PORT HARDY, B.C.- Pacific Coastal Airlines has released its 2018 spring schedule, and residents on the North Island will be happy.
Flights 800 and 813 are being reinstated on the schedule, after being canceled earlier this year.
The schedule adjustment comes into effect on March 4th, 2018 and lasts through June 3rd, 2018.
The 800 out of Port Hardy to Vancouver at 7:05 a.m. had been canceled Tuesday through Saturday.
The northbound flight 813 from Vancouver to Port Hardy at 6:10 p.m., which operated Monday through Friday, had been canceled entirely.
“It (the decision to reinstate the flights) was solely based on feedback from customers and the public, both in Port Hardy and the North Island in general,” said Kevin Boothroyd, Pacific Coastal’s Director of Business Development and Corporate Communications.
“There was a lot of people who were really determined that we maintain those two flights, the early morning and later afternoon, and those are really good for the business traveler in particular, who wants to get into Vancouver and back out again on the same day.”
Boothroyd did note however, that there is still an issue with the region seeing more capacity than they have demand, so “something has to give” and reinstating the canceled flights did come at a small cost.
“What we’re doing is we’re removing the mid-day flights in order to right size the demand in the marketplace that exists today,” he said.
This means that some mid-day flights have been canceled in favour of the early morning and late afternoon flights.
A release from Pacific Coastal stated that, “based on the level of demand, there is still a need to reduce capacity from three return weekday flights to two, and this schedule adjustment maintains same business day schedule between the Port Hardy Airport (YZT) and Vancouver International Airport’s South Terminal (YVR).”
A full schedule can be found through Pacific Coastal Airlines’ website.
