City of Lethbridge figuring out next steps as WestJet announces YQL route closure

On Friday WestJet informed both Lethbridge and Medicine Hat they would be stopping their daily flights to and from Calgary this summer.

The news caught the City of Lethbridge completely off guard.

“Took us by complete surprise. When I got the call I was very surprised as was Mayor Lindsay [Clark] from Medicine Hat and she reached out to me within minutes of me getting the call because she got the same call,” said Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen.

The city is still assessing what this means for the future of Lethbridge’s airport.

Work is already being done to identify other airlines who might be open to flying into Lethbridge.

Lethbridge Airport is home to a flight school and handles charter as well as cargo flights.

But it’s too early to tell what the future holds for the airport.

“It’s very hard. We just found it out on Friday. We’re going through all of this. We’ve got the work plan that was presented to us by the manager from the airport. And so we’re looking at other options and as we should continue to do,” said Hyggen.

The business community is also trying to figure out what the fallout will entail.

It could make it more challenging for local businesses with out of town clients to do business.

“Businesses here if they have international clients or business travel they need to do we certainly need to have that connectivity into Calgary and then into other markets across the country and internationally,” said Economic Development Lethbridge interim CEO, Ben Young.

Another concern about losing air connectivity could be perception.

Having no commercial flights for a city of its size could paint Lethbridge in a negative light.

“To have that commercial air service pull out of Lethbridge is not a great indicator for our community in terms of what that means for a strong narrative around Lethbridge being connected to other markets,” said Young.

The last day of service for YQL to YYC is June 24.