WestJet resumes service to Deer Lake with new Toronto, Calgary flights

WestJet has officially returned to Deer Lake Regional Airport, bringing a new direct flight to Toronto and the airport's first direct connection between Alberta and western Newfoundland.

The airline took its first flight to Toronto on Thursday and will begin flights to Calgary on Saturday. The seasonal flights will run twice a week in May, three times a week in June, and four times a week in July and August before wrapping up around Labour Day.

"Everyone is very excited to have WestJet back. Lots of smiling faces, for sure…. We're really enjoying the moment," Deer Lake Airport CEO Tammy Priddle told CBC Radio Thursday.

"We certainly have a lot of high expectations for both those flights doing really well this season."

WestJet left the airport last year, but some routes continued through Swoop — a now defunct affiliate that reintegrated into the parent company.

Priddle said the airport kept lines of communication open with the airline, which she believes led to WestJet reexamining the market.

"We really were, you know, able to present them why it was important for them to be back in western Newfoundland and connecting into both Toronto, and of course Alberta because of the strong historical relationship we have," Priddle said, citing the province's history of workers travelling on rotation between Newfoundland and Alberta.

Priddle said the airport pitched tourism in western Newfoundland, saying the area continues to deliver a product those in Ontario and Alberta need to see.

The announcement of the flights, along with new routes from Flair Airlines to Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo and a daily Porter Airlines flight to Halifax, puts Deer Lake Regional's seat capacity at 20 per cent higher than where it was compared to 2019, according to Priddle.

She said the airport is still recovering from the impact on traveller numbers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but added competition and new routes benefit all parties.

"Any time that you have ... new airlines, new service routes in a market, it helps create competition. And that benefits the consumer, because it helps to reduce some of the cost," Priddle said.

"People ... before may not have been able to afford to take that trip to Calgary. But now it's very competitive, so I think that that certainly will help stimulate the demand."

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