Atlantic Canada airport thread

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Mattyyy

At the end of the day airlines are a private business and are not going to do routes that are not profitable. It's all very simple - if there was more demand for Saint John flights there would be more flights. Unfortunately that is not the case.

Why would Air Canada not throw Saint John in as a stop on a Toronto - Halifax flight? Also simple. If I'm flying from Toronto to Halifax and I have 7 options and one of these happen to add one hour plus there is no way I'm taking it. In fact, I would pay a lot more to not have to take it.

Are you so sure it would add an hour or more to the travel time between Toronto and Halifax? Like what are you basing that on? They’d have to get some people and luggage off the plane, and get some other people on the plane, but I’m not convinced that would have to take an hour or more.

Moreover, while you might pay a lot more to not have to take a route connecting via Saint John, a lot of other people would take that route if it meant a significant savings or was even $20-40 cheaper lol… not everyone has a business expense account or whatever.

Finally, I don’t buy that these type of routes couldn’t be profitable, they just haven’t tried them in a long, long time via YSJ. I don’t think it’s nearly as simple as you’re presenting it.

Personally, I think it’s a shame that Air Canada was ever privatized, and that it no longer has the same obligations to service smaller centres. However “, there’s still a lot of room for government subsidies and programs to coax Air Canada and other airlines to service smaller centres, including YSJ.

Even without subsidies or a government program like the one that was announced earlier this year for Atlantic Canadian Airports (excluding Saint John and St. John’s) I think these proposed three city routes would be profitable for Air Canada.

Nonetheless, there’s a case for government to subsidize a few of these routes that I’ve proposed above… and perhaps the YYZ<->YSJ<->YYT route has the strongest case for subsidy.