Weekday flights to return to Bathurst airport

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The Bathurst Regional Airport has announced a return to daily weekday passenger service with a new carrier that will operate from the airport starting this fall.

PASCAN Aviation announced Wednesday it will offer a weekday same-day return flight between Bathurst and Saint John and two daily return flights between Saint John and Halifax on weekdays, starting Sept. 9.

In a release, the Montreal-based airline says the announcement marks “the re-establishment of regional air service in New Brunswick” following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The news was celebrated by the airport, which came close to shutting down completely last fall due to lack of funds.

“This returns us to sustainability, so it’s a key piece for us,” said airport CEO Jamie DeGrace. “Having access to flights for the public and the revenues that that generates brings the airport back to sustainability.”

The planes, that can carry up to 30 passengers, will leave Bathurst in the morning with a quick touchdown in Saint John before continuing on to Halifax, where travellers can connect to destination flights, DeGrace said.

“We’re hoping that the travelling public takes advantage of it in this community and then we’ll be able to have more offerings as well,” he said.

PASCAN president and CEO Julian Roberts said in the release the company has been eyeing the Maritime market for some time.

“We’re very excited about these routes,” he said. “Our plan is to use these initial routes as something of a trampoline to deploy to other underserved or not-served markets in the Maritimes.”

DeGrace said a new hangar is required at the airport to become a “base of operations” for PASCAN, and the airport is in talks with government about how that infrastructure will be funded.

The announcement also means the creation of seven to 13 new jobs in the region, DeGrace said.

Northern New Brunswick Airport Authority President Alain Guitard said daily service is crucial to the airport to serve the region’s business community, especially with so many upcoming development projects.

“It’s what we wanted to see – a daily flight – so we could see that our passenger numbers are going to go up again,” he said, adding Halifax was one of the most requested destinations by the business community.

DeGrace said Air Canada will continue to offer flights from Bathurst to Montreal.

Air Canada pulled its two or three daily flights in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and returned to daily service about 18 months later. In August 2022, that service was reduced to four flights per week from Bathurst to Montreal because of a national pilot shortage.

Traffic dropped to 17,000 passengers during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, according to the annual report, compared to nearly 50,000 passengers per year before 2020.

That lead to financial trouble for the airport, which makes the majority of its revenues from passenger service.

A Save the Airport Committee was created last fall to help find $1.4 million over two years the airport said was needed to remain operational amid the pilot shortage, during the significant decline in domestic flights.

DeGrace said the airport continues to operate at a “slight deficit” but is able to remain open, operating with the minimum staff necessary to keep its Transportation Canada certification, because of the financial support of community partners like regional service commissions and municipalities and creative approaches by the management team.

“We’re anxious for the start of this service because it’s going to put us back on our feet,” Guitard said. “We’ll be operating more as we were before the pandemic.”