Idlout grills Liberals on CanNorth flight prices
Transport minister says government working with airline to keep flights ‘accessible, affordable’
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, shown in this file photo, joined other NDP caucus members in voting against the federal government’s fall economic statement over its impact on Indigenous services. (File photo)
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout is pressing the federal government on whether its new deal with Canadian North airline will increase the price of flights in the North.
In April, Transport Canada announced a new deal with Canadian North that allowed the company to adjust its fares and routes. Some flight prices could be raised by 25 per cent.
Idlout questioned Transport Minister Omar Alghabra in the House of Commons on Thursday, asking if the government is committed to ensuring the price of air travel will remain affordable.
“Communities in Nunavut must rely on safe, affordable, and accessible air transportation. This government’s new deal with Canadian North jeopardizes the overall well-being of Nunavummiut,” Idlout said.
“Raising prices would increase the cost of food and supplies and threaten the already limited health care that people in Nunavut rely on.”
Alghabra said the government has been working “diligently” with the airline to ensure it is able “to maintain viable, efficient transportation so people who live in the North are able to access that critical service.”
Last month, Canadian North CEO Michael Rodyniuk held a town hall meeting in Iqaluit where members of the public asked him how the deal will affect flight prices for passengers and cargo, and for regions with already limited flight access.
Rodyniuk was questioned on flight prices possibly rising by as much as 25 per cent.
He said final changes in fares were determined by Transport Canada and added Canadian North is not allowed to earn more than a 10 per cent profit, which would impact the amount by which flight prices go up.
Deal, was there a deal? What was the deal? Maybe someone could provide a link to the deal?
According to Lori, that deal “jeopardizes the overall well-being of Nunavummiut,”? Can someone explain how?
Is there a journalist around?
25% my butt. I took a flight from iqaluit to edmonton on May 19th 1 way it cost 1700$ . 1 month later the same flight cost 2896.78$ one way. Now I’m.not good at math but I know that’s more than 25% . It’s more like 85%
I just googled that route and found a bunch of flights for around $500. Have a bit of flexibility, book early, and you can score a pretty good deal.
BS. I just checked for flights on that route and nothing was less than $3000.
considering the cheap seat from YOW to YFB is $586, I highly doubt you found seats from YEG to YFB for $500 on CN. The prices are ridiculous on CN to YEG. Try again.
This shows the lack of understanding of how airline pricing works. Google revenue management. This is standard practice in the industry. Your $2900 flight was most likely full or almost full. Air Canada will sell you the last seat on the plane last minute for a huge premium as well.
If they were doing revenue management by load factor alone ok, fair enough. But they are doing revenue management by date before flight. It would appear one threshold is 14 days before flight and the next (huge) price jump is inside 7 days before flight. The issue is they have these price jumps regardless of the what the load factor is. How many people have had the experience of paying thousands for a flight because booked inside of 14 days before flight date only to board a half full airplane.
They have no competition so they can get away with revenue management by date only. Transport should require that revenue management be based on load factor and not exclusively by date before flight.
Of course a Nunavut owned airline would be a better solution….
You know what, totally understandable if Air Canada sells me the last seat on the plane at a premium. I can take it, or fly with WJ or drive if I am so inclined. If I were to buy a last minute ticket on AC, I am either flying on company’s dime or an emergency.
Now compare that to CN, if I absolutely have to fly for whatever emergency, they really have me with their hands around my pocket, squeezing every dollar I have. I have ZERO choice if I were to fly out of Iqaluit, or Pond Inlet, or Arctic Bay, it has to be with CN. Now I get on the plane, take my seat and have a little chat with the passenger next to me. Well, I just found out he paid $486 for his seat from Iqaluit to Ottawa and I paid $1847 for the same seat because I had to buy it last minute. Looking around, there are maybe 30 or us on a full jet. Lots of empty middle seats and some empty rows. This is a true story and probably one being told one too many times.
CN is clearly doing revenue mgmt by date. I often wonder if they would ever run a seat sale, the opposite of an inflated fare, do a cheap seat sale, some weekend gateway kinda of thing, even to some of the communities not just the jet route. But nope, they rather fly the planes half empty instead of full and then cry to the feds/GN saying they are losing money.
Airline prices vary depending on how long it is till the flight. Last minute booksings cost a premium.
A couple years ago I was at my brother’s home on Ontario, was thinking about changing the date of my flight to my parents (different province) and priced it but did not book. Came back like 12 hrs later and the process was nearly $100 more.
I was just looking on Google for flight costs, next week was in the $2700 range, October $1900…
Canadian North is airline monopolizing the north. They even have the perfect excuse for jacking up the prices. The price of fuel. For the prices they charge, they should get rid of the props and go jet instead. The time to fly would be shorter.
You have zero understanding of the airports airports in the north
“Canadian North is not allowed to earn more than a 10 per cent profit”. 10% of what? 10% of ticket price, 10% of invested capital, 10% of Makiavik’s equity?
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Enough of these B***S** statements that mean nothing.
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Just as a point of reference, supermarkets in southern Canada traditionally earn a profit of 1% of sales. The key to their success is to turn their inventory at least 12 times each year, at which point they are earning 12% return on invested capital.
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The “next day” price is high for several reasons.
