Cascadia Air discontinues operations, had previously signed lease at Chilliwack Airport

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The regional commuter airline had signed a lease to serve the Chilliwack Airport, a move that was welcomed by Mayor Ken Popove and other elected officials in Chilliwack at the time. Patrons would have been able to fly to six destinations in B.C. through the Chilliwack Airport, including Abbotsford, Pitt Meadows, Vancouver, Campbell River, Tofino and Penticton.

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Image: Cascadia Air video on YouTube / Cascadia Air promoted regional travel and tourism in a splashy video on YouTube. It has now discontinued airline service due to unsustainable rising costs.

“We recognize that this decision is going to have a significant impact on those we serve,” Cascadia Air wrote in a statement. “The traumatic weather events (fires and floods) during the past few years, have demonstrated the need for a service such as ours. We are endeavoring to find a way to resume providing our services in the future.”

Cascadia Air is a small commuter airline with less than a dozen employees servicing various tourism and Lower Mainland destinations. It stressed that it would seek some kind of way forward with its employees, customers and supply chain.

“Our current focus is to address the viability of the company and we will be communicating with our employees, customers, and suppliers that are impacted,” Cascadia Air said in a statement that was only attributed to management and not a specific employee or official. “Over the next few weeks we will be reaching out to our customers and any entitled refunds will be issued as soon as possible. We thank you for your patience and support. We will provide updates regularly and as new information becomes available.”

The Chilliwack Airport previously had no scheduled commercial flights for over a decade prior to Cascadia Air’s arrival in the summer of 2022.

Cascadia Air became an essential transportation option to Chilliwack during the atmospheric river floods of November 2021.

“Cascadia was flying constantly in and out with doctors, nurses, and police officers, who all had to attend different areas up and down the valley,” Chilliwack Airport manager Garry Atkins said in July 2022. “It became a crucial part of the transportation link for Chilliwack, and I think that really made an impression on us on how they could handle that situation during that emergency.”