Charlottetown Airport working to restore direct flights to Halifax and southern destinations

As the Charlottetown Airport approaches another record year for passenger travel, officials are looking to bring back flights to popular markets that have not returned since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In particular, the airport authority's CEO Doug Newson said he'd like to see the return of direct flights to Halifax, and to a southern destination in the winter. 

"I would say that Halifax is something that we get asked a lot about, and sun service is something else we'd like to see restored, probably not for this winter, but certainly for winter '25-'26 we'd like to see that back."

Newson said the flights have to make financial sense for the carriers.

"We're always working with the airlines to support them, especially for new routes and new markets or new airlines," he said.

The last direct flight to a southern destination was to the Dominican Republic just before the pandemic in March 2020. Air Canada has not provided service between Charlottetown and Halifax since April 2020, though PAL offered flights to the Nova Scotia city in the summer of 2022.

Newson said the airport has done well with the destinations it does service: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, and Kitchener, Ont. 

In 2023, the airport set a record with more than 400,000 passengers, and Newson said passenger traffic is up six per cent so far this year.

In July, more than 60,000 passengers passed through the terminal, which is undergoing a major expansion to help meet the increased demand.

"We're certainly fortunate as a small airport to have, you know, gone beyond pre-pandemic numbers, and that's obviously what's driving some of the projects that you're seeing," Newson said. 

Traffic will slow down in the winter months when WestJet pauses its flights to Calgary and Edmonton, and Flair discontinues its flights to Kitchener.

Air Canada will continue with two flights a day to Toronto and one to Montreal, and Porter will continue its daily departure to Ottawa.

"We're very seasonal with the demand," Newson said. "We're a small population here and we just don't have the business travel that some of the larger centres in the region or across the country have."