^ More like DEN.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker
For us, it's hard to imagine what the outcome could be.
We had a greater selection of airlines and destinations prior to joining Canada, but at that time all trans-Atlantic flights had to stop in Newfoundland to re-fuel. So even if Air Canada's relative monopoly is destroyed and that horrible airline is relegated to the trash bin of history where it belongs, we'll never receive the level of service we enjoyed pre-1949 ever again. Also, Gander was the main airport for the entire island back then.
Newspaper ad from 1942:
I imagine the result would be a significant drop in air fares for destinations on the Canadian mainland and a small but still significantly improved selection of international destinations - but, overall, less service at a better price. I'm willing to accept that.
For sure Texas and Norway would be direct flights, as they both account for a huge percentage of the growth at YYT. And, given the success WestJet has had with its direct St. John's-Dublin flight, I imagine that would continue as well.
I also think it's a slight possibility that some international airlines wouldn't have the snobbery of Air Canada and would bring some trans-Atlantic flights down in the Maritimes or Newfoundland to fill them up. It's been annoying as hell having to fly 3.5 hours west to Toronto and then back again to Europe. It more than doubles the distance. Sorry, TO businessmen, a 45-minute stop for you isn't worth more than 7 hours for me.
Cruise lines do it all the time. Disney Cruise Lines just added a stop in St. John's to its Stockholm-NYC run. And that adds way more time to the journey than a little dip to an international airport.
*****
BTW, just for laughs.
Departing: June 16
Returning: June 20
St. John's - Dublin (4 hr 15 mins; Westjet): $743.49
St. John's - Dublin (NON-DIRECT; Air Canada): $2,324.53
St. John's - Toronto (3 hr 26 mins; Westjet): $846.65
St. John's - Toronto (Air Canada): $681.67
However, you can get seat sales that drop to price to $500-$550 for the St. John's-TO flight. I chose the cheapest, non-discounted fares to compare. |
For what it's worth, I recently did an experiment testing out how much it would cost for flight + hotel to fly from Edmonton to various destinations within Canada (sans Alberta). I kept the dates the same, for a week in August (peak season), and chose affordable hotels (but not motels) in transit-accessible areas or at least somewhere central. The prices are per person.
The three cheapest were Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Vancouver, at around $1,200. Next was Yellowknife at $1,300. Then, Toronto and Montreal, both around $1,400. Halifax was $1,500. Quebec City was $1,600. But the granddaddy of them all, the one that left me slightly speechless, was St. John's - $2,100. Any idea why the price jump for St. John's is so significant? I think I could fly to Halifax and take the boat to Newfoundland for cheaper.
For comparison, Las Vegas was $900; Chicago $1,300; Detroit was $1,300; Los Angeles $1,400; New York was $1,600; Mexico City was $1,200; London was $2,300; Paris $1,900; Berlin $2,000; Vienna $2,300; and Kiev $2,000.
This isn't exactly scientific, I know, and there are ways to get better deals through different avenues at different times and I may have been inadvertently been choosing a window of time that for some cities is a time where there is a big event on. That may explain the weirdly expensive Seattle numbers I saw. I was using Expedia, btw.
I've heard many people over time espouse the notion that it's cheaper to fly to Europe than go across Canada. I always found that hard to believe because I'd never noticed it myself either through checking or through firsthand experience. Maybe these people were talking about going all the way to the eastern edge of the country, to St. John's! And certainly from your perspective, flying to Europe can be cheaper than flying to the mainland of Canada.
On another related note, I really dislike how Air Canada treats Edmonton, which is why I only use them if necessary. The company doesn't seem to deem Edmonton an important enough market, so instead of giving us ample direct flights, they prefer to cut that down to the bares and just make us connect via Calgary. No offense Calgarians, but that's a bit tedious and it just makes our own aviation industry feel the pain of less customers. A few years back, British Airways was looking into the Canadian market and noticed that Edmonton was a major Canadian market lacking a direct flight to London. Air Canada, who'd been cutting service here, got wind of British Airways' interest in Edmonton, and gave us a bare bones LHR flight year round to keep British Airways out of Edmonton. Now Air Canada has made their YEG-LHR flight seasonal in light of Icelandair opening a year-round flight to Reykjavik, potentially opening the door once again for British Airways.
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