A&B - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 17, 2001 TERRACE STANDARD Business REvIEw Airline shakeup Jets to disappear here AIR CANADA Regional patrons will no longer be flying in a jet plane as a result of massive lay offs and flight restruciuring an- nounced by Air Canada last week. Air Canada Regicnal is cutting 20 per cent of their capacity across Canada as well as removing jets from their regional services. “We are planning to re- move all of our regional jets from our fleet which will take the next several months to complete,” said Air Canada Regional’s corporate communications manager Dennis Erickson. Air Canada Regional currently operates a Fok- ker F-28 and a BAE 146 out of Terrace but those will be replaced by ‘the Dash-8 twin propeller planes in the months ta come. “The primary reason we are removing these two particular aircraft types 15 that these aircraft are the most expensive to operate in the Air Canada Regio- nal fleet,” said Erickson. He said the Dash-8, the same type of plane. used by local carrier Hawkair, will become “the back- bone of Air Canada Regio- nal’s fleet.” That means passengers will experience longer flights than they would on the jets. “It does mean the flying time will be longer,” Er- ickson conceded. The Dash-8 cruises at 325 miles per hour while the Fokker F28 has a cruising speed of 920 miles per hougin. sere. ++ | He added'the latger jets also have more space for passengers than current demand meets, “We really have been in a crisis situation especi- ally since Sept. 11,” Er- ickson said. He said passenger bookings since the terrorist altacks in the US have dropped between 50-60 percent throughout the en- tire Air Canada Regional network. However, many passen- gers flying Air Canada Re- gional prior to Sept. 11 are saying the loads then were very low. Some passengers said flights to Vancouver on Air Canada Regional had as little as 6-16 passengers on a plane that can accom- modate 60. And even Erickson said prior to Sept. 11 Air Cana- da was forecasting their fi- nancial results to be below budget “due to a declining economy, a drop in busi- ness and growth in compe- tition.” Erickson would not say specifically how much, ‘if any, passenger bookings between here and Vancou- ver have dropped since Sept. 11. Out & About Building up CONSTRUCTION is up in Terrace. City statistics show it issued more than $2 mil- lion worth of building per- mits in September, That pushes the year-to- date total to $11.8 million. That's more than double the record-low pace of last year, which saw less than $5 million worth of con- struction started by the same point. The September numbers. were dominated by . the start of construction on the Overwaitea expansion, worth $1.95 million. © BAE 146 jets will be phased out on this route by Air Canada Regional, say of- ficlals with the airline. They'll be replaced by turboprop Dash-&s. But local travel agent Diane Francis said she hasn't observed that great a drop in bookings on the regional flights. “It’s not the Terrace- Vancouver that. has changed a lot, it’s the transborder and tour bookings,” she said. Not only will Air Cana- da Regional’s type of air- craft here change in the coming months but sche- dules here will likely ‘change also. Air Canada Regional is Smile and Whitening By Dr. Zucchiatti ADENT DENTAL CLINIC Phone: 635-2552 4623 Lakelse Avenue, Terrace Mon-Fri © 8:00 am - 5:00 pm implementing something called route rationalisation where certain flights that are currently non-stop could be altered to include a stop in the future, “Um nat here to say there’s a plan in two weeks to pul Terrace and Prince Rupert together again, but that’s what route rationalisation means.” Erickson said. “Changes will take place early in October with other changes to fol- low in November to com- Dr. Joe Zucchiatti 20 years of mercury-free dentistry Founding member and treasurer of the Western Canadian Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry’. General Practiionier Providing services in: Mercury-free white fillings Teeth Whitening Porcelain Veneers and Crowns Microabrasion Dentistry (No drilling, no freezing) Hygiene and Preventive Care intra-oral camera assisted Diagnosis For your comfort, we have overhead televisions and headsets. 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