The flights canceled inside and outside the small BC community making “more and more difficult to live here”: residents

Once a month, the Optometrist of Abbotsford Dr. Vicky Mahairhu flies from Vancouver to Fort Nelson, BC, a trip of over 1,000 kilometers, to take care of patients in the north-eastern community.

But every time he flies, Mahairhu said there are last minute cancellations that strike her from both ends-and sometimes both.

That’s why it was written on the airline and the Mayor and the Council of the Regional Municipality of the Northern mountains, asking for a solution.

In February, Mahairhu’s flight to Fort Nelson, a community of about 2,600 people, according to the 2021 census, was canceled when it arrived at the airport to check -in. He was therefore forced to cancel all the appointments he had planned for his six days in Fort Nelson.

So, in March, his return flight to Vancouver has been canceled several times. On Monday flight was canceled and was reported in the next flight on Wednesday, but then that flight was canceled, and was put on a flight on Friday.

“I was up there Fort Nelson for a week more, and I was not prepared for this,” he told CBC Daybreak North Guest, Carolina de Ryk, of what the mayor of the Municipality describes as an unreliable air service.

Similar to the February situation, he had to cancel the appointments for patients in Abbotsford throughout the week.

In addition, he said, his children were left at home without a parent for several days.

“He is influencing my job and he is stressing me even when the children are at home and there is no parent around,” said Mahairhu.

He is not the only person frustrated by flights: Fort Nelson School Bill Dolan’s trustee shared his travel problems in a municipal meeting on March 24th.

He said he was far from the community for six days to participate in two days of meetings at the beginning of this year.

“My meetings were made in the late afternoon of Friday, I spent a day in Vancouver. The next day I got up to Prince George, but I had to stay overnight,” he said. “The next morning, my flight was delayed, he spent half a day at the airport, then was canceled. He flew to Vancouver on a different airline, returned to Fort St. John.”

The only reason was able to go home, Dolan said, is because a local contact connected it with someone who needed a vehicle driven to Fort Nelson, and was able to drive there.

“The program is limited and is uncomfortable,” he said.

During the same meeting, Mark Crips, residing in Fort Nelson, said that many elderly people from the community must travel out of the community for medical events, which is demanding when the flights are canceled.

“It is becoming more and more difficult to live here,” he said.

Only a commercial airline flies inside and outside Fort Nelson: Central Mountain Air, which serves BC and Alberta community.

“Challenges at the sector level”

In a statement via e -mail to CBC News, the president of the Central Mountain Air Doug McCrea said he was aware of the concerns raised by people traveling inside and outside the community.

“Like many airlines, we are browsing the challenges at the sector level, such as pilot constraints, which have had an impact on our programming and capacity,” he said. “While these factors are multifaceted, we are actively working on solutions to improve reliability and minimize future interruptions.”

McCrea has not expanded what could be those solutions.

But Mahairhu said he starts with a planning of fewer flights.

“If they know they are short of pilots, perhaps they only make a flight twice a week instead of three times a week,” he said, adding that there were no problems with cancellations when he was traveling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, Mahairhu wants the airline to stop canceling flights at the last minute.

“It would be nice if a notice of one or two days is given if the flight is canceled.”

During the meeting of March 24, the Council seemed to agree that something should be done, starting from a conversation with the airline.

“Reliability problems are causing pain in our community,” said Mayor Rob Fraser.