The Regina airport is returning to pre-pandemic passenger traffic faster than Regina Airport Authority (RAA) CEO James Bogusz expected.. James Bogusz .The December 2022 data was just provided to the RAA and showed airline seats in the market at 91.9% of pre-pandemic levels, which was higher than Bogusz and community partners expected. It is not all “doom and gloom” for Saskatchewan air travel..“The proof is in the pudding [with] 91.9% in December of 2022 … it was even higher than I was anticipating even though we put in the work and our partners put in the work,” said Bogusz..“I really hope the readers will see that because it should help them understand that it is not all doom and gloom in Saskatchewan.”.Bogusz said the airport is seeing solid demand for flights as 75% of seats sold in December. It is used as a “measuring stick” of how many seats are sold to different destinations..“I just received our data set for Canada in terms of what we call capacity to the readers,” said Bogusz..“This would basically be the measuring stick of how many aircraft are landing in a place like Regina, and how many seats you can buy to a variety of places, Calgary, Toronto, [and] Vancouver being our major markets, even into places like Mexico.”.Bogusz said the airport continues to “aggressively” go after the large and low-cost carriers to provide a variety of flights for both personal and business travellers..“The Regina airport aggressively pursues air service development with airlines such as Air Canada and WestJet and obviously Sunwing as well,” said Bogusz..“We also talk regularly with low-cost carriers … people recognize like Flair, for example. But, also newer entrants in the market like Canada Jetlines.”.Bogusz said there’s some misinformation out in the public about how the airport is performing. But it's doing great compared with other airports of a similar size.."I want to also give you a sense of what that means countrywide,” said Bogusz..“When I look at airports in our class, let's say like a Saskatoon, for example. Bigger population, a very well-run airport, by the way. I know the folks over there, they were 78.3%. When I look at big airports like Edmonton or Toronto, they were in the 87%. Winnipeg was just at 90%. We were almost 92% as the Queen City. And this is not by luck or coincidence.“.Bogusz praised multiple organizations and the provincial and city government, who work “collaboratively” to put the best business cases in front of the airlines to incentive flying to Regina.. Regina AirportRegina International Airport ."This is because we have many partners in our community, like Economic Development Regina. We've got the city. I want to give a lot of praise also to the province of Saskatchewan themselves, along with their hotel association,” said Bogusz..“Anyone involved in the visitor economy, we work collaboratively with them to market to airlines, put business cases in front of airlines to incentivize airlines using financial means or marketing dollars to encourage them to come to the city.”.Bogusz was disappointed with Sunwing cancelling its flights, but WestJet added about 5,000 new seats to Calgary each month and Air Canada is adding more flights to Toronto and Vancouver in the next few months..“It's very unfortunate that Sunwing made the very tough decision to cancel twice two rounds of flying,” said Bogusz..“But when we look at this in totality, we're seeing more service from Air Canada into Vancouver or Toronto coming in the spring. WestJet added 5,000 new seats to Calgary. They want to operate here. They can make money in Regina because we keep our fees low … we are amongst the lowest landing fees in the entire country. And that's not by accident. That's by us being very judicious with our funds.”.Bogusz is concerned with the economy and how it could affect air travel. Especially with talk of a recession and high inflation..“But with this type of recovery in return, so long as the economy remains in reasonable shape,” said Bogusz..“Everyone's talking now about recessions and challenges with the very high inflation rates.”.Bogusz expects to recover to pre-pandemic traffic “sometime in 2024” depending on the economy..“If I was to make an assumption today, my belief is we'll be at or near pre-pandemic capacity and passenger volumes sometime in 2024,” said Bogusz..“So long as we have the right moves on the economy.”.READ MORE Regina Airport increases fees amid rising debt costs and runway project
