Airport adds Laughlin charter flight, CEO hopes for more destinations in 2020

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The Fort McMurray International Airport is adding its first international destination since 2015, with the airport authority’s leadership hoping more flights will be added if it takes off.

Beginning in January, Caesars Rewards Air charter service will fly from Fort McMurray to Harrah’s Laughlin, a hotel and casino resort on the banks of the Colorado River in Laughlin, south of Las Vegas.

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The resort has 1,506 rooms with 182 suites, sitting on more than 1,100 feet of riverfront property and 700 feet of beach. 

The winter vacation package includes hotel accommodation, parking in Fort McMurray, and transportation to and from the airport. Flights leave Fort McMurray on Wednesdays and return on Sundays.

“We’re really confident this new approach is going to work for this community,” said Fort McMurray Airport Authority CEO RJ Steenstra in a Thursday interview. “We have good data that international opportunities still exist out of this market. It’s just a matter of convincing and working with carriers and entertainment partners, like Caesars, to offer those services.”

The airport’s current longest direct flight is an Air Canada flight to Toronto. Historically, international destinations have not done well at Fort McMurray’s international airport. 

In May 2014, United Airlines cancelled its direct flight to Denver after less than a year. Later that summer, WestJet cancelled direct flights to Las Vegas after less than six weeks after ticket sales began in January.

Plans for regular flights to Chicago and parts of Mexico never materialized. Sunwing later cancelled its seasonal flights to Mexico after three years in 2015. 

In all cases, the airlines cited bad ticket sales as the reason for cancelling their services. Steenstra said the Las Vegas flights were limited and often scheduled at inconvenient times. 

But Steenstra feels the charter services could be a success for Wood Buffalo and open more opportunities for the airport. 

“We’re really trying to test the market right now to see what’s going to succeed and what’s not going to succeed,” he said. “We know there are people who travel south out of Fort McMurray by the tens of thousands each year. We’re trying to capture back some of that market that’s using other airports for their travel plans.”

Getting more people to use the airport is a top priority for the airport. During Wednesday municipal budget meetings, Steenstra told council passenger traffic had dropped by 55 per cent since 2014. 

However, he argued the airport’s requested $15 million upgrade the airport’s runway would still be valuable for emergencies. This was demonstrated during the May 2016 wildfires when the airport was used by water bombers and the Canadian Armed Forces. 

The funding was approved unanimously.

Still, others are sharing Steenstra’s optimism for the airport’s future. In a statement from the airport authority, Mayor Don Scott hoped the new addition would be popular for the community.

“Access to destinations across Canada and the world have a positive impact on quality of life in Wood Buffalo,” said Scott in a statement from the airport authority. “It is incredibly important for the community to support our local airport and contribute to the sustainability of our award-winning community asset.”

Kevin Weidlich, president and CEO of the Wood Buffalo Economic Development Corporation, called the news “a tremendous milestone for the airport” in the same statement, and hoped it would attract “new businesses, visitors and future residents.”

“We’re excited about 2020 with a number of these charters we’re working on and the packages we’re able to offer,” said Steenstra. “There’s a lot of news coming in 2020.”

vmcdermott@postmedia.com