The Mayor of St. John’s says re-establishing a direct air link to Europe is absolutely vital for the province.

Danny Breen recently traveled to Aberdeen, Scotland to attend a couple of conferences. He says with the MAX 8s still out of commission, and no direct flights to the UK, the trip across the pond was taxing.

He left St. John’s at 2:45 last Saturday and arrived in Aberdeen at 11:30 on Sunday, with a connecting flight in Toronto.

He says it’s a four and a half hour flight from St. John’s to London. He had to fly to Toronto to make the connection only to fly over his own house on the way to London after seven and a half hours in the air.

He says as an energy city, those connections to Europe are critical.