New Brunswick airport prepares for arrival of new airline
The Saint John Airport is preparing for the arrival of a brand new airline, with WestJet’s 'ultra low-fare’ carrier landing at the airport in two weeks' time.
That new carrier combined with Flair, which is already operating flights out of YSJ, is expected to bring a surge in passenger traffic to the terminal soon.
"In the past, typically Air Canada and other carriers were flying relatively small aircrafts, 50 to 75 seats," says president and CEO of the Saint John Airport Alexander Ross. "But Flair and Swoop are going to be flying 200-seat passenger aircrafts."
The expected increase in passengers means a need for more space, which is why renovations are taking place at the airport.
That work includes an expansion of the departure area which will allow about 300 people to fit inside, compared to about 140 currently.
"We’re moving the glass panels that separate it from the rest of the terminal," says Ross.
"We’re going to be moving that back about 14 or 15 feet on both the north and the west side, and that’s going to create about 50 per cent more space in that area for seating."
Meantime, at the Fredericton International Airport, Porter Airlines will be launching a new, non-stop service to downtown Toronto in May.
As the airport projects even more capacity – or seats available – this summer than they saw before the pandemic in 2019, with a nine per cent increase.
"The increased capacity really speaks to the airlines’ confidence in the market," says Kate O’Rourke, the manager of public relations and marketing for the airport.
"So what it means is they’re expecting a really strong summer for travel, so they’re moving their aircrafts around to accommodate that."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.