Northeast cities land air carrier. (Transportation).

Discount air carrier WestJet's expansion into Eastern Canada made its first landing in Sudbury last month, returning jet air service to the city for the first time in many years.

Beginning Dec. 10, Sudbury becomes the Calgary-based no frills carrier s 18th Canadian city to be added to its list of destinations. With 13 flights scheduled per week, the airline offers some eye-popping one-way fares as low as $79, including non-stop service from Sudbury to Hamilton, their Ontario hub.

The Sept. 6 announcement at the Sudbury airport ended months of speculation as to where in northeastern Ontario the airline would eventually set up shop. North Bay, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie were also in the running.

Bill Lamberton, WestJet's vice-president of marketing and sales, says Sudbury's central location in the region and population demographic were the deciding factors in their selection.

However, the city did package an attractive proposal a number of months ago that provided some undisclosed start-up incentives, says Sudbury's director of transportation Bob Johnston.

"But we can say we're open to other exist-. ing airlines and new routes, which add on business," Johnston says. "We'd treat them in the same light."

WestJet intends to create between 12 to 15 front-end positions, while the back-end ground support operations, including baggage handling and other services, will be contracted out to existing companies at the airport.

Though business travellers should undoubtedly flock to the discount carrier's ticket counter, Lamberton explains WestJet targets leisure travellers, who might otherwise not fly at all, and are in favour of cheaper forms of transportation.

"We market to the masses," Lamberton says. "Schedules are usually built around business traffic. Our model is building on people visiting friends and relatives and making air travel affordable to everyone."

So far their formula has worked. WestJet has had a profound impact on activity at airports they fly into, boosting volumes of passenger traffic anywhere from 35 to 50 per cent, he adds. Lamberton fully expects within the first month of full operation, slated for January 2002, overall air travel at Sudbury Airport should climb 50 per cent over the same month from the previous year.

West Jet flights alone should increase passenger traffic by 33 per cent, but other carriers usually follow their pricing lead, causing a "ripple effect" in local market stimulation, Lamberton says.

"(WestJet) is expecting similar results here," says Johnston. "They're in a growth pattern. The timing is good; we're going to have a new terminal building, now we have to sit down with all the tenants to negotiate the spaces."

The pending $4.9-million reconstruction of Sudbury's air terminal involving a 8,800-square-foot two-storey expansion should not interfere with West Jet's arrival.

"Right now we're finishing up those plans," says Johnston. "It's our intent to fender and begin construction in November, but because of the late start we'll be consulting with all our airlines and staff to make a decision on the best time to start from an economic and operations point of view."

With a fleet of 28 Boeing 737 aircraft, WestJet also services Victoria, Comox, Vancouver, Abbotsford/Fraser Valley, Prince George and Kelowna, B.C.; Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray, Alta.; Saskatoon and Regina, Sask.; Winnipeg, Man.; Thunder' Bay, Hamilton and Ottawa, Ont. and Moncton, N.B.

The airline recently took possession of four new 737-700 models for longer-haul flights to Eastern Canada and expects to add one aircraft this year and seven more in 2002.

Lamberton insists WestJet's announcement was in no way prompted by Air Canada's decision in August to launch its own lost-cost air carrier.

"We were on record as wanting to be the airline of choice in every region and to provide a network of travel throughout Canada. Northeastern Ontario was just a region we needed to get into," says Lamberton, in keeping pace with their 40 to 50 per cent system growth of the last five years.

While Lamberton said, during an interview in September, that it would be "a while" before WestJet considered extending service into other northeastern Ontario cities, less than a month later the carrier announced it was extending service into Sault Ste. Marie.

On Dec. 18, WestJet begins offering three scheduled flights per week -- Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays -- including nonstop flights directly to Winnipeg with one way fares starting at $109. It marks the first return of jet service to the Sault since the mid-1980s.

The announcement came as a surprise to the city, but officials at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corp. who had been talking and exchanging proposals with WestJet for almost two years.

"It's certainly going to be a positive initiative for us," to help recover passenger traffic lost within the past year-and-half due to consolidation of Canada's main carriers, says Jerry Dolcetti, president and CEO of the Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corp., Dolcetti says with fewer competitive fares, and travellers choosing other less expensive modes of transportation, the ripple effect on the Sault airport has translated to 20,000 fewer passengers' and about $250,000 in lost revenue.

"(The WestJet service) adds more choice, greater flexibility and certainly the price offering is very attractive," Dolcetti says.

While Thunder Bay has waived its airport improvement fee, represented by a $10 surcharge on tickets, in exchange for improved service, Sudbury and the Sault have not.