The Saskatoon Airport will see a new WestJet flight to Minneapolis starting on June 19th.

The new addition will be departing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. CJ Duchinski, Vice President of Business Development at the Saskatoon airport explained the flight will link Saskatoon with 120 possible connections in Minneapolis for travel and cultural exchange between the two communities. She adds that in 2022, the airport had recovered only 65 per cent from pandemic levels, and this new flight will help support the airport’s recovery and growth efforts. This flight, along with increased WestJet connections to Calgary, will increase seats in Saskatoon by 50 percent over last year.

Mayor Charlie Clark said the connection into the United States will help support the hunting, fishing, and guiding industries in Northern Saskatchewan that were devastated during the pandemic.

Jeremy Harrison, the Government of Saskatchewan Minister of Trade and Export Developments spoke on the matter as well, saying the flight will help meet the government’s travel spending target, which is to increase spending on travel by 50 per cent to over $3 billion annually by 2030. On the heels of Thursday’s reporting by the NDP of significantly declining immigrant retention numbers in Saskatchewan, Harrison fired back.

“The reality is, under the NDP there was literally no immigration to Saskatchewan. Under our government we are seeing record amounts of immigration, we are seeing record population growth, 1.2 million people calling the province home,” said Harrison. “The NDP record was horrendous, abysmal, pathetic. The NDP actually lost population during their 16 years in government.”