Labrador bound

On Aug. 4, the first flight from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to Gander in close to 20 years arrived on time at Gander International Airport. Gary Vey, president of the Gander International Airport  Authority (GIAA), said such service has not been available since the days of Atlantic Canadian airline Air Nova.

“It’s certainly an exciting event that’s happening for us today,” he said following the plane’s arrival.

The Air Canada flight is an 18-seat Beech 1900D flown by Gander-based operator EVAS Air. The flight takes one hour and 20 minutes to complete, and offers connections to Wabush and Sept-Iles, Quebec. It will operate year-round as a daily service and depart from Gander at 3:20 p.m.

“It joins the Labrador community to central Newfoundland for pleasure and certainly business,” said Mr. Vey.

“It’s a great plane, the safety record is equal to none, it’s flown in large centres – Toronto, Detroit, Orlando, Boston, Bangor – it’s a really beautiful little plane for the purpose that it’s intended here.”

EVAS Air president Pat White said the arrival of the flight that day was the culmination of a lot of hard work undertaken over the last year by all parties involved.

“EVAS Air did an amazing job of identifying the opportunity and moving forward with it,” said Mr. White. “We worked hand-in-hand with the airport authority here, and I’ve been around the block a long time working in this region with various groups, people, and organizations. Sometimes it’s a co-operative effort, and it works very well, and sometimes it’s a cluster and it doesn’t work ... the support we’ve received from the Gander International Airport Authority has been second to none. We could not have accomplished what we have without their support.”

“A new air service is the result of making a strong business case.” - Gary Vey

Mr. White said the flights between Gander and Labrador will offer substantial economic development opportunities, and in time he hopes to see the service expand.

“I know it may be an 18-seat aircraft, and you may think that can’t change the world, but an 18-seat aircraft can go to a 100-seat aircraft and a 200-seat aircraft. The economic development opportunities that are in Labrador are very significant, and the central part of this province for a very long time has not had direct access to that, and direct access is extremely important.”

Given the magnitude of the operation, Mr. White said he was surprised the news of the Gander-to-Labrador flight had managed to stay a secret for so long.