Good afternoon from Cranbrook Canadian Rockies International Airport!
My name is Alex, and welcome back to the channel.
Today, I’m here in southeastern British Columbia to fly to Vancouver
with Pacific Coastal Airlines!
Pacific Coastal, or otherwise known by their callsign as "Pasco", is one of Canada’s
largest regional airlines, and they fly exclusively within British Columbia.
They operate a fairly sizable fleet of turboprops from their main hub in Vancouver, from Beech
1900C and D models, up to the Saab 340A and 340B.
Cranbrook, British Columbia, is a small city nestled in a valley on the western slopes
of the Canadian Rocky Mountains with a population of around 20,000.
It’s also home to a relatively small airport with one 8,000 foot runway, which, at the
time of uploading, had service from Air Canada and Pacific Coastal to Vancouver,
as well as WestJet Link to Calgary.
As this was recorded back in August this year, I flew here just a few hours prior
on the latter flight from Calgary.
Admittedly, few people would willingly choose to fly from Calgary to Vancouver through Cranbrook,
and of course, there are dozens of direct flights between Calgary and Vancouver each
day, but… where’s the fun in that?
I had a great time flying with Pacific Coastal for the first time back in November last year,
and I was more than happy to fly with them again out of a new airport.
It may be on the smaller side of things, but the terminal looks really nice!
There was plenty of seating, great information about the region, and it was very clean!
They do also have a little cafe pre-security, which was closed for obvious reasons.
Even post-security though, I really like the look of the waiting area.
It’s almost like a mini-YVR, if you can call it that.
Now, today’s flight was actually supposed to be flown by one of Pacific Coastal’s
Beech 1900s, but for whatever reason, they sent C-FPCZ,
one of their Saab 340Bs.
This was definitely a pleasant surprise!
The Saab 340B is the largest aircraft that Pacific Coastal flies, with 34 seats in an
all-economy layout.
They also fly three of these on behalf of WestJet for some of their commuter flights.
Although I’ve flown the WestJet Link Saabs already and they are identical in every respect
except for the teal paint, this is a new livery and a new registration for me!
At the time, Pacific Coastal had an open seating policy on all of their aircraft, meaning seats
are first come, first serve as you board.
I had mentioned this to the gate agent, hoping I could grab an exit row seat, and they very
graciously let me board early!
So, let’s go see what it’s like flying a proper Pacific Coastal Saab 340!
Ramp boarding is one of my favourite parts of flying these turboprops, and today was
no exception!
For this flight over the mountains to Vancouver, I picked seat 2F, the bulkhead exit row at
the very front of the cabin.
There’s plenty of legroom here for yours truly, as well as this great view of the engine!
These Saabs do have one flight attendant on board, who sits immediately facing the window
seat on the other side.
It was blocked off for this flight though, possibly for Covid related reasons.
Although the window was a little scratched up, I thought I’d take my chances in this
seat, as opposed to the exit row over the wing.
The views flying over the mountains are already spectacular from a jet at 30,000+ feet,
let alone from a turboprop at 20,000',
so I knew we’d be in for a pretty cool flight either way.
Here’s our departure from Cranbrook, off of runway 16.
We levelled off at 16,000 feet initially, heading westbound over the numerous mountain
ranges that make up British Columbia’s interior.
Despite the scratched up windows, these views were everything I’d hoped for!
On their Saab 340s, Pacific Coastal has the usual air sickness bag and the safety card.
Normally they’d also have an in-flight magazine, but again, 2020.
I will say though, the cabin did feel very clean, and there were only about 18 people
on the flight.
The Saab 340 is configured with a 1-2 configuration, with the very last row having 4 seats across.
Another peculiarity of this aircraft are these unusually low armrests
all throughout the cabin.
In the bulkhead row as well, there are no built-in tray tables.
Instead, they actually plug into the armrests.
I’m not quite sure how that works, but it’s another quirk of this regional airliner!
Because there was no in-flight service for obvious reasons, there’s not that much else
to say, so I think I’ll let the views do the talking.
Here’s us cruising over the spectacular peaks of interior British Columbia and descending
into Vancouver for a sunny arrival on runway 08R.
(music)
Overall, this was a really enjoyable flight with Pacific Coastal’s Saab 340!
Cranbrook was a great little airport - it’s nice to add another regional destination to
my list, and I did like flying through there.
Pacific Coastal is a fantastic airline as well - everyone there was so friendly, from
the gate agent in Cranbrook to the cabin crew on board.
Just, a really pleasant flight!
It’s the different sort of regional-airliner feel that you hear me talk a lot about on
this channel, but they are something that I genuinely enjoy flying on, for all of those reasons!
Obviously, it would’ve been nice to have a little snack on board,
but I’m just grateful to be flying at all.
This year’s been a challenging one for everybody, and I’m looking forward to flying with Pacific
Coastal again sometime in 2021!
Thanks for watching this trip report with Pacific Coastal!
If you enjoyed the video, please leave a like, subscribe, consider becoming a channel member,
and I will see you next time.