U.S. Airport Touts Tax & Time Savings to Lure More Canadians
Steve Cohen October 23, 2014
Buffalo airport officials are going all out to keep up the flow of Canadian travelers, touting time and tax savings as compared with traveling through Canadian airports.
Nearly half the passengers flying through New York’s Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF) in 2013 were Canadians, and yet according to The Globe and Mail, that’s not enough for Pascal Cohen, the BUF’s senior manager of marketing and aviation business development.
Cohen visited Toronto on Tuesday to kick off a marketing and public relations effort sponsored by BUF, which will include a month-long TV campaign to air on CTV.
BUF has already seen a significant increase in Canadian traffic, reporting that out the 5.5 million travelers that passed through in 2013, 46 percent were Canadian. This compares with 26 percent of BUF’s travelers being Canadian in 2006.
Canadian flyers cited several reasons for opting to use the U.S. airport, including displeasure with higher taxes and fees added onto Canadian tickets by airlines, severe traffic congestion in the vicinity of Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), as well as the additional length of time required to pass through Canadian security and customs.
YYZ has a well–deserved reputation as one of the most expensive North American airports for passengers as well as airlines. Airports in Ontario are currently in the process of ramping up the aviation fuel tax charged to airlines from 2.7 cents per liter to 6.7 cents per liter.
Cohen’s research indicated that fees paid by airlines currently average $35 per passenger at YYZ, while BUF averages only $8.55. “These costs are really what is driving up the ticket price,” Cohen explained.
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There used to be a lot of weekend deals from NYC to Montreal. It was before the price was required to be all-in. The deals were something like $149 r/t. With taxes the bottom line was closer to $300.