Connecting smaller regional airports has been a real challenge during COVID recovery.

The Gander International Airport Authority says 2022 was their toughest year yet, but they’re managing to hold their own.

CEO Reg Wright says pandemic recovery has been complicated by a series of factors, not the least of which is the reality facing airlines who were forced to adjust to the sudden loss of business.

He says the airlines came out of the pandemic “badly indebted and they had to jettison a lot of staff to survive the period.” As a result says Wright, airlines had fewer pilots, and were forced to fly bigger airplanes between bigger cities with less frequency to maximize their pilot hours.

That’s had an impact on small markets and while Wright says things are improving fast, he shares the frustration of the traveling public and the tourism, business community with the off-peak schedule that lacks connectivity.

He’s thankful for the seasonal Montreal route introduced last year, but they suffered with the loss of Sunwing’s Caribbean charters from Gander.

WestJet came in and offered a reduced seasonal schedule to Halifax from Gander, but pulled a lot of their service from Atlantic Canada in the fall. He says WestJet had a “very important moderating impact on airfares” which has been lost.