Air Transat had all but sold out its Christmas season by late October, and Spring Break was fully booked by then, airport general manager Chuck Fast said.
”They’re really happy with the pre-selling,” Fast said in a November interview. Air Transat is also offering a through-fare to Calgary for $100, which connects travellers to all of its other flight destinations.
Air Transat’s charters come on the heels of the Comox Valley Airport earning national recognition for its high level of customer satisfaction, Fast said. Comox scored a 4.49 rating (out of 5.0) for airports with less than 500,000 passengers in the InterVISTAS-run survey. The survey was conducted in August, four months after the new F/O C. Cottingham Terminal opened.
”The 2004 survey results suggest that passengers are extremely satisfied with the new terminal building at Comox Valley Airport,” InterVISTAS wrote in its findings. The high satisfaction score was a significant improvement over the weak 3.52 rating recorded in 2003, InterVISTAS said.
Fast still didn’t have word on whether Horizon Air was going to start servicing a Comox-Seattle run, which he had high hopes for last year. He did say, however, that private charter business is picking up for the airport. More and more visitors are chartering aircraft or bringing in private aircraft to drop them off in Comox while they ski or golf, Fast said. For those who need to overnight their aircraft, Fast sends them on to Campbell River Airport, which is half an hour from Strathcona Parkway.