Across the country, 2023 began with flight delays and cancellations and then Sunwing announced it could no longer manage its schedule. The Vice President of Business Development and Service Quality at the Saskatoon Airport, CJ Duchinski, describes 2023 as a year of change and fluctuation.

The challenges stemmed from a shortage of pilots and aircraft across the country. Then Air Canada announced it would no longer continue its flight to Calgary, but West Jet then added two more, going from 7 to 9 flights a day.

It began to turn around in the second half of the year. Air Canada is planning four daily non-stop flights from Saskatoon to both Toronto and Vancouver, up from three, and nine daily round-trip flights to Montreal beginning in June. The airport is expecting more good news from West Jet and is in talks with Porter Airlines and Lynx Air. Duchinski estimates the airport will be at 86 per cent of its pre-pandemic passenger level for 2023 and the goal is to reach 100 per cent in 2024, and move forward from there.

Another highlight of the year was the main runway being renovated, which Duchinski says was a huge project because it meant having to close the runway and revert traffic to the secondary runways through the summer. Coming up in 2024 is the final renovation to the terminal, which is the arrivals hall. The work was delayed because of the pandemic.