'I didn’t hear any hope': Sask. MPs meet with Air Canada over loss of flights

Several Saskatchewan MPs met with representatives of Air Canada at a recent caucus meeting to express their concern over the loss of flights to Saskatoon and Regina.

“Let's just say it was a lively discussion,” MP Brad Redekopp told CTV News. “That is fundamentally a big risk to our province if we have to live with the limitation of air connection services.”

In December, Air Canada announced it will no longer offer direct flights between Calgary, Saskatoon and Regina as of January 16.

Redekopp, who represents the riding of Saskatoon West, said these meetings were usually confidential.

“But I think this is an issue (where) I'm willing to kind of share the gist of what happened at that meeting.”

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He said MPs have been hearing complaints about delays, missed flights, cancellations, baggage loss, and more, but he said there was more at risk for Saskatchewan.

“There's another really big aspect of this, and that is the economic impact in Saskatchewan,” Redekopp said.

“This is what we're particularly concerned with because we obviously want people to have better experiences on flights. But beyond that, if we start losing flights into Saskatchewan that affects us economically. Our province is firing on all cylinders right now. We're growing. There's a lot of business going on. There's a lot of new business happening. And that business is dependent on the ability to connect with airlines.”

Redekopp said the response from Air Canada was not what MPs wanted to hear.

“I didn't hear any hope in that in that meeting. They just really didn't have much to say other than we'll take your concerns back to our senior management.”

In a statement to CTV News, Air Canada said it is still offering sufficient flights to Saskatchewan.

“We can confirm the province of Saskatchewan continues to have access to Air Canada’s vast domestic, US and international network within the existing routes,” the statement said.

“Additionally this summer, Air Canada’s non-stop flights between (Saskatchewan) and Montreal will add another option for travel and global connectivity.”

Redekopp said MPs would continue to push the issue.

“We're going to continue fighting for this, we're going to keep pushing on airlines,” he said. “We weren't happy with the answers we got from them. And so we're just going to keep at it.”