Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunnybrae
I'm not defending Air Canada.... but... here is another example of people wanting the airline to be run like a private business but act like a crown coporation. Major cities will get better service. Thats reality. Name me an airline that doesn't have hubs. It's the only way to barely make a profit. How many airlines have gone bankrupt in the last, say ten years? Is fuel getting cheaper? Are aircraft getting that much more fuel efficient? Are new aircraft getting cheaper to finance? Based on some of the comments on this forum, it's a no brainer to start up Atlantic Canada Airways again and make millions of dollars flying all over the planet from small cities and towns.
I can understand the frustration but, on the other side of the coin, it's really not like taking the bus. |
Granted, but the situation described by
Smevo in Sydney smacks of a poorly run monopoly where a small colonial outpost is given short shrift by the mother corp. Air Canada obviously doesn't care about Sydney and perhaps the airline really
would like to service NS only out of Halifax and nowhere else.
There is no question that passengers prefer direct connections over having to make multiple transfers to get to their destination. In this day and age, I can't imagine why there isn't at least one daily connection direct between Sydney and Toronto. Moncton is less than 50% bigger than CBRM (granted with a bigger catchment area) and between AC, WestJet & Porter, I think we have about nine daily flights to Toronto. This is important stuff, especially if you are trying to market your city to the central Canadian business community.
Business commuters want easy access to cities where they have their investments. Every time you add a waypoint to their itineraries, it makes them less happy.
If you had a businessman in Vancouver who wanted to invest in NS and needed to keep personal tabs on his investment every month or so, it might make a big difference on his decision exactly
where in the province to invest based on ease of access. A single transfer in TO to a second jet would be much more attractive to him than
two transfers, especially if the second transfer is to a 20 seat turboprop!
The hub and spoke system places CBRM at a
significant competitive disadvantage compared to Halifax and will only serve to perpetuate Cape Breton's economic malaise.