Flight costs across Canada have increased by an average of 9.2 per cent since 2019. But for passengers traveling to and from Labrador, prices have tripled the national average.
The average airfare in Happy Valley-Goose Bay has risen by 33.1 per cent since 2019 according to a fare analysis report commissioned by the Goose Bay Airport Corporation. In Wabush — Labrador’s second largest airport — prices have risen by 47. per cent.
“Some people have choices, some people don’t. And unfortunately we don’t have choices and I think we’re paying the price,” Happy Valley-Goose Bay Mayor George Andrews told CBC News.
That price is substantial. The report found the average plane ticket from Nain to Happy Valley-Goose Bay to be $1,245, while a trip from Nain to St. John’s is $2,497.
“I’m making a trip to Central America in two weeks and the price is cheaper than I can travel within my own province,” said Andrews. “That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Andrews, along with Goose Bay Airport Corporation CEO Rex Goudie, presented the issue to the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities on the Competition Act and Air Travel in Northern, Rural, and Remote Communities in Ottawa on Oct 8.
Lack of market competition
The lack of competition between airlines is a likely cause for the prohibitive prices, according to the Goose Bay Airport Corporation’s report presented to parliament.
PAL Airlines — and its partner Air Borealis — is the only carrier currently providing Labrador residents with air travel.
Gábor Lukács, president of the non-profit Air Passenger Rights, says this leaves travelers with no affordable travel choices.
“I would prefer to see a step in creating financial incentives for other airlines to also compete on the same routes and thereby lower prices,” Lukács said.
Beyond the lack of market competition in the region, airport operation costs can sometimes play a role in airfare increases.
But at just $20 per fare, Goudie said, Goose Bay Airport’s fees are among the lowest in Atlantic Canada.
Unreliable access to essential services
Getting to and from Labrador has its own unique challenges.
“I see people having to fundraise for the cost of travel to a medical appointment,” Andrews told the parliamentary committees, adding air travel must be considered an essential service for that reason.
But between May 1 and Aug. 11 of this year, more than half of the flights in Happy Valley-Goose Bay were delayed by more than 30 minutes, according to the Goose Bay Airport Corporation.
While most of Labrador’s 26 remote communities are connected by a highway stretching 1,100 kilometres, eight communities have no road access. In places like Black Tickle, Nain and Rigolet, air travel is the only option to access essential health services and economic opportunity.
Solutions in subsidies
Goudie wants to see the federal government create subsidy programs for equitable access to air travel in remote northern regions.
“My suggestion would be that any consideration for subsidies be done in a way that the consumer or the traveler would realize the benefit,” Goudie said before the committee, looking at existing programs in provinces like Quebec that offer direct subsidization for rural travelers.
Lukács says subsidies that lower passenger flight tickets directly, rather than invest in an airline’s operation costs, could boost both passengers’ access to air travel and increase airline competition in the market.
“If we don’t continue to voice our concerns and have discussions with the people that can make the difference then we give up,” Andrews said. “And I don’t think this is something that can be given up on.”
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