Hello,
Collin here to talk about the airport once again.

The last WestJet flight from the city on Wednesday is the latest twist in a long story for Hatters and their efforts to improve local air service.

The city said this week it has reached out to 20 smaller carriers across the continent to consider entering the southern Alberta market. 

The province is also asking for private sector proposals to better link mid-sized cities across Alberta to airports in major cities. That's after Premier Danielle Smith first floated the idea of covering some of those costs at a speech in town two years ago.

Coun. Yusuf Mohammed is hopeful the new effort will produce longer-term results. 

"This would be an opportunity for another carrier," he said. "It's like any business: when somebody leaves, 'well, here's an opportunity,' and you scoop it."
Lethbridge is in the same boat after WestJet ended once-daily flights to both cities.

Coun. Ted Clugston cut the ribbon for terminal expansion in 2014, and noted this week that it's been exactly eight years since the city welcomed WestJet flights with everything but a brass band on the tarmac.

"In 2018, before COVID, we had basically 10 flights a day, between Air Canada and WestJet, and we also had Integra flying to Edmonton," he said.

The former mayor has often been proud to say his son graduated with a pilot's licence from a flight school at the airport.
As the home base for HALO air ambulance and fixed-wing medical flights, it still supports needed services in the community, said airport manager Logan Boyd. Simply mothballing the facility while awaiting a new carrier isn't an option, he said.
Hatters may remember a decade ago, when the city made finding a second carrier a major priority. Every few years it seems, the Chamber of Commerce has surveyed the business community and the public, trying to drum up support for expanded flight schedules and more options.

Aerospace development is a key leg in local economic development plans. 

The new alignment for Highway No. 3 entering the city leaves room for a long-discussed runway extension.

Work on a new master plan for the airport — the next chapter, if you will — is now underway.

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