Canada needs to make the air-travel industry more competitive to help drive down the high cost of plane tickets for Canadians, says an international consumer advocacy group..David Clement, North American affairs manager at the Consumer Choice Centre (CCC), said pre-pandemic statistics show Canada has costly airfares, more than double that of the US and other countries. .CCC is an international consumer advocacy group that, among other things, works to reduce industry regulators that lead to “less consumer choice and makes products more expensive,” says the website.."Prior to the pandemic, Canada ranked 65th compared to other countries for flight affordability," Clement told the Western Standard. ."Airfare in Canada is significantly more expensive than what people pay in the US, or in New Zealand and Portugal." .According to statistics released before the pandemic, Clement said the cost per 100 kilometres travelled for Canadians was 2.1 times higher than the US, 2.8 times higher than New Zealand and 3.6 times higher than in Portugal. ."There are simple ways to increase competition in the Canadian airline industry," said Clement, indicating WestJet and Air Canada control the majority of domestic seats across the country. ."Many people don't know this, but it's illegal for an international carrier to fly domestic routes in Canada. It's a problem in a lot of other countries." .Clement said doing away with that alone would "very quickly increase competition in the market and help lower airfare costs.".He said another way to help create more competition would be to eliminate ownership requirement limits for air carriers. ."There are limits in place for how much international ownership is allowed for an air carrier to be considered Canadian owned," said Clement.."Because of these limits, airlines can't seek or expand their investor pools." .Clement said allowing international carriers to fly more domestic routes in Canada and the elimination of ownership limits for air carriers would not be a "silver bullet" but said it would "add pressure on domestic carriers to be more competitive with their pricing." .In June 2018, Canada's minister of transport announced new rules for airline ownership allowing for air carriers to have access to more investment capital. .Although those limits were increased from 25% to 49%, "A single international investor (individually or in affiliation) cannot hold more than 25% of the voting interests of a Canadian air carrier, and no combination of international air carriers can own more than 25% of a Canadian carrier (individually or in affiliation)..The Western Standard priced out some domestic airfares within Canada for travel in mid-August. .WestJet offered a Calgary to Toronto round trip ticket for $885, Calgary to Vancouver, BC was $320, and Calgary to St. John's, NL was $1,605. .Air Canada had round trip tickets from Calgary to Montreal priced at $816, Calgary to Toronto for $789, and Calgary to Halifax, NS costing $1,383.
