A small airline company that was supposed to provide flights in and out of Edson quietly abandoned its plans in June leaving the airport without a commercial airline.
According to Edson Airport manager Sam Shine, Intagra Air backed out of the agreement a week before flights were supposed to start in June.
“They made this big announcement and told us a start date and then just pulled out of nowhere,” Shine said. “They said it was due to a lack of financial backing and I guess they were looking for a monetary incentive of some sort. So it’s under review and we’re looking at other companies to see if we can get any more interest from someone else.”
Integra Air did not return the 51°µÍř’s request for comment.
“(Integra Air) also said they pulled out due to a lack of ticket sales, but they did zero advertising around here. The only advertising for the flights was by us. And at the time their website wouldn’t even allow you to purchase tickets for that service,” Shine said. “They didn’t really give it a fair chance, but I think it had more to do with their financial backing than ticket sales.”
During the months following the last-minute cancellation, Shine said he had people calling almost every day, trying to book Integra Air flights.
“It took a lot of explaining at first,” Shine said. “In the end I started referring these customers to the airline because I wanted them to see the business they were losing out on.”
Integra Air first announced it would begin offering commercial flights out of Edson in May.
The flights were supposed to take place on a nine-seater plane and cost roughly $600 for a round-trip to Calgary. In May, Integra Air owner John Macek told the 51°µÍř that the partnership was a “no-brainer” and he expected the initiative to be a successful one.
“We were surprised, but there’s nothing we can do about it now,” Shine said. “We still want to go down the commercial flight route and we know Jasper’s tourism wants that to happen too so we’re working on it.
“It’s on our to-do list.”
The Edson Airport first got the green light to become a commercial airport in July 2015 after the federal government approved new regulations which provided the airport access to screening services from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA)—a key requirement to become a fully functioning commercial airport.
To see if the commercial status would be viable, the region conducted a feasibility study.
Tourism Jasper, Yellowhead County, Edson, Hinton and Jasper each pitched in $15,000 to pay for the study, which was then matched by the provincial government.
After hearing about the partnership between the Edson Airport and Integra Air, Tourism Jasper board chair Doug Goss said the new transportation option was a small, but important step for Jasper’s tourism industry, adding that the service would give tourists easier access to town during the shoulder season.
Now that the flights are off the table, Goss said he remains hopeful that the airport will attract other commercial airlines.
“I don’t know what was (Integra Air’s) decision making and why they did what they did, but I suspect it had something to do with the slowdown in Alberta’s economy. But the reality is that we’re actually hoping to target bigger companies like Westjet or Air Canada,” Goss said. “It would be a game-changer for Jasper if we could land scheduled air traffic—especially in the winter months. We don’t have a problem filling the town in the summer, but where we struggle is during the midweeks in the winter.
“This would really allows us to compete with places like Banff and Canmore, which are situated near an international airport.”
Both Shine and Goss said for the time being, attracting other airline companies has been “put on the back burner.”
“I think all the partners in the region are going to revisit this in the spring and just see how things are looking from the economy’s perspective,” Goss said. “We haven’t given up on this and we’re going to push to make it happen, but that just might take a little longer.”
Kayla Byrne
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