Commercial air passengers in two northern New Brunswick communities are being grounded. Air Labrador is ending its service in Charlo and Miramichi.

People will have to travel to Bathurst or Moncton to catch a flight and some say this will hurt the region's already weak economy.

The communities of Charlo and Miramichi will be without commercial air service after Jan. 15 when Air Labrador pulls out.

A spokesperson says there aren't enough passengers to justify flying into the communities. But Bruce MacIntosh, the mayor of Campbellton, disagrees.

MacIntosh is also on the board of directors for the Charlo Airport. He says the service was beginning to attract more passengers.

"I think they made a decision that our service was probably taking passengers off of the existing service in Bathurst and they made a decision to cut one of them out," he says.

MacIntosh says the communities aren't giving up on the idea of air service. He says Charlo Airport officials have been in contact with Air Cree-bec. The First Nations run airline has shown an interest in the region before.

"We're going to be meeting with the First Nations in the next two days to get their support for the flight service into Charlo," he says.

MacIntosh says the northern region continues to struggle to attract economic development, and cutting air service to the two communities isn't going to help.