Airports in Atlantic Canada are facing another “major blow” due to the COVID-19 pandemic after WestJet announced Wednesday that it will soon no longer fly to Moncton, N.B., Fredericton, Sydney, N.S., and Charlottetown and will drastically cut back its service to St. John’s and Halifax.
“It’s a major blow. … Any time you lose a service, that’s very challenging,” said Mike MacKinnon, CEO of the J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport.
“It’s not an unexpected situation. I think the writing was on the wall for some time, given the restrictive travel policies, the low passenger demand and some of the other factors involved.”
“We are just finding that the demand is not there,” said Richard Bartrem, WestJet’s vice-president of communications. “The Atlantic Canada bubble makes it tremendously difficult for people to move back and forth to those destinations in Atlantic Canada, and recognizing that we are simply losing a considerable amount of money every day that we’re operating there.”
“So until there is something like a vaccine or a testing regime that allows us to see that bubble reduced or lifted, we’ve got no choice but to make the difficult decision.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only residents living within the four Atlantic provinces — New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador — may travel freely within the Atlantic bubble without the need to isolate. Canadians coming from outside the bubble must self-isolate for 14 days.
WestJet will no longer operate out of the J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport in Sydney, N.S., as of Nov. 2. (Tom Ayers/CBC)
The route cancellations mean that the airline will also shutter its operations at the airports in Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton and Sydney.
The routes will be cancelled as of Nov. 2, and as a result about 100 jobs will be eliminated. Earlier this summer, Air Canada cancelled 30 routes, most of which were in Atlantic Canada.
WestJet will now only fly three routes within and outside of Atlantic Canada — to St. John’s, Calgary and Toronto — all out of the Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
“The biggest blow to Halifax Stanfield as part of today’s announcement is the reduction of key connections that we have within our own province to Sydney, as well as to our nation’s capital of Ottawa,” said Tiffany Chase, the spokesperson for the Halifax airport.
Tiffany Chase, the spokesperson for the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, said it will be difficult to reestablish the strong network of flights, even after the COVID-19 pandemic is resolved. (Héloise Rodriguez-Qizilbash/Radio-Canada)
“We’ve worked very hard over a number of years to establish a very strong network within our region and to the rest of Canada, the [United States] and Europe. … We expect that it will be very difficult and take quite a bit of time to get some of these services back, if ever.”
Doug Newson, CEO of the Charlottetown Airport Authority, said the cuts don’t come as a surprise.
“We see the numbers coming and going in the airport these days,” he said.
Doug Newson, CEO of the Charlottetown Airport Authority, said the airport has been relying on capital reserves since March, and now the loss of WestJet as a carrier will only reduce revenue further. (CBC)
“We see that WestJet has significantly reduced their schedule to Charlottetown over the past number of months, and the demand is simply not there for them to carry passengers at this moment — given the current travel restrictions and the conditions with the pandemic.”
Both the Sydney and Charlottetown airports have been relying on capital reserves since March. Now the loss of WestJet as a carrier will only reduce revenue further.
“We, along with other airports, are hoping and optimistic that the federal government may provide some sectoral specific relief for both the airline industry and the airports, because it’s certainly needed at a time right now where air travel is coming to a complete standstill,” Newson said.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil also called on the federal government to create a national strategy to protect air travel in the region.
“We believe the national government needs to be at the table to recognize that in order for us to recover economically, our greatest success of recovering economically after COVID, will be with a vibrant air service that will include in our region, both Air Canada, WestJet and others,” McNeil said at a news conference Wednesday.
Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil called on the federal government to create a national strategy to protect air travel in the Atlantic region. (CBC)
Newson said the Charlottetown airport does have enough capital reserves to get through a couple of years, and both he and MacKinnon are confident the cuts are only temporary.
“We’re hopeful that as things improve — maybe [as] restrictions get lifted, which we’re hoping will happen — that they’ll be back in service sometime in the future,” MacKinnon said.
“But we can’t predict — I don’t think anyone in 2020 can predict what is going to happen.”
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
