‘Big for Manitoba’: New direct flight to Los Angeles from Winnipeg

Winnipeggers itching to go to Hollywood are going to have a neater time making the journey by air.

WestJet is ready to supply three year-round direct flights every week from Winnipeg’s airport to Los Angeles.

“That is big for Manitoba,” says Premier Heather Stefanson. “What WestJet is asserting at the moment is totally unbelievable for our economic system right here in Manitoba, for tourism, for therefore many alternative industries right here in Manitoba.”

In keeping with Stefanson, a direct route from Winnipeg to L.A. will bolster Manitoba’s thriving movie trade, which introduced in $365 million to the province’s economic system final 12 months, regardless of setbacks from the pandemic.

This announcement comes after the province spent nearly $5 million in an effort to extend direct flights between Winnipeg and different main worldwide areas final week. These funds got here from the province’s $50-million Pandemic Lengthy-Time period Restoration Fund.

Interim CEO for Manitoba Movie and Music, Rod Bruinooge, anticipates the route will provide dramatic development for the trade.

“Once I was concerned within the trade 20 years in the past, we’d get about $30 million in movie enterprise a 12 months. This previous 12 months, we’re into a 3rd of a billion, which is a dramatic development,” he says. “Managing that development is all the time difficult, however we’re seeing big bulletins occurring within the subsequent variety of months–this one is the beginning of it.

“By having a direct path to Manitoba, movie productions which are very large-scale will think about coming right here.”

The primary direct flight to L.A. will take off on Halloween.

— With recordsdata from Sam Thompson

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