Come fly the crowded skies
Air Canada announces Iqaluit flights to start in March
Air Canada is making an inroad into the Eastern Arctic, starting March 28, 2010. The 75-seat CRJ 705, the jet Air Canada Jazz plans to fly on its Montreal-Ottawa-Iqaluit route, is seen in an undated handout image provided by manufacturer Bombardier. (HANDOUT PHOTO)
Nov. 19 — Note to readers: After the publication of this story Nov. 10, First Air and Canadian North each dropped their Ottawa-Iqaluit fares to match fares offered by Air Canada Jazz. As of this week, each airline now offers a one-way price of $599 on that route. With taxes and other add-ons, that produces a return fare of just under $1200. Readers should also be aware that all airlines serving this route may make adjustments to their advertised fares at any time. The fares quoted in the bottom paragraph of this story are those offered Nov. 10, the day the story was researched and written.
For months, the rumour mill was adamant that one of Canada’s national airlines was about to start flying planes to Nunavut.
It turns out the rumours are true. Air Canada announced Monday it will begin flying between Montreal, Ottawa and Nunavut March 28, 2010.
The daily flight on Air Canada Jazz will originate in Montreal, stop in Ottawa and arrive in Iqaluit just before 1 p.m. Fares start at $599 each way, plus taxes and fees.
“We expect our new service to be popular with both government and business travellers, as well as leisure travellers looking to experience the striking and remarkable landscape of Canada’s arctic,” Marcel Forget, Air Canada’s vice president of network planning, in a news release.
Iqaluit mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik said she welcomes airline competition, but is concerned about the impact Air Canada will have on the Inuit-owned airlines.
“My worry is that they [Air Canada] will disrupt totally our own airlines,” she said. “Is Air Canada going to set up infrastructure in every community or are they only going to go into the hubs?”
Air Canada’s Northern rivals lashed out at the planned flights, questioning the national carrier’s commitment to the North.
“It’s not fair,” complained Charlie Lyall, a board member with Norterra, the Inuit-owned company that runs Canadian North. “They don’t return anything to the communities. How many hockey teams are they going to take to Ottawa? Not too many. How many people are they going to give passes to so they can go to funerals?”
Lyall also criticized the decision by Air Canada to jump into Nunavut’s most lucrative route, and leaving other communities unserved.
“People will fly on Air Canada and still expect services from Canadian North. It makes a tough business tougher.”
Chris Ferris, First Air’s vice president of marketing and sales, said Air Canada’s fares seemed designed to be low enough to just undercut his airline’s fares.
“Obviously they recognize it’s a high cost environment to do business in, even when you don’t have the millions of dollars of investment in infrastructure and employees that we have in Iqaluit,” he said.
Angela Mah, an Air Canada spokesperson, said the new route will focus on passengers, not cargo. She said the route would also make it easier for Iqaluit passengers to connect with national and international flights.
What’s not clear is what kind of presence Air Canada Jazz will have in Iqaluit. The airline presumably will need counter space, ticket agents, mechanics and baggage handlers. Mah referred questions about local staffing to an Air Canada Jazz spokeswoman, who said she could not provide any information about that.
And Iqaluit’s airport is already over capacity, both inside the terminal and on the apron. A planned new terminal building is on the Government of Nunavut’s radar, but still years away.
Ferris said he’s concerned Air Canada’s arrival in the Nunavut market will lead to crowding at the Iqaluit airport.
“Having three jet flights going out of there around the same time of the day, plus all the connecting turboprop flights in and out of the communities, it’s a very congested environment,” he said.
The flights will be operated by Air Canada Jazz, which will use 75-seat Bombardier CRJ 705 regional aircraft. Bombardier’s website claims these planes are quieter and more fuel-efficient, with a cost per seat 14 per cent less than similar planes.
Planes that are cheaper to fly than the Boeing 737s commonly used on the Ottawa-Iqaluit run, will allow Air Canada to go after market share on price. Their opening fare from Ottawa to Iqaluit comes in under $1,200, plus tax and fees, for a return flight. As of Nov. 9, the same flight on Canadian North cost about $1,318, and on First Air about $1,790.
With files from Jane George.
(12) Comments:
I hope Air Canadda ends up losing money trying to fly this route, the only people it can potentially benefit are residents of Iqaluit as the smaller communities will end up having to pay more to get to Iqaluit.
The NNI policy better apply for all Government of Nunavut Employees when travelling on government business.
I am still disgusted with First Air’s handout of bonuses to Makkivik. I support Canadian North. That will be my first choice when I book flights.
Fortunately for the residents of Iqaluit, they have much competition and awesome services but unfortunately the rest of us don’t. We (Nunavik) have no other airlines competing for our money. Air Inuit costs us (without discounts) a fare of over $ 3600.00 return airfare from Salluit to Montreal return and more than $ 10.00 a kilogram for cargo and the lowest allowable baggage weight (20 kg) per person. We are not offered nor can use any accumulated points privileged to others such as aeroplan or air miles.
