WestJet services back in Sudbury means more connections to the world, CEO says

WestJet is back in Sudbury, Ont., but it's only flying east.

The national airline will start daily flights to and from Toronto this Friday.

In 2003, WestJet pulled its services from the Greater Sudbury Airport, citing weak demand and high government taxes.

Now, the company is coming back with WestJet Encore, a downsized version that uses 74-person airplanes, to the northern Ontario city with some adjustments.

"It's much more suited to the market, and a much nicer aircraft to fly between here and Toronto," says Todd Tripp, CEO of the Greater Sudbury Airport. "Hopefully to western Canada, but right now, it's Toronto."

Bit of 'ramp up time'

The first flight will come in from Toronto at 11 p.m. on Feb. 3. The first flight from Sudbury to Toronto will leave at 6 a.m. on Feb. 4.

Tripp says the company's decision to come back to northern Ontario shows the area's commitment to world travel.

"Obviously we can't connect to the world from Sudbury. We just don't have the traffic, nor the volume to do so, nor the ability right now with our runway configurations," Tripp says.

"But with WestJet being a smaller carrier, they can feed to their bigger hubs and the people can connect to the world."

The airline will start with one trip to and from Toronto daily. Then on May 15, they''ll switch to three flights in and three flights out every day.

"It takes a bit of time for major carriers to readjust schedules and add another station into it," Tripp says.

"You have to look at crew flow, aircraft flow, so it's a bit of a challenge. There's a bit of a ramp up time before you can go full into it."

Tripp says he's confident the airline will be here for good, but the community can seal the deal.

"Instead of driving down the highway to get to Toronto, use the airlines that are here at this airport," he says.

"You can be in Toronto in 45, 50 minutes instead of waiting, driving down the highways and facing snowstorms and everything else."