Irish scholar campaigning to revive WestJet's St. John's-to-Dublin flight

An Irish scholar who studies Newfoundland and Labrador hopesto pressure WestJet into rethinking its recent move to axe its direct flights between St. John's and Dublin.

The newson Nov. 22that the airline was ending its seasonal service came as "complete disbelief and disappointment" to Kieran Cronin, a librarian at the Waterford Instituteof Technology's Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies.

WestJetsaid the route was underperforming, an explanation Cronin said "didn't add up."

• 'Very disappointing' news for city and tourism, as WestJet cancels direct St. John's-Dublin flight

"I've taken WestJetflights four times this year, and it was just my experience that the route was very popular," he said, adding he was even a passenger on the route's last day of service, Oct. 26, on what appeared to be a full flight.

When Cronin applied some academic scrutiny to WestJet's explanation, he found it wanting.

By compiling passenger numbers publicly available from Ireland's Central Statistics Office, Cronin said the amount of people flying into St. John's from Dublin has grown from 14,433 in 2014, to 22,045 in 2017. He also said there were slight gains in the reverse direction between 2016 and 2017.

"The figures, to me, are showing an annual modest, yet positive increase in the number of passengers, particularly from Ireland to Newfoundland," Cronin told CBCRadio's St. John's Morning Show.

'A call to action'

Cronin felt compelled to pen an open letter to WestJet, as a "call to action," he said, but aimedwider than just the airline by also appealing to the two countries' ambassadors.

"This route has a lot more significance than being just another discontinued route," he said, citing the lengthy immigration history between the southeast of Ireland and Newfoundland.

Immigration and trade between the two placesstretches back to approximately 1670.

"[Newfoundland] is the southeast of Ireland, parted from the sea," Cronin said.

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In addition to the open letter, Cronin is also active in a Facebook group dedicated to the same cause, and has been gathering as much public opinion on the matter as possible.

"The people I've been speaking to, they're very aware and conscious of their connections with Ireland, and this route offered them a way of linking back to Ireland," he said.

Cronin hopes to give people affected by WestJet's decision a voice, and detail "what gets lost when a route gets changed."

Ireland Newfoundland and Labrador boards agree

The boardsof two groups that aim to foster and celebrate connections between Ireland and NewfoundlandIreland Newfoundland Connections, in Ireland, andNewfoundland and Labrador Irish Connections, in Newfoundland are also upset about the change.

In a joint statement issued Wednesday, the groups called on Westjetto reconsider.

The statement said that in particular,the annual Ireland Newfoundland gathering in Ireland drew many customers ot the direct flights.

"The potential is there ...to build on this success and to generate many more passengers for the air route," it read.

"Nor ... should the potential to develop trade-led freight traffic between the two Atlantic islands be underestimated, having regard to the extent to which Newfoundland depends on imported food."

As of 2019, WestJet will offer service to Dublin via Halifax, and has notified any passengers who had booked through St. John's of the change.

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