St. John's travellers cross fingers for French connection

The French government is considering direct flights between St. John's and Paris to better serve the residents of tiny French islands south of Newfoundland.

The government's research — intended to help the residents of St-Pierre-Miquelon, who must travel to Montreal for flights to France — could be a boon for the St. John's area, which lost a year-round, direct link to Europe in 2006.

Air Canada sparked the ire of politicians and business leaders when it cancelled its direct flight to Heathrow in London, forcing travellers to go first to Halifax.

The charter company Astraeus attempted to fill the void with a flight to Gatwick, near London, but cancelled the service last August, citing low traffic. Soon after, Air Canada, which re-entered the market last summer to compete with Astraeus, said it would only continue to offer a seasonal operation in the summer months.

"It's very, very preliminary," cautioned Marie Manning, marketing director with St. John's International Airport, describing the enquiries of French government officials.

"At this point, it's just very general — 'Tell us about your airport, tell us about your runways, tell us about your airport availability, what flights, what routes do you have and what is the volume?'," she said.

Jean-Pierre Andrieux, a former St-Pierre-Miquelon resident who now owns a hotel in St. John's, said a connection through Air France or an affiliated carrier would be a boon to tourism, and may attract a new tourism base.

"Europeans are used to paying a lot of money to go to Scandinavia. There's more beauty here than Scandinavia and at a fraction of the price," said Andrieux.

"There [are] wonderful opportunities. All there needs to be is a carrier that's willing to service this market as it should be serviced."