CBC News: Flight Academy Boosts Medicine Hat Airport Traffic
Medicine Hat Regional Airport is one of the fastest growing in Canada by air traffic activity this quarter
Reporter: Edi Ridder: CBC News · Posted: Dec 13, 2025 6:00 AM MST
Read the CBC online story here: Flight academy boosts Medicine Hat airport traffic | CBC News
Watch the CBC news video story here: Medicine Hat airport sees boost in air traffic thanks to flight academy | CBC.ca
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Claire Courty is one of more than 50 high school students contributing to a surge in activity at the regional airport in Medicine Hat, Alta.
The 17-year-old says she has taken to the sky over southeast Alberta at least 20 times since the start of the year thanks to Prairie Rose public division’s flight school.
A partnership launched six years ago between the Dave Rozdeba South Alberta Flight Academy and Super T Aviation allows Courty and her peers to acquire their private pilot's licence along with their high school diploma.
That training, according to airport manager Logan Boyd, is a key contributor in positioning Medicine Hat Regional Airport as one of the fastest growing in Canada by air traffic activity this quarter.
The year-to-date number of takeoffs and landings on the Medicine Hat runway is 48 per cent higher compared to the 12 months prior, according to Statistics Canada figures.
Records show there were 28,263 movements at Medicine Hat’s airport, up from 19,097 the previous year.
The high school academy is responsible for roughly a third of those movements, or about 4,700 flights, according to Super T Aviation director Doug Little.
And he said that's been steadily increasing.
Little added he expects the airport to fly past 30,000 movements during the next year due to more training opportunities, including with the flight academy.
Boyd also credited the increased activity to HALO Air Ambulance, an emergency response service based at the airport that flies a pair of helicopters across southeast Alberta, and fixed-wing patient transfer service CanWest Air.
‘A lot of adrenaline’
Courty, who is halfway through Grade 12, had her opening “discovery flight” in September 2023. A few months later, she took over the controls for the first time.
“It was really exciting. It was a lot of adrenaline,” Courty told CBC News from inside a workshop by the airport where students in her program are building a small plane.
The flight students spend a large part of their week at Prairie Rose’s new building by the airport, when they aren’t at their high school studying with everyone else.
Courty is on a fast track to become a commercial pilot, helped along by the academy she’ll graduate from next spring. That puts her ahead of many potential competitors for the price of $15,000 — half the cost of typical flight schools.
When it was first launched in 2019, the academy had only 11 students. That number has skyrocketed over the past few years to 51 in 2025.
Reagan Weeks, superintendent of Prairie Rose Public Schools, said students learn skills that can be used across the industry.
“That includes leadership, public speaking, chances to have mock interviews — that they're able to be successful candidates when out seeking employment,” said Weeks, who was key in developing the program.
“Also, once you have the confidence of being able to fly an airplane, you begin to develop that sense that, ‘Wow, if I put my mind to anything, I might be able to accomplish it.’”
She said a member of the inaugural academy class who graduated in 2021 was recently hired to be a commercial pilot for WestJet — a first for the academy.
'Grow the sector'
The boost in activity is welcome for an airport that has yet to return to the number of passengers it received prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were approximately 33,000 passengers at YXH last year, according to the City of Medicine Hat's 2024 annual report, far below the airport's pre-pandemic peak of about 75,000 in 2019.
The airport offers one flight between Medicine Hat and Calgary daily through WestJet's Encore service, a far cry from the multiple carriers and several flights a day before the pandemic.
“The more activity we can show out here ... is only going to grow the sector and attract investment," said Boyd.
Premier Danielle Smith has previously said building up regional and rural airports is an important part of Alberta’s transportation strategy.
In 2024, her United Conservative government provided Medicine Hat’s airport with $275,000 in grants to fund an ongoing master plan that could determine future expansion.
Selena McLean-Moore, director of Medicine Hat's economic development team, described the flight academy as “a significant economic enabler” for the region.
“Through the training, they are able to support a pipeline of workforce that could impact our defence and aerospace industry in southeast Alberta,” she said.