The Skeena
The number of passengers passing through the Northwest Regional Airport Terrace-Kitimat roughly doubled between June and July as the province continued to reopen. Even though numbers overall are way down, it was still the largest increase since the pandemic started.
“We’re 52 per cent of what we had last year at this time, so it’s looking better than we anticipated,” Carman Hendry, airport manager, told the Terrace Standard. “That’s major, it’s helping to pay our bills of course, we see the numbers showing that people are starting to regain some of the confidence they lost in air travel and it’s big news for the airlines that service this region.”
In June, the airport counted about 6,400 passengers and by July that was up to almost 12,800. Part of the reason for that is the Smithers Regional Airport is closed. Air Canada said last month it wouldn’t be reopening service there until the end of August, or possibly longer.
Whether numbers keep rising could depend on whether there’s a second wave of coronavirus in the fall. Back in May, B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said “We’ve never had a pandemic in recorded history that has not had a second wave.”
But if that doesn’t happen the airport expects passengers to keep rising. “I think that we’ll just continue to go up,” Hendry reportedly said.