I for one am happy that we finally have a bit of competition in Iqaluit, its about time something like this happens!! The price for airline tickets is just absolutely ridiculous. Air Canada is MOST welcome if you ask me!
This appears on the face of it to be good for Iqaluit, and that’s about all. And what’s good for Iqaluit, in this case, is very bad for the rest of the Baffin Region and probably all of Nunavut. All the hamlets (any community in Baffin outside Iqaluit) will pay, and pay dearly, for the hit that First Air and Canadian take to their mainline revenue. That’s what’s happening north of Yellowknife, where four airlines are fighting for a finite number of customers.
Air Canada will serve only Iqaluit. But First Air and Canadian North will continue to carry freight and passengers to the hamlets. FA and CN will both sell interline fares (less than the sum of the 2 sectors) to people from, say, Pond Inlet wanting to go to Ottawa. That way they protect their hamlets markets and feed their jets with those people. But sector fares north of Iqaluit will sky-rocket.
Some predictions:
Both northern carriers will share all patient travel. The GN will probably insist on that.
Both FA and CN will carefully construct interline fares from hamlets to Ottawa/Montreal to ensure that passengers from the hamlets feed their own jets, not Jazz.
CN will not survive. Adding this to their YK woes will be the kiss of death.
FA will get the food mail contract and post office contracts again, because CN will not survive long enough to bid on them. With CN gone, FA will get all of the medical flights, which will help their survival.
First Air will struggle for a long time, with cargo, food mail, canada post, medical travel, price wars, and loyalists. It’s possible that ultimately they could just be a regional carrier and a freight carrier, but I doubt it, I think they will survive. CN won’t.
And hamlets will pay through the nose.
if i were to fly from vancouver to winnipeg cost little over 300.00 then if i were to fly from whitehorse to rankin inlet cost over 3000.00 can anybody explain? and it is same distance
We as from Nunavik then should be served from Iqaluit to the closest community to get connections for that, that way, we would benefit from the competition and get connection from Iqaluit to Ottawa/Montreal.
Norterra then should really looked into it to fly at least once a week to get connection for the service. It takes less than an hour to fly from my community to Iqaluit.
It’s been too long now that we are served with high cost of fares to go south. When Canadian airline was still serving from Kuujjuaq, the fares were much lower on both airline of the north, but then when CA pull-out from that route, the fare got really soared.
Well, the fear mongering starts. Glad to see a few of First Air’s unofficial mouthpieces speaking up for them….if you don’t know their connections, then you haven’t been around long enough.
Personally I don’t give a rat’s ass who I fly with as long as I have a choice and I don’t pay through the nose like we’ve been doing for years! I, like any smart consumer, will do business with the company who offers the best price for the best product offered.
AND don’t give me that crap about loyalty to either First Air or Canadian North or NNI etc. NNI doesn’t apply to wither northern airline anyways and is a faulty policy that inflates the cost of doing business in Nunavut. As someone who has dealt with both these airlines and their predecessors for the past 20+ years, I don’t owe them anything and neither do you!!!!
Hopefully WestJet will also come to town and we can really enjoy the competition and rates that Yellowknifer’s now enjoy!
Air Canada is a desperate airline that is willing to do desperate things to stay out of bankruptcy. Their stock is down 33% in 3 months and Porter Airlines took over almost all the traffic on their most popular route Montreal-Toronto. Air Canada has cut their rates on almost all routes because of heavy competition from Westjet and Porter. Air Canada flights to Iqaluit will have a positive short-term impact for Iqaluit residents but will in the long run, First Air and Air Inuit can never compete with a desperate national airline, and this will result in higher rates for northbound flights. As a listed company on the Toronto Stock Exchance, Air Canada has shareholders to satisfy as priority number one. The federal government and the Nunavut government should keep a close eye on our national carrier entering a truly unique market where air transportation is not a luxury, but a lifeline for communities.
Air Canada’s fares are still way too high!! Ottawa to YFB is the same as Ottawa to Saskatchewan flights and fares on that route are under $300 one way.
Just how much more expensive is it to land in the north because that’s the only difference. $250 a passenger? I don’t think so. Maybe $50? Also, those CRJ-700’s have NO cargo / baggage capacity!! They are stretched business jets.
If low fares are what Iqualuit wants, then we better hope WJ flies there once or twice a week. They have 130 seat aircraft that can easily carry enough fuel to fly north and back and take 3 50lb bags free for every passenger.
I love the sound of $699 roundtrip!! I could go every 3 months instead of once a year!!
Air Canada is going to the north too fast too early. The north again has “miraged” the minds of southerners. It is not as lucrative as other destinations.
AC didn’t do enough R&D therefore the O&M will not be sustainable. The airline will dissappear as fast as it appeared. That is my prediction.