The Q400 aircraft, with 78 seats, will replace the 34-seat aircraft currently serving the route. The aircraft is newer, larger and more comfortable, offering an enhanced travel experience.

Starting October 27, the WestJet Encore route will permanently transition to depart Medicine Hat at 7 a.m. and arrive in Calgary at 7:46 a.m. An earlier arrival time in Calgary increases options for connecting flights.

The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce recognizes the importance of air service within our business community, both in commercial and leisure travel opportunities. Since 2012, we have advocated for improved air service and have worked to build partnerships and improvements for both the airlines and travellers within the catchment area knowing that air service plays an important role in business retention and investment attraction. We have advocated for improved flight service, competitive airfares, improved connectivity, along with consistency and reliability. In 2018-2019 we achieved significant success with three air carriers, a destination to Edmonton, lower-cost flight options and increased flight frequency.

However, global impacts, increased costs to air carriers and the pandemic caused significant changes in travel over the last four years. The load factor in our region declined from a load factor of 70-71% in 2018-2019 to 49% this year so far. In addition, there has been an impact on the trust that travellers have with air carriers, due to inconsistency, cancelled flights, long wait times and long connection times with the contracted carrier, Pacific Coastal (Link). The limited fleet and aging aircrafts through Pacific Coastal resulted in less reliable service in regional markets. As a result, WestJet is moving the service in-house to WestJet Encore and transitioning to their own newer, faster fleet of aircrafts to increase performance and reliability. However, the transition also means a decrease in the number of flights per day until demand increases in the region. WestJet's goal is to provide a 98% completion rate for their flight service and increase on-time performance.

When evaluating options for flight times, the decision by WestJet was to move to a 7:00 am flight, as 85% of their passengers from this region carry on to other destinations and most of the connecting banks of flights depart Calgary between 9-11 am with over 75 departures in that window of time. Additionally, the evening time was scheduled to catch most of the returning banks of time, arriving in Calgary between 8:30-10:00 pm. This shift also allows their pilots to stay overnight in Medicine Hat with the return evening flight and the departure back to Calgary in the morning.

The Southeast Alberta Chamber is committed to advocating for improved air service and continually working with the Medicine Hat Airport and WestJet to try to increase our passengers from Medicine Hat and improve service, connectivity and reliability from our air carrier in order to sustain regional air service into the future. We recognize that other regions have lost their air service as it has no longer remained economically viable. We also know that once you lose air service in a region, it can take 5-6 years to get an air carrier back. Our goal is to improve reliability and the schedule and continue to work with the airline on building trust with its customers to increase the passenger load so that we can increase the number of flights from Medicine Hat moving into the future.

We will be communicating the importance of 'flying YXH first' and checking airfares, as they may even be cheaper than travelling to Calgary when you compare the cost of travel, parking and hotel costs. We know this isn't an easy transition, but we want to be able to work together to not only advocate for changes but to ensure that we have the support of air service in our region, working together to improve service, cost, reliability and passenger service in Southeast Alberta.