About 750,000 Edmontonians make their way south on the QEII every year just to catch a flight out of Calgary.
In order to break “The Calgary Habit,” Edmonton International Airport (EIA) launched an intervention campaign yesterday to stop travellers from the Edmonton region from flying via Calgary.
“Four or five years ago, it might have been necessary to fly out of Calgary,” said Peter McCart, VP, marketing and business development for EIA. “But today we’ve got 50 non-stop destinations from Edmonton International, so you don’t need to anymore.”
Representatives from the airport will be staging a series of grassroots promotions and events to remind Edmontonians about the importance of supporting the airport’s growing non-stop destinations.
“We as Edmontonians want to fly non-stop from our airport, we don’t want to drive to Calgary and we don’t want to connect through Calgary,” McCart said. “We want to go from A to B without going through C.”
Andrew Hopkyns, director of business development for AMA Travel, said the number of people driving to Calgary to catch a flight shocks him.
“Seven-hundred and fifty thousand Edmontonians will drive that 31/2 hour, tough highway to take planes out of Calgary that are readily available out of Edmonton,” he said. “I just don’t understand it.”
