Red Deer Regional Airport serves the city of Red Deer, Alberta,
located right in the middle of the busy Calgary to Edmonton corridor.
Right now, it serves as mainly a general aviation airport, with plenty of flight training traffic,
as well as some larger movements from tenants Buffalo Airways and Air Spray.
However, that could soon change a bit, with the announcement a few
months back that a $15 million dollar expansion plan would be going ahead,
with half of that coming as a grant from the provincial government.
These expansion plans include widening the longest runway at the airport, runway 17/35,
from the current 100 feet to 150 feet. Along with that, work will be taking place to strengthen the
main taxiway and the main apron, as well as the construction of a new terminal.
These upgrades to the airport would allow for larger aircraft to fly in and out,
much like those flown by low-cost carriers Flair Airlines and Lynx Air. For a bit of context,
runway 17/35 is 7,500 feet long, making it a decent size for almost any mid-size airliner.
The existing width though, could preclude its use by certain types.
Red Deer Airport also says that the expansion will put them in a better
position to attract cargo operators and larger aircraft maintenance facilities.
On the low-cost carrier side of things though, Red Deer Airport sees lots of potential,
and has positioned themselves as “Alberta’s Low Cost Airport”,
promising free parking and no airport improvement fees.
A couple months later, work has already started on widening the runway,
and you can see it’s quite the job.
Now, the question of scheduled airline service in Red Deer has been ongoing for the last few years,
especially since Air Canada stopped their flights there in 2017.
Air Canada Express previously served Red Deer from Calgary using Beechcraft 1900s
operated by Air Georgian, primarily for connecting travellers. Those flights only
lasted for 4 years though, and Air Canada has quietly gotten rid of the 1900s anyway.
Going forward, it’s clear that low-cost carriers are the ones to attract.
This puts Red Deer Airport in a unique position, since Canada is
not exactly the friendliest environment for low-cost airlines, for a variety of reasons.
One of those reasons is that most LCCs around the world tend to prefer operating out of smaller,
secondary airports, where operating costs are lower.
Here in Canada though, there are only really two or three airports fitting that purpose.
There’s Abbotsford Airport for Vancouver, Hamilton Airport for Toronto, and Saint
Hubert Airport in Montreal, although its only scheduled flights are regional ones within Quebec.
Toronto also has Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto Island, but it’s restricted for
jets and you couldn’t really get a 737 in there with any meaningful payload.
So in the case of Alberta’s two major cities, as much as I’d love to see
737s flying out of Springbank or Villeneuve, that’s not terribly plausible at the moment.
Another reason that Canada poses such a challenge for low-cost carriers are all
of the extra fees that air travel brings, which don’t actually go to the airline.
If you look at a breakdown of the airfare I
paid on Lynx Air’s inaugural flight from Calgary to Vancouver and back,
for the roughly $90 I paid (not including the extras), less than $10 of that was actual airfare.
The rest of that is just taxes and fees, including a whopping $60 in
Airport Improvement Fees for Calgary and Vancouver International Airports combined.
This and Canadian airfares in general are a whole separate topic for another video but
it does put into perspective how these airlines physically can’t charge below a certain amount.
Therefore, a proper, low-cost airport for Alberta with no airport improvement fee
could be a game changer for the province. Not only would it attract passengers from
the region around Red Deer, but maybe even travellers in Calgary or Edmonton
who are willing to drive for the prospect of a very inexpensive flight and free parking.
Realistically, even without any draw from Calgary or Edmonton, it still seems plausible that Red
Deer could support at least one or two flights a week to someplace like Vancouver or Toronto.
And Red Deer Airport firmly believes that’s the case. Sometime in the past few years,
they conducted a market research study which showed there’s “very
strong demand” for a low-cost carrier there.
Given that, low-cost service from Red Deer Regional Airport has some definite potential,
and both Flair and Lynx have expressed interest in serving the airport. In the case of Lynx,
their discussions date back at least 3 or 4 years, to when they were still known as Enerjet.
Considering that the airport was also giving out free Lynx Air tickets
as part of a draw at their Annual General Meeting last month,
it seems like they and Lynx are in the advanced stages of discussion.
So, for all of these reasons, I’ll be watching Red Deer Regional Airport’s
expansion with great interest, and may just have to be one of their first passengers if
and when scheduled service restarts. Thank you all for watching, and I’ll catch you next time!