When Air Canada’s Boeing 737 Max 8 landed at Nanaimo Airport this week, it did more than deliver 168 passengers — it gave the facility’s managers something to boast about when chasing more business.
The Max 8 flew from Vancouver to Nanaimo, carrying a group of 90 students from Toronto, plus other passengers on a regularly scheduled flight. That type of aircraft could provide direct flights to Toronto, Montreal or possibly Hawaii and Mexico, he said. Nanaimo’s rapidly growing population, now more than 100,000, is another plus for any campaign to attract more airlines to the facility, he said. “They want to be in places that are growing.”