1. If you really need to get there tomorrow, you will pay anything.
2. The high price lets high earning people save lots of money through the travel portion of the Northern Residents Deduction of the federal income tax. You can deduct up to the amount of the same day fare, even if you are traveling on a free ticket.
3. It makes Inuit think they are getting a bargain with the “discount” fare that Canadian North offers to beneficiaries.
4. It helps with employee retention because Canadian North employees see that they are getting such a valuable employee benefit.
Next time you receive an Amazon parcel with Free Shipping at the Post Office, ask the person behind the counter how much Canada Post would charge you to mail the parcel to your cousin in Toronto. Most of that price will represent air freight, at Canadian North’s vastly inflated rates.
I have a sinking feeling government of Canadian ( Inuit) are still used to make northern Canada it makes it obvious there using Inuit to make northern Canada there’s when they put more money to like always to another country Ukrainian is the first that all these liberals conservatives do to Inuit why is that ????
Be Thankful you have an airline,many Siberians on there own.
Nobody actually pays for flights it’s almost all medical travel or duty travel or travel on points. And then if you want to buy a ticket and you’re one of the 85% of nunavummiut who is inuit you get pivut fare discount so really the only non-inuit non-medical travel non-gn duty travel gotta pay full price, which is maybe like 3% of Canadian north travelers. Once again it’s too expensive to operate an airline in the north thats why you’ll never see westjet or air canada operate in nunavut.
Check out the price of the Arctic Express. Cheaper to fly to Antarctica. Our government has no guts to fix this.
I flew this past March and the airfare was $1830 return to Edmonton. I checked for flights and costs this coming August and the fare has gone up to $2330.
There you go 25 % higher just like that. Airfares are nuts and are making everything cost more
How bout she ask inuit orgs instead of libs canadian north is inuit owned not liberal owned
NDP then stop supporting Liberals.
We are screwed.
Now the airline can charge the new gas taxes on their tickets, and with the new one coming into effect, we are really screwed.
In Nunavut expect to be paying way more when purchasing groceries and essential items.
Costco already called it out. A recession is looming, people purchasing less beef and option for chicken and pork which is cheaper. I stopped purchasing beef in December myself.
Also Costco seen a jump in sales of their generic brand Krikland while name brand items seen a decrease.
When the housing bubble pops, we going to start losing jobs and the entire country will be in a world of hurt.
Canada is screwed by this liberal government…..SCREWED! They have massaged one of the richest economies in the world and it is a shame it is going to take at least 10 years to recover.
“… increases the cost of food and supplies…” talks up Nunavut MP Lori Idlout.
But when comes around for voting on more carbon tax after more carbon tax, which makes everything a whopper more expensive, she votes Yes for it.
Yet stays under a rock without voice other than a yes to Bill C-18, Bill C-11. The censorship of Canadians.
Nor have we heard a peep from Lori on Bill Gates’s control, that he spoke publicly to have in place by 2025. As its upcoming legislation in Canada’s government. That’ll strip freedom/ sovereignty from Canadians to hand it over to World Health Org.
Let’s keep in mind the UK government paper to close all airports by 2040/2050 but 3. Canada’s own Net Zero is roaring ahead to 2030 and 100% reached by 2050. Net Zero means no cars, planes, jets, boats, snow machines… Think about that.
Shouldn’t Lori be talking up a storm? What is the date to collapse Nunavut? Well, they’ve already closed health centers, cutting service and rising air travel rates. While Nunavut thinks the Government’s new no smoking ban is for health, oblivious, it’s a stepping stone to larger controls over everything we do.
Excellent and well-written rant, MF. Thank you
The Liberal Government has mismanaged one of the richest economies in the world. This government want a communist socialist state and that is what they are getting.
Canada is becoming a welfare state, it wants all of Canadians relying on the Goverment for hand outs.
Food and essential items are going up all across Canada. Once the housing bubble pops, that is when we will start to see massive job loses. It is just a matter of time. House prices are going to come crashing down.
https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-canada/news/2023/04/government-of-canada-and-canadian-north-agree-on-new-terms-and-conditions-of-airline-merger.html .
The Government of Canada and Canadian North have agreed on a profit cap, which will allow them to adjust fares and routes to remain viable without cutting off communities or placing a significant financial burden on northern travellers.
Examples of the new terms and conditions include:
Ensuring that all communities it currently serves continue to receive at least one scheduled flight a week. Further, should the passenger load factors exceed 85 percent on average on any given route for a period of six consecutive months, Canadian North will be expected to adjust its capacity/schedules to be reflective of the increased demand.
Limiting average annual regional fare increases for both passenger and cargo transportation to 25 percent within a calendar year.
Limiting yearly net profit margins to no more than 10 percent on its scheduled passenger and cargo network (excluding the Edmonton-Yellowknife and Montreal-Kuujjuaq routes), while also allowing the airline to recoup past losses over a 3-year period.
Providing information for quarterly auditing by an independent monitor.
Even Pivvu Fare is very expensive and cheaper to book regular fare, so much for Pivvut cheaper fare. You think it would be way cheaper for us Nunavummiut to travel as we are in isolated places and everything is so expensive. When is this same old going to stop (High Cost of Food and Air Fare)
When MLA’s and PM wants to get Elected, they make so many promises but it never changes ecept them making huge $’s and do not care about us NUnavumiut errr…
Please do not post my name