Air Canada pullout no shock, St. John's mayor says

Air Canada's decision to cancel transatlantic service from St. John's has irritated but certainly not shocked the city's mayor.

In fact, Andy Wells said he was expecting the carrier to drop the seasonal connection between St. John's and Heathrow. The last flight is scheduled for Tuesday.

Air Canada revealed late last week that there was not enough traffic to revive the direct route next summer, and instead is directing customers to Halifax for transatlantic routes.

Wells said the writing was on the wall when U.K.-based charter Astraeus pulled its own year-round connection from St. John's earlier this year.

"Once Astraeus decided to discontinue, you could put it in the bank that Air Canada would follow suit," Wells said.

"Nobody should be shocked. Air Canada is not a nice company.… They will treat us like third-class Canadians, if that's in their corporate interest and clearly it is," he said. "So they're just going to force us to go to Halifax."

Astraeus said it will revive a seasonal service next spring, with flights to Gatwick airport.

Air Canada's decision had a familiar ring fortravellers. A year ago, the carrier cancelled the Heathrow connection, but later decided tocreate a seasonal run after heavy political pressure.

Keith Collins, chief executive officer of the St. John's International Airport Authority, said work will begin again on finding a new carrier.

Collins said he was surprised by Air Canada's decision, and said the airline only a month ago had indicated it would offer a seasonal service again in 2008.

"It is so close to the announcement of the Hebron development," said Collins, referring to the tentative deal reached to develop the offshore oil field.

"To have the announcement of the pullout come so close on the heels of an announcement about a development, which is likely going to generate increased traffic, was fairly unusual timing, I think."