Atlantic Canada airport thread

[Sunnybrae]

Well PASCAN received another ATR-42 and that's what they would use...... so 42 people a day are going to pay $800 to get to St. John's and back? Yah, hopefully they will take another look at pricing and the market and try again. Anything over $300 is going to be hard to justify.

[CdnEh]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Add in the convenience factor of not having to drive to Halifax and maybe it's not such a bad deal after all.......

Sorry q12

Just because you can't get it cheaper elsewhere doesn't make it "not such a bad deal". The price gouging from Canadian airlines is out of control.

Every Canadian airline ticket is a bad deal.

Sorry MonctonRad

[stephan.richard]

I would like to give PASCAN a try but the airfare to go to ST-John's from Moncton is steep at over 800$ roundtrip.. I would ike to see it offrered at roughly 400 to 500 Taxes in..

[MonctonRad]

According to the T&T article today announcing the PASCAN services from the GMIA to Quebec City and St. John's, "ticket prices have not yet been announced and have not yet been programmed into PASCAN's website".

As such, perhaps the prices might be less than what we have been speculating. The price structure apparently will be announced in early October.

Ron Robichaud (the CEO of the GMIA) stated in his announcement that NBer's had to "use this service or lose it". My response to him is that at $800 round trip, nobody would use it and we would lose it. A price of $300-400 round trip however would be an entirely different kettle of fish. I hope PASCAN is paying attention!!

[stephan.richard]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

According to the T&T article today announcing the PASCAN services from the GMIA to Quebec City and St. John's, "ticket prices have not yet been announced and have not yet been programmed into PASCAN's website".

As such, perhaps the prices might be less than what we have been speculating. The price structure apparently will be announced in early October.

Ron Robichaud (the CEO of the GMIA) stated in his announcement that NBer's had to "use this service or lose it". My response to him is that at $800 round trip, nobody would use it and we would lose it. A price of $300-400 round trip however would be an entirely different kettle of fish. I hope PASCAN is paying attention!!

I would hope so and make it a realistic price and I wish out of Moncton that they would add a few more regular US routes as well as a full time air link to Europe (BUT that is a dream.)

[Good2go]

[QUOTE=MonctonRad;6262621]According to the T&T article today announcing the PASCAN services from the GMIA to Quebec City and St. John's, "ticket prices have not yet been announced and have not yet been programmed into PASCAN's website".[QUOTE]

They are programmed now - round trip mid week in mid November = $835

[BlackYear]

Their Moncton to Montreal return flights are just as bad. $730 return.

Porter has pricing right when going to TO. $300 return. That makes me want to go to Toronto once a month just for the heck of it.

Westjet from Moncton to Montreal is $440 return.

Good luck Pascan.

[Nashe]

Just a mental exercise:

$ 55 - 1 tank of gas (@ 625km / tank)
$225 - Ferry to Argentia (car)
$112 - Ferry to Argentia (me)
-----
$342 (x 2 for Return) = $682

So you can drive/ride there for $150 less, though it takes a full day each way. Becomes even more cost effective if you car-pool...

$ 55 - 1 tank of gas (@ 625km / tank)
$225 - Ferry to Argentia (car)
$112 - Ferry to Argentia (me)
$112 - Ferry to Argentia (passenger)
$112 - Ferry to Argentia (passenger)
$112 - Ferry to Argentia (passenger)
-----
$728 (x 2 for Return) = $1456

This saves you $1,884 on a round trip for four and comes to $364 per person (vs $835).

Though you might wanna pay an upgrade for a berth on the 16-hour ferry ride... but truth-be-told... the ferry is a LOT more comfortable.

[DreDay]

It's expensive, but this is direct service between two small markets (comparatively speaking), and they are using small aircraft which means less fares per flight. So you end up paying for convenience because the route needs to be profitable, otherwise there's no point. I really hope this is Pascan doing their homework and realizing there is a market for this route, and not the airport authority selling it and making it look good. This same thing was supposed to happen in YSJ last year, but never came to fruition. Moncton has a better chance of making this fly, but these planes are going to have to be chock-a-block for it to be viable.

[jeddy1989]

here's the news announcement from NTV, also with a video at St. John's international.

Quebec Airline to Offer Direct Flights From St. John’s to Moncton

Moncton may not be the most exotic destination, but a new daily direct flight to St. John’s is being welcomed as another option for travellers. Quebec-based airline Pascan announced the new service Tuesday. NTV’s Dave Squires reports.

http://ntv.ca/quebec-airline-to-offer-direct-flights-from-st-johns-to-moncton/

[Nashe]

When did Moncton become "unexotic"?

[MonctonRad]

Who says Moncton isn't exotic!!

[Nashe]

Maybe they're talking about relative disparity in 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 🞵🞵🞵🞵 numbers between Quebec and Moncton?

[jeddy1989]

Originally Posted by Vorkuta

When did Moncton become "unexotic"?

hahahaha I think it's because we were expecting Iceland, Ireland, another airport in NYC or the carribean when they said that there would be a new airline and direct flight destination hahaha

[mmmatt]

PASCAN....seriously? I laughed when YSJ tried to make a big hoopla about them...and predictably flopped....but now they are making an attempt here? I would be astounded if this service lasts through 2014.

unknown carrier + outrageous pricing = recipe for failure

[MonctonRad]

I flew out from the GMIA to Toronto today on Porter.

It appears that the extension of the 06/24 runway to 10,000 ft has now been paved and is fully painted. It looks ready to go. The new parallel taxiway however still needs to be paved, and I don't know if the lighting is complete or not, but there certainly has been tremendous progress and the runway extension looks great!

[MonctonRad]

Well, PASCAN is now advertising in the T&T and are quoting a fare of $360 one way ($720 return) between the GMIA and St. John's.

While this is an improvement over the $835 (return) fare that we had originally been fearing, it still isn't good enough.

In particular, a fare of this magnitude will essentially eliminate any thought of leisure travel between the two markets. Business travellers might pay this fare, but I sincerely doubt there are enough business connections between these two cities to justify the service.

Unless PASCAN pays attention to casual travellers, this service will fail. The maximum one-way fare on this route should be no more than $250 tops, and even that is at the outer margins of the envelope. I flew on Porter this week to Toronto-Billy Bishop for $145 one-way and got free liquor and food!

PASCAN has to do better......

[jeddy1989]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Well, PASCAN is now advertising in the T&T and are quoting a fare of $360 one way ($720 return) between the GMIA and St. John's.

While this is an improvement over the $835 (return) fare that we had originally been fearing, it still isn't good enough.

In particular, a fare of this magnitude will essentially eliminate any thought of leisure travel between the two markets. Business travellers might pay this fare, but I sincerely doubt there are enough business connections between these two cities to justify the service.

Unless PASCAN pays attention to casual travellers, this service will fail. The maximum one-way fare on this route should be no more than $250 tops, and even that is at the outer margins of the envelope. I flew on Porter this week to Toronto-Billy Bishop for $145 one-way and got free liquor and food!

PASCAN has to do better......

Yeah, I'm going to NYC in a couple of months and from St. John's it's $638 return lol, so they best be lowering the cost of the Moncton flight!

[Good2go]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Well, PASCAN is now advertising in the T&T and are quoting a fare of $360 one way ($720 return) between the GMIA and St. John's.

The fine print: "taxes not included"

[CdnEh]

Canadian travel prices in general are simply outrageous compared to other countries, even for similar distance (ie. cross-country)

Sydney > Perth - $300
Bangor > Los Angeles - $450
Halifax > Vancouver - $1000

One of these things is not like the other.