ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — With 2019 almost in the books, it looks like passenger traffic at St. John's International Airport will be down for the third straight year.
Based on data for the months of January to November of this year, passengers coming from or going to St. John's totalled 1,353,438. That's down 3.9 per cent from the comparable period in 2018, when 1,408,995 passengers either deplaned or enplaned at the St. John's airport.
According to a spokeswoman for the St. John's International Airport Authority (SJIAA), the loss of direct flight service to Dublin, Ireland, contributed to the passenger decline.
In November 2018, WestJet announced its decision to cancel the seasonal St. John's-to-Dublin direct flight service and instead maintain a flight departing from Halifax. The airliner said the St. John's route was not performing up to expectations.
Since then, multiple representatives from the tourism and business sectors have advocated for the re-establishment of this service, citing its benefit to the Newfoundland and Labrador economy. In January 2018, WestJet axed a direct flight from St. John's to London's Gatwick Airport.
Another factor contributing to the passenger decline at the airport was the grounding of Boeing 737 Max airplanes that started in March of this year after issues with the planes' automated flight control were identified. Two crashes of these planes occurred within a five-month period, with the most recent happening in March, an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Ethiopia to Kenya. A total of 346 people died in the two crashes.
Some models of the Boeing 737 Max can carry as many as 244 passengers. Air Canada and WestJet cancelled multiple routes across Canada as a result of the grounding decision.
A spokeswoman for the St. John's International Airport Authority (SJIAA) noted overall seat capacity for the year is down eight per cent, but the 3.9 per cent decline in passengers compared to 2018 would indicate flights are fuller in 2019.
St. John's International Airport did gain some new routes in 2019. WestJet added service to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in the spring and a direct flight to Edmonton for the summer.
"Air service development is a key function of our business and we aggressively pursue new routes where a strong business case exists," the spokeswoman said in an emailed statement to The Telegram. "We are very much focused on increasing airline seat capacity (more flights/larger aircraft) on existing routes as well as adding new destinations where the demand is strong."
The last year in which passenger traffic increased at the airport was 2016, when 1,568,950 deplaned and enplaned in St. John’s. That represented a 4.3 per cent increase over 2015 passenger traffic (1,504,605).
The SJIAA is expected to announce details of airline schedules for the summer of 2020 early in the new year.
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Twitter: @CBNAndrew
Airport passenger count (deplaned/enplaned) Jan.-Nov.
• 1,474,199 (2014)
• 1,404,259 (2015); 4.7% decrease
• 1,469,885 (2016); 4.7% increase
• 1,434,395 (2017); 2.4% decrease
• 1,408,995 (2018); 1.8% decrease
• 1,353,438 (2019); 3.9% decrease
