Wallace99

West jet will be making a Montreal announcement this morning, should be interesting since the transport minister will be there.

http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases...613390553.html

New routes? Possibly Paris? A new Montreal base, so they actually have a large number of French speaking flight attendants? Any chance of them buying the c series?

Wallace99

I just think think it's new routes after googling really quick, YUL- BOS, YUL - YHZ, YUL- YQB.
With more Vancouver and Calgary service.

Looks like mini encore base, if this that's all it is.

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...ervice-in-s17/

HangTen

Get a load of the fares today before they are cut 70% and, by September, people claim there's a duopoly between Montreal and Quebec City and the fares are too high.

As of Feb 13 2017, a same day return fare on Tues July 11th on AC is priced at $644.14. WestJet is priced at $181.95.

A YUL-YQB-YUL r/t tomorrow, Feb 14th, is priced at $1,081.05.

And if you want an even more absurd example, a same day YUL-BOS-YUL r/t tomorrow is priced at $2,190.05. When the competition arrives, that fare is going to tumble 75%.

A little perspective: I can fly YVR-HKG tomorrrow, back Saturday,
44x the distance of YUL-YQB and 25x the distance of YUL-BOS, for $888.

I'll leave inquiring minds to speculate on which routes might be underwriting losses on other routes.

sokolov

Good to see that YUL-YHZ is back.

mahasamatman

And on July 10th, you'll see the same fare (or higher) for that July 11th flight on both airlines. You can't compare a next-day fare to a flight in five months if you want anyone to take you seriously. As Canadians, we shouldn't accept "alternate truths".

HangTen

Correct. You will see a higher fare than the current fare on offer on July 10th.

But that fare won't be anything close to the current walk up fare on YUL-YQB of between $536 and $559 for anything booked within 5 days of departure.

YUL-YQB is about 10% shorter than YEG-YYC and the most you'll pay on that route is between $209 and $219 in the same window, ie booked today with a departure within 5 days.

That's a 60% reduction in fare. That market will explode with price stimulated passengers, as has been the case everywhere over the years.

It's amazing to watch what will happen when Jean Claude realizes that he can visit his branch manager in Quebec City 6 times a year instead of 2 times a year for the same expenditure of his travel budget.

If that market stimulates anywhere close to what has happened in every other market in Canada when this occurs, everyone will be flying full, but only the lowest cost operator will be profitable doing so.

It's the same story we've seen time and time again, but a different market.

I can fly Montreal to Beijing leaving tomorrow, back Saturday for $922. Montreal - Quebec City the same dates? $1,040.81. Montreal - Boston the same dates? $2,106. Look 'em up yourself!

Montreal - Peking is almost 48x further than Montreal - Quebec City, but costs $100 less for a last minute business trip and there's ANY discussion questioning which route generates better margins, at least until WJ starts its service?

Seriously?

sokolov

Price senstivie travelers are put off by the lack of public transport at YQB.

dodgy

I think there are other markets along the east coast that the Encore Q400 will destroy any remaining yield... I think of PHL, WAS etc....

Reminds me a bit of what HH did when he got his hands on the CRJ's back in the 90's - could now serve a whole bunch of places efficiently.

I see WS slowly and surely picking markets off one-by-one...

mahasamatman

If you're surprised by that, you haven't flown much. That's been true of airline fares for the past 80 years.

segacs

Between security, traffic to/from the airport, boarding time, and potential delays, it's generally faster to just drive between Montreal and Quebec City. Or, better yet, take the train.

HangTen

The point is, those YUL to YQB and BOS fares are going to utterly collapse, which shouldn't come as a huge surprise given that's what's happened everywhere else WJ has expanded over the past 21 years.

That profit has to be replaced somewhere, some how, and I don't think it'll happen by charging walkup fares of $99+ taxes for 3 hr sectors from YYZ to FLL. When one considers the company lost money operating the business last quarter with those sorts of huge yields from YUL in place, what happens when the yields and fat fares are gone?

If it were that easy to find routes that generated the sort of profit these two routes generate given the huge fares charged on the route, (forgetting the discussion regarding what routes like YEG-YYC with fares a fraction of these must be doing to the bottom line), they would already be operating the route.

Heffeh41

I wonder if WS will add YOW-YUL flights next?