of its servicessoon after.

WATCH | Air Canada cuts more flights to Atlantic provinces:

Air Canada cuts more flights to Atlantic provinces

4 years ago

Duration 1:44

Air Canada has announced another round of service cuts for several communities in Atlantic Canada, a move some fear could spell the end for struggling airports in the region.

In an interview, MacKinnon said the recent service cuts meanthe airport is using its reserve funds to stay open.

After the last commercial flight on Jan. 10, he said the airport plans to stay open for private planes, medevac and cargo planes that come a few times a week.

"It will be a very quiet winter and basically we'll be going into a bit of a hibernation ... working hard on recovery strategies."

Air Canada also announced Tuesday thatit was pulling out of Saint Johnindefinitely,as well as suspending four routes in Deer Lake, N.L., Charlottetown, Fredericton and Halifax beginning Jan. 11.

Those routes include:

• Deer Lake-Halifax
• Fredericton-Toronto
• Charlottetown-Toronto
• Halifax-Ottawa

3rd major round of cuts to region

The Atlantic Canada Airports Association issued a statement sayingthe service cuts could lead to the closure of somesmall regional airports.

"This is the third major round of cuts to air service for our region in the last six months," said Derrick Stanford, associationpresidentand CEO of the Saint John Airport.

"Service has been whittled down to an unsustainable level for our airports. Our industry cannot survive and operate in these conditions, and we are seeing the worst-case scenario playing out here today.

"This will have a huge impact on our region's economy, on the ability of families to reconnect, on the movement of essential workers, and on airport employees and businesses."

Cape Breton politicians to convene

Earlene MacMullin, deputy mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, said council hasstarted planning an emergency meeting on the service shut-down with the aim of finding a way to prevent it. She said they hope to bring in politicians from other levels of government, and other community stakeholders.

"It's very difficult to market yourself as a place for business and tourism and relocation of families when the closest means to air travel is four or five hours away," MacMullin told CBC.

"It's possibly quite detrimental ... and so I think we need to pull together and do everything we can and try to stop it."

Vaccine could put travellers at ease

Airport CEO MacKinnon said he's hopeful COVID-19 vaccines the first of which are expected to be rolled out on a small scale in Canada this month will start to restore some public confidence in air travel.

But with widespread distribution of vaccines likely several months away, MacKinnon said he wants the provincial and federal governments to support COVID-19 testing at airports something that has recently been piloted in Alberta and Ontario, but not administered on a large scale.

He said he was encouraged by Ottawa's fall economic update, in which Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland mentioned support for regional airports would be coming soon. But he'd also like to see help for airlines.

"An airport is just not successful without airlines operating and without commercial air traffic," MacKinnonsaid. "That's the bottom line."

Halifax left with six destinations

Tiffany Chase, Halifax Stanfield International Airport spokesperson, said Tuesday theirOttawa and Deer Lake routes will be suspended for at least one month, but that suspension could be longer depending on demand in February.

She said they were disappointed to see the Halifax-Sydney route suspended indefinitely, which means it likely won't be coming back "anytime soon."

The Halifax airport will be left with service to only six domestic destinations in total during the Ottawa and Deer Lake suspension, Chase said. In 2019, the airport flew to 46 locations within Canada, the United States and other countries.

Chase said their flight network took years to build, and although people might think air services will simply come back when there's a vaccine in wide-spread use, that might not be the case.

"In some cases these routes may never come back," shesaid.

Current environment 'challenging,' Air Canada says

In an email to CBC Tuesday, Air Canada said the decision to suspend all routes to Sydney and Saint John was"not taken lightly" and it regrets the impact on customers and community partners.

The airline said it is "increasingly difficult to continue to operate in this challenging environment, without specific financial support from government." In the statement, the airline said itis waiting for government negotiations to start.

According to the statement, Air Canada is still carrying less than eight per cent of its normal passenger volumes during the COVID-19 pandemic,"with no horizon for recovery."

Following WestJet's announcement in October, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil called on the federal government to create a national strategy to protect air travel in the region.

"We believe the national government needs to be at the table to recognize that ... our greatest success of recovering economically after COVID, will be with a vibrant air service that will include in our region, both Air Canada, WestJet and others," McNeil said at the time.

Chris d'Entremont, the Conservative MPfor West Nova,said Nova Scotianswho depend on the aviation sectorhave long been calling for a plan from the federal Liberal government.

"As a result of this suspension, airport employees, rotational workers, university students and the tourism industry will be greatly impacted,"d'Entremont said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, the Trudeau government continues to leave the thousands of Canadians who rely on the aviation industry in the dark about how or if they will have jobs to return to."