Travel disruptions continue in Regina after Calgary hailstorm

Travellers flying out of Regina are still experiencing some disruptions following last week’s hailstorm in Calgary.

The storm on August 5 dropped hailstones the size of golf balls on the Alberta city, leading WestJet to ground 10 per cent of its fleet for inspections and repairs.

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Justin Reves, the Regina Airport’s director of public relations, said there have been some ongoing cancellations in the wake of the major storm.

“Overall, it hasn’t been too bad, but we will see as we continue onward,” said Reves.

“Certainly, the couple of days right after the hailstorm is when I would say WestJet was more scrambling.”

He said an average of one or two flights from Regina to Calgary are being cancelled each day.

“We still have six to seven flights per day to Calgary, so it’s a small reduction in capacity,” Reves explained. “However, something passengers do want to check if they’re traveling onward from Calgary is if flights going forward could be slightly impacted.”

He said it’s important for travellers to keep an eye out for cancelled flights as the airlines work to recover after the storm.

“They are having to move their planes to different places to fill in the  gaps, so there could be some cancellations to some destinations,” Reves said.

But despite the lingering issues, Reves assured travellers that they will still be able to get to their destinations.

“It may not be exactly the same route – for example, they may have to bounce through another city to get to where they want to go – but WestJet should still be good to get them to wherever they need in a reasonable amount of time,” he said.

But, he noted, it’s difficult to predict if cancelled flights will be rescheduled for the same day.

“I just don’t know how full those planes are, and if they’re at capacity or not to always get on the next flight,” he explained.

“Hopefully they can just move people onto a different flight, and hopefully it’s the same day, but I can’t say that for sure.”

But now that the airline has had some time to adjust after the hailstorm, Reves said they should be in a much better spot.

“I imagine it was a lot more chaotic in the day or two following that,” said Reves.

“We would certainly advise everybody to make sure they can have the WestJet app or sign up for email communications. We’ve heard that the phone lines are still busy there, so electronic forms of communication are good.”

–with files from The Canadian Press