Quote:
Originally Posted by acottawa
I think they absolutely care what their competitors are doing. If the train has open code-sharing as Urban Sky says they should then here is absolutely no reason to encourage their customers to take trains. Their customers will quickly discover all of the other airlines flying out or Montreal offer the same codeshare and Turkish Airlines will eat their lunch.
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People who want to fly Turkish can do that today without a codeshare. It won't make much of a difference to AC. It's only marginally more competition since I guess a codeshare departure would show up on search engines.
That additional competition has to be balanced against opportunities for AC. Everything from cost reduction and efficiency improvements, with fewer pilots and slots for short haul, to improved timetable. Rail can offer a more consistent schedule that AC operating at slot controlled airports can ever pull off.
But if your argument is that AC is incentivized to kibbosh the project, then you're finding common ground with Urban Sky, to which I ask again, why would all the other consortium partners let them in?
Quote:
Originally Posted by acottawa
Frankly they could codeshare the route now, central Ottawa to Dorvsl by train is already comparable to the flight and the train schedules line up pretty well with the late afternoon and early evening departures of most of the international flights.
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The transfer at Dorval isn't that great right now. Not enough schedule alignment. No alignment in baggage policies. And then you have to deal with both VIA and airline check in policies and counter staff. You also have to take a shuttle between the station and terminal. Not long. But just enough to be annoying with all that luggage. It's all friction to users.
And it's not worthwhile for Air Canada. That will change with more reliable and frequent services. And possibly a REM extension to Dorval or even a long movator.