High-profile air connections help attract high-level events

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This article was published 04/11/2023 (1048 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The dearth of cross-border and international direct airline connections from Winnipeg had traditionally been one of those elements that played into the city’s overall inferiority complex for some time.

Just like the indignity of losing a major attraction — think of 1997 and the hit to the city’s psyche after departure of the Winnipeg Jets 1.0 — losing an airline route is a cut that has a particular sting. (Winnipeg lost both Chicago and Denver routes right after the pandemic.)

The pandemic caused a devastating setback to the aviation industry and it’s still dusting itself off from that. But as that’s pushed further into the past, the aviation industry is seeing plenty of upside.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is forecasting the global aviation industry revenues to be up 10 per cent this year over 2022, but still about four per cent below 2019.

But even while the aviation industry was dealing with the aftermath of such a devastating jolt to the system, Winnipeg snared a couple of high-profile new routes from WestJet: Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Halloween marked the first anniversary of the L.A. route’s inaugural flight. According to data from Winnipeg Airport officials a total of 28,000 people flew back and forth between Los Angeles and Winnipeg in 2019 when there were no direct flights.

For the first 10 months of the new L.A. route there were 43,000 people who made the trip. The anticipation is that it could hit 50,000 when the full 12 month numbers are in.

It’s estimated that the L.A. route will add more than $8 million annually to the provincial GDP. And while the film and television industry expect to benefit from the L.A. route and Price Industries will experience plenty of convenience connecting with its large operation in Atlanta, the real impact may come from an increase in number and size of meetings and conventions in the city.

A recent event for Yes! Winnipeg investors and Team Winnipeg (the tourism industry’s version of Yes! Winnipeg) partners, was all about the power of connectivity.

Ryan Kuffner, Economic Development Winnipeg’s CEO, said that when Team Winnipeg bids on any sizable conference, connectivity to the city is a strong underlying factor.

“Connectivity can dictate or preclude certain opportunities for out-of-province investment and large conference and tourism sector bids that we undertake,” he said.

The most obvious example Winnipeg is winning certain opportunities relative to Saskatchewan is because Winnipeg has better connectivity than Regina and Saskatoon, Kuffner said.

While efforts to increase tourism traffic in Manitoba have been relatively successful and economically material, business travellers are even more coveted from a financial point of view.

On average they spend almost three times more per day than the leisure traveller does.

And that’s where the connectivity issue really starts to pay off.

In 2022 there were 74 conferences and business meetings in Winnipeg generating close to $120 million in economic impact.

Natalie Thiessen, EDW vice-president for tourism, said the added connectivity of L.A. and Atlanta will elevate Winnipeg’s profile, which in turn means the city will start to become more competitive when bidding on national and international conferences and events; however those outcomes will materialize over time because many of those events are decided on years in advance.

But she noted the impact is already being felt through better attendance at events

“Anecdotally, I received a call recently from a U.S.-based association based in Washington, D.C., that’s coming here in February that has members across the U.S. And they said because of the Atlanta flight (which started at the beginning of February), we can now expect the numbers attending that meeting will increase,” she said.

There is much that goes into getting an airline to commit to a certain route. WestJet’s decision to operate Winnipeg to L.A. and Atlanta routes was aided by a $5 million fund the Winnipeg Airports Authority now has to work with thanks to the province.

But money is not enough to attract a route, nor would EDW or the airport even spend the money if they were not convinced the route was sustainable, Kuffner said.

“It just helps to de-risk the airline’s decision to start a route,” Kuffner said.

As passenger counts stack up, the incentive is phased out to the point where the route is fully sustainable.

“Our focus has been on not just buying routes but on routes that we know will last,” he said, meaning Chicago, Denver and New York.

EDW continues to look for ways to leverage the impact of the connectivity.

Kuffner and his team are working on flying in a group of Hollywood producers looking for places to ramp up production after the end of the writers strike.

“We can get them to understand the benefits of Manitoba’s film tax credit. We would not have the opportunity to even have that conversation without the direct connection to L.A.,” he said.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca