CASCADIA CONNECTION
The ceremonial seaplane flight inaugurating new service between Vancouver and Seattle lands Wednesday in the inner harbour carrying Mayor Gregor Robertson, federal Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and B.C. Innovation commissioner Alan Winter.
Two float-plane companies are scheduled to launch their new Vancouver to Seattle daily service Thursday, a day after an inviteonly inaugural flight that was a Cascadia corridor love fest.
Politicians and business leaders on both sides of the border heaped praise on the new downtown-to-downtown service as a way to increase tourism and business traffic between the two West Coast cities, especially in the tech field.
The Washington governor, Canada’s minister of innovation, Vancouver’s mayor, the head of Microsoft and the leader of Seattle’s chamber of commerce, speaking in Seattle after the hour-long flight from Vancouver, all envisioned the new, twice-daily flights by Vancouver’s Harbour Air and Seattle’s Kenmore Air as a boon to business and tourism.
“This new service underlines the potential that is possible between the two countries,” said Canada’s Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, who referred to the service as the “Nerd Bird” in reference to the cities’ growing tech centres. “We are in a global international race, but we’re not competing, we’re working together.”
“Many of our Washington (state) companies are doing business with B.C. and we all want to do much, much more,” said angel investor Heather Redman, owner of Flying Fish Partners and head of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
Microsoft president Brad Smith said his company ’s executives have always been supporters of a plane service between the two cities, “maybe even agitators for this route.”
“It’s a fantastic boost for both our cities,” said Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Our tech sectors are booming like never before.”
He said the flights would provide better connectivity and more collaboration.
“We’ve been sharing orcas for years and now we’re going to share our Otters and Beavers, too,” said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.
The flight definitely beats driving for speed over the 229-kilometre trip.
A vehicle that left Vancouver at the same time as the plane, with good traffic and no border delays, would have just hit Seattle’s outskirts by the time the two planes were ready to return to Vancouver, after the announcements and multiple photo ops at Seattle’s airport terminal.
Or put another way, before the car arrived at the border crossing (a 36-minute trip according to online maps), the two planes had already traversed Metro Vancouver, flown over Point Roberts and were well into Washington state.
Harbour Air’s plane for the route is a new Cessna Caravan, which can do the trip in under an hour. On Wednesday, it flew at 4,500 feet, affording passengers breathtaking views on a sunny day.
However, passengers have to first travel to the downtown terminals and check in for their flights 45 minutes before departure, adding to travel time.
The plane on Wednesday first landed on Lake Washington, Kenmore’s base and a possible stop on the flights (it’s closer to Microsoft). Passengers cleared U.S. Customs and the plane then hopped over the city in a five-minute ride to land on Lake Union near Seattle’s downtown.
The convenience and speed carries a hefty price tag of $370 Canadian one-way, likely putting it out of reach for typical tourists or cross-border shoppers. (Gas, even at $1.60 a litre Cdn would be under $100 for the round trip in most vehicles.)
Todd Banks, CEO of Kenmore Air, which moves 20,000 passengers a year on its scheduled flights between Victoria and Seattle, said the fights are an option for those not wanting to spend hours on the highway. And he said it would cut costs for businesses because they fly in and out the same day without incurring hotel stays.
The scheduled flights will give Seattle residents more time to conduct their business in Vancouver than the other way around. The morning plane from Seattle arrives in Vancouver at 9 a.m. and leaves later that day at 5:40 p.m., more than an eight-hour turnaround. The Seattle-bound morning flight arrives in Seattle at 10:30 a.m. and heads back to Vancouver at 4:10 p.m., less than six hours later.
Harbour Air CEO Greg McDougall said expanding to Seattle has been the airline’s goal for 20 years, but plans had in the past been stymied by the Canada Border Services Agency’s reluctance to expand customs clearance to the terminal.
He said Microsoft’s support of the expansion helped, as did an appeal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“He was very helpful in getting this to happen,” said McDougall.