Air Canada is reducing the number of daily flights between Sarnia and Toronto, and will use larger planes to improve service reliability.
City of Sarnia Assistant Solicitor and Risk Manager Dan Byskal said they're switching to 37-seat Bombardier Dash 8 planes from the Beechcraft 1900D's that have about 20 seats.
"One of the things that they're focussing on our market is to provide us with planes that are larger and less susceptible to mechanical failures as well as increasing capacity," said Byskal. "The new change is actually going to have more seats per day and hopefully with less frustrations regarding cancellations due to mechanical features."
Byskal says they're going to switch from five daily flights to two flights per day in the fall season, and three flights during the summer season."
The new schedule, to come into effect November 1, will see departures from Sarnia at 9:20 a.m. and 6:35 p.m.
A 2 p.m. flight is tentatively scheduled for next summer.
Having fewer flights between Sarnia and Toronto will address scheduling constraints at Pearson International Airport that can land about 90 flights an hour.
Airport operator Clare Webb said they're "very excited" about the changes that will require some renovations in the terminal at Chris Hadfield Airport.
"The secured area is not really big enough for the 37-seat aircraft," said Webb. "So we've started the discussion already doing some minor renovations at the airport, and we hope to have that well underway, if not completed, by the first of November."
Webb said they hope to attract local air travellers who have been driving to London to catch planes because of reliability issues.
The City of Sarnia continues to gather public input on the state of the local airport as it develops a master plan for the next 20 years.
A facilitated public meeting is being held Tuesday, September 25 from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at city hall.
Those that aren't able to attend the meeting can submit comments online at www.smartsarnia.com.