http://www.canada.com/travel/Lack+co...365/story.html

Lack of competition keeps air fares sky-high

Ottawa talks a good game on open skies but the real test is in air fares

With multiple flights cancelled in Europe recently due to a nasty cold wave, this might not be the ideal time to praise European airline travel. But momentary troubles aside, Europe not only has better architecture than much of North America, it also has cheaper plane fares to get you to Europe's sights.

Europe's cheap air fares are in distinct contrast to North America where a competitive market in air travel has yet to take flight. North American governments, including our own, preach a good game on open skies; in reality, they prefer domestic duopolies.

It's why, as you perhaps sit in your plane seat reading this, an "American" airline can't pick you up in Calgary and deposit you in Toronto? It's why a "Canadian" airline cannot shuttle U.S. passengers from Los Angeles to New York - this as if there was any practical difference between airlines owned by shareholders from across the planet.

yup - it is expensive to travel in canada..... a flight from YYJ-YCG $800 when for the same price i can fly across the pond from the US.

How soon you forget the days of the $1 JetsGo fares? Or Canada3000? Competition is great while it lasts and spends investors' money until that runs out and the airline goes out of business. AC has gone bust once, as have just about every US major carrier. Maybe you should figure out how to run a business by selling a product at far less than its cost, year after year.

If we take the Canadian scenario out of the picture, there should be enough of a US population base and internal competition to make a good comparison with the EU. The problem, though, is that that competitive market has not yielded much if any profitability for most airlines. And plenty have gone bust--some more than once.

One problem with the comparison in the commentary piece is that it does not appear to take into account many of the add-ons that are required by airlines such as Ryanair (booking fee, credit card fee, check-in fee, luggage fee, etc.). These add up and shift the picture.

I have no idea where they found these EU fares- however the reality is that flights within Europe can be far more expensive than what you find in Canada or the USA! Lack of Competition? Yes-definitely. Expensive airfares? Not really.

Although I understand the point, I'm not impressed by the comparison. For all intents and purposes, the entire EU is one country; national borders are meaningless (and more and more so is national sovereignty, but that's a different discussion for another time).

It's really not fair to compare in-country fares when the countries are so small over there and so large here. For example, look at London-Edinburgh: the entire UK is only 2/3 the size of the state of California, and the LON-EDI route is shorter than SFO-LAX (okay, by 14 miles, but it's still shorter). And this is compared to YVR-YUL, which is longer than LON-TLV (in fact, it's longer than LON to anywhere on the continent of Europe).

There's also the issue that Europe has a formidable competitor in the railroads. Even the worst of them is far better than anything we have in either Canada or the US!

And thank god we're not subjected to the US Airlines. US Scareways, or United Dreck anyone? Sometimes it's better to avoid the race to the bottom.

There is quite a bit of truth to the thing.

We do have two airlines. However competition between them only occurs in the market segments in which WS is active.

When looking at the market in which most FFs live, i.e. including international travel, business class, etc., there has not been much competition since the demise of CP.

One hears that argument whereby "Canada is too small for two airlines." With no real justification as to why size has to do with anything. Except of course for the fact that it's harder to make money if there is *real* competition.

Remember that Adam Smith's invisible hand would serve customers by having competitors having to lower prices to the point whereby they would (nearly) all end up in bankruptcy. With new entries making up for dead ones.

(Nowhere near today's oligopolies which hide under the false mantra of "free" markets that are anything but free.)

and the high associated costs doesnt help either..... remember YYZ has one of the world's highest landing fees!

This would be great if it were able to let happen. The Canadian government saves the jobs of the few, overpaid, unionized AC employees at the expense of all of us consumers. Open up the skies. The airlines that have come and failed never had a chance as they didn't enter a free market.

We as consumer would be better off if our government ever did truly let AC die and re-emerge as a world class competitive airline.

Yes, it usually takes two to tango, pun intended.

In my world, self-described "world class" equates to having a huge inferiority complex. (Often found in the UK, BTW.)

As they say, MIT does not need to describe themselves as world class.

Don't you remember the last time I pwned you on this statement?

Those unionized employees have given back more than one-third of their pay to keep those jobs. I suppose in your world, they should give up their pensions too -- as most US carriers have forced their employees to do -- to keep up with the bottom feeding carriers like WS that have no such benefits for their employees? How many families do you think WS employees can support in the middle class lifestyle most NAmericans ascribe to? WS is a great place to work if you are young and looking for a glamorous first job, but you certainly cannot make a career out of being a front line employee and hope to raise a family, pay your bills, and have some security in your retirement years. But of course, most Free Market capitalists would disavow such values from work!

Yes there are those who would suffer but I believe in the greater good for society as a whole. Do I want people to lose their jobs? Definitely not, but if we believe that AC is inefficient then all of us are suffering because of it just to save their jobs.

The US carriers and Westjet are operating where the airline industry should, AC is only where it is because of the protectionist government, not because the economy and supply and demand dictated it. If actually airline salaries in a free market were not enough for the individual to be the sole bread winner of the family then so be it - there are many jobs out there that can't support a family but it is properly priced out unlike flying with AC.