Helijet International has announced the addition of more scheduled flights between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, as B.C. continues to reopen.
Starting June 8, the number of flights between Vancouver and Victoria will increase to five round trips each weekday, up from three daily roundtrips.
The number of roundtrip flights is set to double between Vancouver and Nanaimo, increasing daily roundtrips from two to four during the week.
It’s not just the number of flights that are changing, but the current schedule will be adjusted to allow aircraft to take off earlier in the day.
The first Vancouver-to-Victoria flight will depart at 7:00 a.m., and the first Vancouver-to-Nanaimo flight will leave at 7:10 a.m.
Daily schedules will also end later in the day, with the last flight leaving Nanaimo at 6:00 p.m. The last flight from Victoria departs at 6:30 p.m.
“With businesses gradually reopening, and the provincial government planning to resume sitting later this month, we’re preparing to support additional travel demand for our flights to and from Vancouver Island,” says Danny Sitnam, President and CEO of Helijet.
“Although the entire air travel industry has been severely impacted by COVID-19, we pledged to keep operating with a reduced flight schedule as an essential service link to safely serve our communities, our dedicated guests and to keep the majority of our workforce employed. We are now in a stronger position to increase service provision as our guest numbers are anticipated to climb.”
Helijet continues to utilized strict sanitizing and physical distancing protocols, including:
- Limiting the maximum number of passengers in all aircraft to six, instead of the usual 12, to increase the distance between travellers
- Sanitizing aircraft cabins before each flight, as well as disinfecting high touch areas within the cabin and cockpit.
- Providing a detailed disinfection regime for all aircraft at the end of every day, to ensure no contaminants remain for passengers who board the aircraft next
- Making hand sanitizer available to all travellers and staff at each terminal
- Deeper cleaning of terminal facilities, washrooms and offices on a more frequent basis
- Complimentary food and beverage service at terminals consists of grab-and-go pre-packaged foods and beverages only
To ensure the federal COVID-19 travel restrictions are followed, all passengers are subject to a health check before boarding any flights. Travellers will be asked specific questions about any symptoms or any mandatory Public Health quarantine.
All air passengers must also have a removable, non-medical mask or face covering to cover their mouth and nose during travel, and all customers will be asked to show they have the masks during check-in.
The Canadian-owned company is the world’s largest scheduled helicopter airline, carrying over 2.4 million passengers in the past 34 years. Helijet also provides medically equipped helicopters to the BC Air Ambulance Service, which is operated by the province’s BC Emergency Health Services.
Rebecca Lawrence
