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Air Canada to add two new daily flights this summer

Air Canada’s Senior Vice-President of Regional Markets, Kevin Howlett, was the guest speaker at the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce’s luncheon today.

Howlett announced that the airline will be adding two new domestic flights this summer, with service to Toronto, and Vancouver.

The move will increase the number of Air Canada’s daily flights from the Fort McMurray International Airport from 16 to 18.

“We are remaining cautiously optimistic, that it will be a financially prudent decision on our part, and that we will have the customer demand to equal that capacity growth that we have coming in here for spring / summer of 2015,” said Howlett. “Where we see demand, we’re going to put capacity into the market. The facility you have here in Fort McMurray just makes that decision a little bit easier. It’s a beautiful facility, it has lots of great amenities for the customers. We’ll be there if the demand is there, Air Canada will be there.

The airline employs 50 people in Fort McMurray and is the largest operation of any airline at the Fort McMurray International Airport.

Howlett said that falling oil prices likely won’t lead to lower fares for consumers, as most savings found in fuel purchases will be lost in the dollar conversion of the tumbling loonie to $USD.

Air Canada uses $USD for most of its expenditures including its airplanes.

He also noted that government imposed fees and taxes drastically increases the cost of domestic flying compared to similar service in the United States.