Alaska Airlines cuts some flights out of Bellingham
Posted February 25, 2015 10:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – If you’re thinking about planning a trip to Las Vegas or Hawaii, you’ll have fewer flights to choose from.
Alaska Airlines has reduced its service to Las Vegas and Honolulu out of Bellingham Airport. Instead the airlines will be sticking to seasonal flights only that include direct flights from November to March.
Claire Newell with Travel Best Bets isn’t surprised by the cuts. “A lot of people are looking at the comparison between leaving from Bellingham compared to YVR and they’re finding that with the dollar as low as it is, sometimes for them, it’s not worth them making the trip to Bellingham and leaving from there.”
She says fewer people are flying out to those sunny American destinations anyway and opting to go to places like Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.
With the loonie so low, she says it’s a tough and competitive market. “To go to Hawaii there’s a lot of lift out of both Bellingham and YVR, so lots of competition. What this means for the consumer though is that we’re not going to have as many seats in he market which again drives up prices a little.”
She doesn’t think this will be the end of Canadian travel out of BLI, as she says once the dollar bounces back you’ll see the traffic over the line pick up. “I don’t think the bubble has burst. I think that when the Canadian dollar strengthens we will see people cross that border and again leave out of Bellingham. Still at this time, the taxes are so much cheaper and the airport fees, so people are still going, they’re just not going as readily as they were previously.”