Why is airfare so much from Canada?

[chasbos]

I think a lot of it has to do with supply and demand. How many flights do they have coming into your airport from Florida on a daily basis?? That will be why there are connections in major hubs like Toronto.

Are the summer flights cheaper than winter?

Air travel in Canada is ridiculous and we live in Ontario, taxes are the biggest killer and airport landing fees. We do have the luxury if flying out of Buffalo or Detroit (same driving time as Toronto) and that is what we do 99% of the time.

The only time I have flown a canadian carrier is for flights within Canada - too expensive to fly into the US from Canada.

 

[tlcdoula]

I think a lot of it has to do with supply and demand. How many flights do they have coming into your airport from Florida on a daily basis?? That will be why there are connections in major hubs like Toronto.

Are the summer flights cheaper than winter?

Air travel in Canada is ridiculous and we live in Ontario, taxes are the biggest killer and airport landing fees. We do have the luxury if flying out of Buffalo or Detroit (same driving time as Toronto) and that is what we do 99% of the time.

The only time I have flown a canadian carrier is for flights within Canada - too expensive to fly into the US from Canada.

I agree that air travel in canada is ridiculous... It is cheaper for me to fly to mexico than it is to fly up north... The only way for me to wrap my head around it is supply and demand....

I have my fingers crossed I an find something out of Victoria or Vancouver BC, because the flights from Seattle are going up everyday I wait..

 

[chasbos]

All I have heard is that US airfares are going to be low this summer - not from what I have seen!

I started looking in February for flights from Detroit - Jackson, Wyoming and they were about $2000 US for the 6 of us. I thought they would go down, so I waited. Now I am kicking myself and the price is up to $3000 US!

So much for lower fares. The sick thing is that we flew back from Calgary to London. Ontario 3 years ago and that one way flight was $3000 for the 6 of us.

Canada is a beautiful and interesting country but it is terribly expensive to get too and to visit. Maybe if things changed a bit we would have more flights coming in from the US and then the prices could go down a bit for those flights going back to the US.

 

[dml]

In one word. TAXES !!

Any airplane that lands in Toronto will pay more to land there than any other airport in the entire world. That is what I had read.

I live in Bermuda and I think the airlines pay WAY more landing tax here. Right now a round trip airline ticket from Bermuda to Boston is over $750 plus tax. Also a round trip ticket to toronto will cost me over $1000 round trip.

 

[tpettie]

Actually, Edmonton is 1 million plus now and there is choice. There's Air Canada, WestJet, Delta, United, and Northwest but NO direct flights. It's just that they're all pretty equally expensive. When we went in late March we flew UA connecting in Denver for about $350 CAN pp. Now, if you see sub $700 pp fares you'd better grab then because they'll be gone soon!

I was just wondering about what is the expected cost to fly out of Edmonton to Orlando in Dec. Last Dec we went I got flights for under $500 with taxes in USD last year but can't seem to find anything like that now. Was that just a great deal??? What price would be concidered a good price now???

 

[dis_guy]

I was just wondering about what is the expected cost to fly out of Edmonton to Orlando in Dec. Last Dec we went I got flights for under $500 with taxes in USD last year but can't seem to find anything like that now. Was that just a great deal??? What price would be concidered a good price now???

Back on March 21 I got 4 tickets for about $650 CAN pp, everything included. I booked United flights (YEG-DEN-MCO) through Air Canada and saw this fare only once at 1:30 AM the day I bought them. I hadn't seen anything that cheap for months before and I haven't seen anything as cheap since. Personally, I'm betting that any sub $700 pp (all fees and taxes in) fare will be as good as it gets. We're going Dec 21-30. Other dates may get you better prices.

Just had a quick look at our dates, UA flights through AC: $1117.87 pp!! (faint)

 

[Salinger]

Also, while landing fees are purported to among the highest in the world at Toronto airport, you can't call them taxes. The fees are levied by the GTAA (Greater Toronto Airport Authority) - they run the airport. The gov't has no input into the fee structure.

