De Beers Canada is moving its twice-weekly charter flights for employees from Edmonton to Calgary this summer.
The move was announced on Tuesday.
The change will take effect on July 18, and comes following the company’s relocation of their Canadian headquarters to Calgary Airport last year.
The new direct flights will take employees to and from the Gahcho Kué diamond mine, 1,401 km from Calgary. Currently employee charter flights come in and out through a private terminal in Edmonton.
” That is very much a permanent move as we reorganize ourselves so that we are in the centre of gravity in Canada,” said Kim Truter, CEO of De Beers Canada. He says the biggest benefit from this move is efficiency.
“In the current arrangement over in Edmonton, the employees fly to a private terminal which is about a 15 minute bus trip,” he explained, saying that it can take upwards of half an hour for employees to make it onto their flights.
“Now they’re actually inside the terminal. It’s logistically much easier for people [to fly through Calgary], and it gives them access to more flights.”
Summit Air will charter the flights using their Calgary-based passenger jet aircraft, leaving from concourse B in the domestic terminal.
Around 150 mine-based employees will be flown in and out of Calgary every week, while approximately 68 support staff based in the province will regularly fly up to Gahcho Kué.
