Flights Aren’t Coming Back To Halifax Like They Are In The Rest Of Canada. Here’s Why
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s airline industry fared worse, and is recovering slower, during the pandemic than almost anywhere else in the country.
According to WestJet’s top executives, demand for flights into and out of the province lags behind other Canadian markets—and the tangle of travel restrictions in place here continue to hamper recovery efforts.
The news came out during a roundtable discussion WestJet hosted on October 15 with leaders from Nova Scotia’s airline and tourism industry.
It’s one of more than 15 such discussions the company has put on since June, aimed at fostering conversation about the future of the airline industry.
WestJet’s Vice President began last Friday’s panel with a sobering look at the impact Covid-19 has had on the airline industry in Canada.
At the height of Covid-19, WestJet saw demand plummet by 90 percent and 82 percent of its customers leave. Meanwhile, the company laid off 70 percent of its staff.
That is a good proxy for all air travel, and the industry’s struggle had a direct impact on Nova Scotia.
The province saw an 89 percent drop in tourism between April 2019 and April 2020 and it cost as much as $1.7-billion in tourism revenue.
According to Gibbons, Nova Scotia felt the impact of the withering airline industry worse than the rest of the country.
“Everyone knows the profound impact of Covid on our sector. The impact in Nova Scotia has been as great, if not the greatest,” he said.
Charles Duncan is the president and CEO of Swoop, WestJet’s discount airline.
He says Halifax was the “weakest link” throughout the pandemic and that Swoop still doesn’t see much demand in the city. He chalks it up to strict and constantly shifting travel restrictions in the region.
“Candidly, one of our challenges through the pandemic has been that the demand levels we have seen both in and out of Halifax, and indeed the entire Atlantic region, have underperformed what we have seen across the rest of our network,” he said.
“And we believe it’s around all of the uncertainty related to the bubble, and [questions like] ‘can I come as a visitor? Will I be required to quarantine? What are the testing rules?’ There’s just been so much uncertainty and it’s had a dramatic impact on demand.”
He recalled one period during a holiday season where Swoop only booked 20 tickets into and out of Halifax over the course of an entire month.
“Everything was depressed, but no place was more depressed, from a demand standpoint, more than Halifax,” he said.
Today, Swoop still only offers two flights out of the city.
Duncan argues that’s because the region’s tangle of restrictions has left a lasting impact on people’s perception of how easy it is to travel here.
“People aren’t feeling a welcome mat to come out and travel to Halifax in other parts of the country,” he said. “If you don’t have friends and relatives in the region, the sense among my friends and family is you’re not welcome.”
Duncan argued one solution will be for local tourism, airport, and other organizations to pool their resources and invest in a big marketing campaign to change that narrative.
Chris Hedlin, a WestJet executive, said he recently talked to several European airports and was “shocked” by how much their demand for air travel has returned.
Some major airports, he said, are at as much as 80-90 percent of their pre-pandemic demand.
He believes those airports have seen such good numbers because they long ago eliminated the “confusion” around restrictions and testing.
Most people aren’t overly afraid of catching Covid-19 while travelling, he argued, but are held back by all the barriers travel restrictions put in their way.
Hedlin said if Canada, and Nova Scotia, eliminate the barriers we still have in place people will be happy to fly here, too.
While it is true flights haven’t come back to Nova Scotia at quickly as other parts of the country, the industry is recovering. And Gibbons said Nova Scotia is in a better position than many to take advantage of that.
He pointed to a recent survey that found 32 percent of respondents were going to make a plane ticket their first big “splurge” purchase coming out of the pandemic.
Sixty-one percent of people also said they plan to travel domestically in the next six months.
WestJet is already starting to see the impacts of that.
Gibbons said the company has experienced 11 years of growth in the last six months. That doesn’t put them back at pre-pandemic levels, but it does show an appetite for air travel returning.
Gibbons pointed out that appetite will be helped along by the fact that many families have saving built up from nearly two years of lockdowns.
Nova Scotia’s handling of the pandemic is widely regarded as one of the best in the world. Combine that with the province’s abundant tourist attractions, and it’s a recipe for success, he says.
Trevor Nichols is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].
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