Actually, the government (federal) is one of the largest reasons fares are so expensive in Canada, especially in Toronto. The government not only has input, but is directly responsible for making Pearson one of the world's most expensive airports from which airlines operate.

It's to do with airport rent that airport authorities must pay the federal government. These fees, of course, get passed along to the airlines for using the airports, and in turn, this results in the airlines charging us higher ticket prices.

In 2008, The GTAA had to pay the federal government $140 Million in rent. That's $2.7 MILLION IN RENT EVERY WEEK over and above all its other operating expenses. It may not be as simple as "this is why our airfares are so high" but it is certainly a major contributing factor.

 

[bertcj7]

Just March 8-12 2009 I was able to fly from Great Falls, Montana on Allegiant air for $29 + Taxes one way. Now if only allegiant would fly from Vegas to Florida I would have it in the bag. I find the cheapest way for me to get to Florida is to book through disney and let them take care of the airfare ( once again flying from Montana). It is a 2.5 hour drive from home to Great falls or to Calgary and Great Falls is so much easier to fly out of, but if I could get better fares from Calgary i would definately from there.

 

[Tantor]

I honestly can't see how Southwest, Jetblue, and the others stay in business. They must be cutting corners all over the place. Not sure how I'd feel flying with them.

Airfare is what it is.

and personally that is what scares me about flying on the US planes. That's just me.
So far I have been able to find decent fares out of Toronto. But I check everyday when I know I am going somewhere.

 

[fundy_dreamer]

Interesting theories with respect to the tax issues but I think that's more of a local TO issue where they have to pay big rent on valuable property and they have to charge high passenger fees to pay for the new terminals.

The more I look at it, I think it has to do with the lack of 'open skies'. The US carriers can much more effectively use the hub & spoke model to consolidate flights from smaller airports and then ensure that their big planes are full for the longer legs. Because US carriers can't fly point to point within Canada and because of the way our population is distributed along the border, CDN carriers can't use hub & spoke as effectively.

I still think there's some room for the charter companies to fill in some gaps and run some flights during busy times direct from larger Can cities to Orlando.

I guess in the short term I'll be driving 3 hours (I consider myself lucky at only 3 hours) to Bangor, ME or 6 hours to Portland, ME and I'll just have to watch the specials and hope that AirTran starts flying into Bangor.

 

[Salinger]

The direct impact of airport rent on ticket prices is, sadly, not a theory but a fact. Nor is it merely a Toronto problem. As I said, it's far from the only reason, but it is certainly a significant factor in the viability of airlines in Canada.

A quick google of airport rent in Canada will show that Airport Authorities are struggling, in large and small airports coast to coast, with the burden of this federal "tax". It's quite an interesting read. I had to research it a while back for a project I was working on.

What's remarkable, is that the airport authorities in the country have paid more in rent since the current system was set up, than the properties turned over to them were even valued at at the time. On top of that, airports are required to give federal agencies rent-free space to carry on operations within the airports.

I agree that open sky arrangements, or at least, a relaxation of regulations would certainly help ticket prices (at least in more popular routes, probably would not do much for low population/low volume routes). Air Canada has often said it would gladly accept an open sky agreement with the US as long as it was reciprocal. It'd be interesting to see the result of that. Perhaps this current economic crisis, might be the stimulus needed to get the government(s) talking about it!

 

[fundy_dreamer]

That's really interesting. I have a good friend who works for a federal minister. I'm going to mention it to him and see if he can find out if there's anything going on on this topic. Maybe a buzz in the right ear will start something...you know butterfly in Africa, hurricane in Florida sort of thing. I'll let you know what, if anything, I find out.

I was just searching AirTran...they have prices out of Portland, ME to Orlando for $89 US. Plugged in the totals for 3 of us and it came to $665 US taxes in return. So approx $800 CDN. