A pilot program launched by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is set to soon clear the way for non-stop flights between the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre in Coal Harbour and downtown Seattle.
Harbour Air Group last year announced that it had reached a partnership with Seattle’s Kenmore Air and planned to launch flights this spring that would be four times per week between Coal Harbour and Seattle’s Lake Union, near Amazon.com’s (Nasdaq:AMZN) headquarters.
Planning for this route has been going on for at least seven years.
Business in Vancouver reported in 2011 that the sticking point has long been whether the CBSA would have a customs facility at the Coal Harbour flight centre and whether the CBSA would charge high fees. There is already a customs facility at Seattle’s Lake Union terminal.
CBSA confirmed to Business in Vancouver that “a temporary CBSA clearance facility is being piloted” at the Coal Harbour flight centre.
Harbour Air’s marketing manager, Samantha Kent, told BIV that for the cross-border flights to take place, customs has to be in place where the planes take off and where they land.
For charter flights, customs officers can meet planes on an ad hoc basis, she said, while scheduled flights require steadier presence.
The flights would take less than an hour and avoid congestion at the U.S. border.
“Transportation is an important regional component to creating greater economic opportunity throughout the Cascadia innovation corridor,” said Edoardo De Martin, director of operations in Vancouver for Seattle-based technology giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT).
“We need multiple solutions to connect the region’s innovation hubs and we are thrilled by the continued momentum to help better connect Vancouver and Seattle,” De Martin said.
Expectations that non-stop flights are imminent follow an announcement earlier this month that the B.C. government is contributing $300,000 toward a business-case analysis of whether a high-speed land link between Vancouver and Seattle is feasible.
