Pacific Coastal Airlines has announced it is suspending service between Vancouver and Cranbrook, B.C., due to staff shortages.
The airline said in a news release Tuesday that it will end its regularly scheduled flight service between the cities on April 28, citing operational constraints due to a “critical pilot and aircraft maintenance engineer shortage.”
Customers affected by the cancellation will be contacted and offered a full refund, it said.
“We are unable to offer our desired level of flight frequency and capacity and have made the difficult decision to suspend flights between Vancouver and Cranbrook, as well as reduce capacity in other markets in our network, to ensure that we can maintain offering a reliable and robust flight schedule for 2023,” said Johnathan Richardson, vice-president of customer and commercial, in the release.
Pacific Coastal previously suspended the route in early 2020 due to a pilot shortage. Shortly thereafter, the COVID-19 pandemic began, disrupting air travel across the world.
Market conditions allowed for the route to return on July 5, 2020 — until now, the company said.
Air Canada and WestJet still offer flights between Cranbrook and Vancouver.
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