Northern Air is grounding its scheduled passenger service from Peace River to Edmonton. The airline confirmed the cancellation in an e-mail to the Trending 55 Newsroom. Flights to Edmonton will stop as of January 1, 2020. “We’ve worked tirelessly to keep these routes open and are disappointed that this is no longer a service that we can offer,” says Northern Air President, Nate Hilman. There were originally scheduled flights to Calgary as well and the plug was pulled on that route in November of 2018.
According to Hilman, the passenger service to Edmonton and Calgary was put in jeopardy when Alberta Health Services conducted a Request for Proposal process and awarded the air ambulance contract to Can-West in 2017. “The air ambulance contract provided certain synergies that helped support scheduled flight services especially during the economic downturn which inevitably resulted in fewer passengers travelling. For over a decade, the ability to find efficiencies in offering both services kept the scheduled flights going in Peace River even in poor economic cycles,” said Hilman.
Northern Air contested the air ambulance contract award by filing an application for judicial review of the RFP process in September 2017. Despite attempts by AHS to strike the judicial review, the hearing is currently scheduled for September 2020. “The RFP process lacked integrity and this is about ensuring our government is carrying out procurement processes fairly and transparently – it’s about public trust” states Hilman and adds, “AHS and the previous government have gone to great lengths, at taxpayers’ expense, in their efforts to stop the review from happening.” “We want to be clear, the decision to discontinue scheduled flights for Peace River is a direct result of the loss of the air ambulance contract and exacerbated by the continued downward trend of the Alberta economy. Northern Air wishes to thank the Town of Peace River, Northern Sunrise County, MD of Peace, Town of Grimshaw and County of Northern Lights for their support of the scheduled flight service over the past few years.”
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
