When the Trail Regional Airport (TRA) opened its new terminal building on Nov. 29 there was only one problem — the Pacific Coastal flight that was scheduled to arrive in the morning with some dignitaries for the opening ceremony couldn’t land at the airport.
Due to weather conditions, the plane was diverted to land at Castlegar’s West Kootenay Regional Airport (WKRA).
Passengers were then transported by Pacific Coastal’s shuttle to the Trail airport.
WKRA manager Gerry Rempel explained that planes scheduled for Trail landings are diverted to Castlegar about eight times a year, mostly during the winter months.
“We are a public airport, so anybody can land here and we encourage it,” said Rempel.
The Trail airport is unable to reciprocate when commercial flights can’t land in Castlegar as per Transport Canada regulations, the TRA runway is too short for the Dash-8 planes that fly into Castlegar.
“Weather affects everybody at some point or another,” added Rempel.
A flight scheduled for later in the day was able to land and the ribbon was cut, opening the new terminal.
The new terminal is 4,200 sq. ft. and includes a business lounge, snack centre and kids corner.
EDITORS NOTE: The story has been updated to reflect that the plane that did not land was the plane with the dignitaries and the actual number of diverted flights.