Sydney airport faces struggle attracting more flights as pandemic impact lingers

The head of Cape Breton's tourism marketing agency says the industry is poised to grow this year, but a lack of flights in and out of J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport is a "serious concern."

Terry Smith, CEO of Destination Cape Breton, said more room nights were sold on the island last year than in any of the previous five years.

Most tourists from Ontario and Quebec drive to Cape Breton and the other Maritime provinces, he said, but the lack air service limits visitors from further afield.

"Last spring, Membertou hosted the Indigenous hockey championship and it was a struggle," Smith told Cape Breton regional council on Tuesday. "We had to put [teams] in contact with a travel agent ... to try to sort it out, because it was a struggle for teams from Western Canada to get here because of the lack of options.

"It is something that's serious that we have got to look at."

The airport was served by two carriers until last year, when WestJet pulled out of the Atlantic region.

Air Canada still offers direct flights from Sydney to Toronto and Montreal. But the company eliminated the route between Sydney and Halifax more than a year ago. 

That means many Cape Bretoners drive 400 kilometres to Halifax and fly from there, bypassing Sydney's airport.

Smith said he just came back from a trip to the United States and was left with little choice.

"I had to fly out of Halifax, because it was just cost-prohibitive to fly out of Sydney and I hate to do that, but you've got to look at dollars and cents sometimes," he said.

"That's what happens when you only have one airline."

'Equipment and people aren't available'

Bob McNeil, who chairs Sydney airport's board of directors, said officials there are in regular contact with the airlines, lobbying for more flights from Air Canada and for WestJet to return to the region.

The airport is also talking to low-cost carriers, he said.

"Flights to Halifax [are] what we're working the hardest to get back. But if we could get more capacity from the Toronto flights, it would certainly help us, because there seems to be a big demand for those flights," McNeil said.

"Our real issue is that the airlines themselves have to get back to an operating level where they have enough pilots and enough equipment to look at meeting the demand."

Sydney's airport is facing the same problems as other smaller airports in Canada, McNeil said.

Airlines cut flights and lost staff when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the carriers haven't been able to recover, he said.

Sydney airport remains viable despite the reduced flight options, McNeil said, but he would like to see it grow.

"I guess it's a funny thing. It's not that the demand is not there. It's that the equipment and the people aren't available."

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