Charlottetown Airport expects 2014 boost

The CEO of Charlottetown Airport met this week with Air Canada and WestJet about increasing capacity for flights to P.E.I. next spring and summer during 2014 celebrations.

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference, which eventually led to Confederation. Doug Newson said there are a lot of extra events and conferences scheduled to take place as part of the celebrations.

He made his case to the airlines at a major aviation conference this week in Halifax, Altitudes East.

"We are optimistic that it will be a good year for air travel, but in order for that to happen we need the airlines to respond with additional capacity," said Newson.

"Right now the discussions are about seeing if there are areas where they can either add larger planes or more flights to meet the demand that we are expecting coming up in 2014."

Newson expects to hold follow up meetings with the airlines in another month or so, and hopes to have final answers by January.