Sudbury airport launches survey aimed at attracting airlines, adding flights

The Greater Sudbury Airport has launched a community survey that managers hope will help improve service from the airport.

The survey asks respondents about previous travel destinations, the airports they departed from, and the destinations they would like to be able to travel to from Sudbury.

It also asks people how they rank factors such as price, reliability and frequency when choosing air travel.

And it asks if respondents would be willing to provide a letter in support of expanded air travel from the Sudbury airport. 

"We were always working on air service development, said Christopher Pollesel, the manager of passenger experience and aviation security for the Greater Sudbury Airport.

'There are very few options'

"But in this case, you know, [the survey is] going to provide evidence-based support, and that's going to help us when we're looking at expanding our current services and when we're meeting with our airline partners and with potentially new airlines as well."

Currently, the airport is hearing from people who want more flights and more destinations, Pollesel said. 

Some travellers told CBC the current schedules aren't sufficient. 

"There are very few options of … flights [from] the Sudbury airport,"  Jashanpreet Singh said.

"Like, just one or two flights in a day from Toronto Pearson Airport and not much [more] than that. And it's more even expensive … because the number is low. 

"You could just drive instead of paying all the money for a flight," said Sarah Roberts. 

Airlines want to provide more service but they've been struggling to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pollesel said.

Traffic at regional airports has been slower to come back than it has at larger hubs, he said – something he blamed on a shortage of pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers and fleet constraints. 

"Those are all the common themes that we hear from our airline partners when we're talking with them about bringing back additional services," he said.

Regular business travel down

A spokesperson for Porter Airlines said the situation the airline faces today is different from the one it faced immediately prior to the pandemic. 

"Passenger travel patterns have changed significantly, particularly when it comes to business and leisure travel," said Brad Cicero, Porter's director of communications and public affairs.

"There's not the same extent of regular business travel happening, which would affect certain markets like Sudbury."

Cicero said Porter has the same number of aircraft doing regional flights as it did prior to the pandemic, but the patterns of demand have changed.

"In some cases, markets have less service than they would have prior to the pandemic, and that includes places like Ottawa and Montreal," he said.

"But there are regions of the country such as Atlantic Canada that have more flights."

Porter feels it's important to maintain its daily service in Sudbury, Cicero added, and it remains open to offering more destinations and more flights if it's appropriate for the market. 

In the absence of more flights, Pollesel said, some airlines that fly in and out of Sudbury have been choosing to fly larger planes with more passengers on a single plane.

The airport has also worked with airlines to significantly improve reliability, he said.