Airlines strive to cut Canada’s fares

Bloomberg

Travel nearly anywhere in the world, and you’ll find cheap airlines offering no-frills service, from European giant Ryanair Holdings Plc to Peach Aviation Ltd. in Japan, Flynas in Saudi Arabia, and Spirit Airlines Inc. in the U.S. But head north of the border, and the aviation landscape is untouched by ultralow-cost airlines.
Canada ranks among the world’s most expensive countries to fly in, due in part to high airport and security fees and limited competition, and service is meager in many small and midsize cities. More than 60 percent of Canada’s 36 million people live within 100 miles of the border, and many head south to fly; about 5 million cross the border each year for cheaper flights.
“Griping about the cost of air travel in this country is as endemic as bitching about the weather—it’s as if nothing can be done about either of them,” a columnist for Canada’s National Post wrote in June.
Some cheaper fares may be en route. Three companies are working to bring the ultralow-cost model to the country, where air travel is dominated by two national airlines, Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd.
But higher operating costs make it hard for new airlines to survive, and the dominant airlines are sure to respond to upstarts offering lower fares. WestJet, for example, has already begun new nonstop service on two routes flown by the first of these newcomers.
Canada is one of just two nations in the Group of 20 largest economies without any ultralow-cost carriers, or ULCCs. The other, Argentina, may see one next year as Irelandia Aviation Ltd.—the Dublin-based investment firm that has established such ULCCs as Ryanair in Europe and Allegiant Travel Co. in the U.S.—aims to expand its low-cost airline group Grupo Viva Aerobus there. Canada also charges higher security fees than most other nations—up to $25 per passenger—and its 26 largest airports must make annual payments to their municipalities in lieu of local taxes.
A 2015 report (pdf) to the Canadian transport minister, reviewing the nation’s transportation system, found air travel in Canada “marked by weak accountability constraints on fees and charges; high costs for users and operators; aggressive capital expenditure programs at airports; modest traffic volumes; and limited competition.” It recommended that the government reform airport ownership structure and offer the aviation sector more federal financial aid, as the U.S. does. “There is no room for complacency,” it added.
Canadians are eager for the expanded service and lower fares that ULCCs could provide, said Jim Young, chief executive of NewLeaf Travel Co., a “virtual” airline in its sixth week of operations, with three Boeing 737s flying to secondary airports in 11 cities nationwide. NewLeaf, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, itself has no air certificates or airplanes. It sells tickets on an established carrier, Flair Airlines—a “wet lease” arrangement that lets NewLeaf escape many of the costly aspects of being an airline. Flair staffs and maintains the fleet and sells capacity to NewLeaf.
Canadians “understand the business model—they understand the fees, they understand that you pay for what you consume,” Young said in a telephone interview.
Canada is among the most expensive places for air travel—No. 70 out of 75 nations in the average cost to fly 100 kilometers, at $38.71, according to data released last week by the online travel agency Kiwi.com. (Only Japan, the Netherlands, Qatar, Finland, and the United Arab Emirates had more expensive fares, according to Kiwi; the U.S. was No. 17, with India the cheapest place to fly.)
The country’s high airport fees limit the traffic-stimulating effect that lower fares can have for low-cost airlines elsewhere, but flying to smaller, cheaper airports increases the odds of success, said NewLeaf’s chairman, Ben Baldanza, calling the company “the only ULCC option that I have seen in Canada that makes sense to me.” Baldanza, who was previously chief executive at Spirit, is also a “small investor” in the Canadian startup and serves on the board of Iceland’s low-cost carrier WOW Air.
NewLeaf eschews Canada’s primary, higher-cost airports such as Toronto Pearson and Vancouver International, just as Allegiant Travel Co. avoids larger U.S. airports. In Canada, secondary airport fees are generally far lower than those at major airports, which is why a low-cost airline such as NewLeaf prefers such towns as Hamilton over Toronto or Abbotsford instead of Vancouver, Baldanza said.
Price is the prime selling point in the ULCC model: Fares begin at less than $40, and in many cases much less than $40. In China, for example, Spring Airlines sells tickets for as little as 99 yuan ($14.82). The U.S. has three such carriers—Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc.—and all have been expanding voraciously. Because of Canada’s higher costs, fares there won’t be as low as other nations enjoy. But executives at all three of Canada’s fledgling ULCCs say they aim to underprice Air Canada and WestJet by 25 percent to 35 percent.
Calgary-based Enerjet is a charter operator that flies oil-and-gas field workers in northern Alberta and does contract work for Air Transat, another Canadian charter carrier. Now it is shifting to the ultra-low-cost model .
Enerjet has been “hunkered down” for more than a year amid the collapse in oil prices and western Canada’s depressed economy, said Darcy Morgan, the company’s chief commercial officer; his brother Tim, a WestJet co-founder, is its CEO. The company leases three Boeing 737-700s and wants to begin a new ULCC tentatively called Flytoo. (It was first called Jet Naked for its knack for drawing publicity, but that name was abandoned.) Enerjet is working to raise C$80 million ($61 million) and hopes to begin Flytoo service by year’s end. A third company, Calgary-based Canada Jetlines Ltd., is trying to raise C$50 million ($38 million) and begin flying from major Canadian cities to U.S. sun destinations, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles this year or next. Jetlines has ordered five new Boeing 737 Max aircraft for its future expansion, with options for 16 more.
Initially, Jetlines plans to expand to a half dozen 737-700s in its first year and to list shares publicly. The airline plans to offer fares 30 percent cheaper than Air Canada and WestJet but also to avoid direct competition with both, said Jim Scott, Jetlines’ president and chief executive officer.
“The passengers that we [will] move are not the passengers that Air Canada and WestJet want, anyway,” Scott said. “The focus in Canada is on the business traveler or the frequent flier. I always say everyone who gets boarded before I get boarded is the [passenger] they’re interested in.”