St. John's International Airport Authority (SJIAA) CEO Peter Avery was not altogether surprised by the announcement, but admitted it wasn't an outcome they'd anticipated at the beginning of the year or when the organization prepared its 2021 operating budget.

"With the change in the pandemic and the restrictions, obviously now that we can't fly to Halifax without a 14-day quarantine on their end, it's not surprising," Avery told The Telegram.

The pause on St. John’s operations comes less than a week after public health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador implemented Alert Level 5 in response to rising COVID-19 cases, effectively putting the province in lockdown. Nova Scotia recently announced people entering the province from Newfoundland and Labrador would have to self-isolate for a two-week period.

Spread out over the course of a full year, Avery estimates the loss of the St. John's-to-Halifax route filled at 25 per cent capacity would result in a $500,000 hit to SJIAA’s revenue from airport improvement fees. WestJet was using a 78-seat Dash 8-400 plane for the route, which was down to three flights a week. Last October, WestJet cut the direct St. John’s-to-Toronto route. At that time, the St. John’s-to-Halifax service operated with 11 weekly flights.