Jet aircraft Nanaimo Airport’s runway expansion was designed to attract are now ferrying workers from Vancouver Island to jobs in northern B.C.
The second charter Enerjet 737 flight touched down Sunday – the first flight delivered workers home for Christmas on Dec. 21 – to pick up resource industry workers returning to their jobs in Kitimat.
Enerjet is a Calgary, Alta., based charter air carrier, which flies the Boeing 737-700 aircraft that Nanaimo Airport’s 2009 runway expansion to 6,600 metres was designed to accommodate.
Mike Hooper, Nanaimo Airport president and CEO, said it is the airport’s job to help make the workers’ commutes as simple as possible through new direct services, encouraging increased flight schedule frequency or assisting direct charter companies, such as Enerjet.
Nanaimo Airport is the Island’s third largest and serves an estimated population of 250,000 in the central Island.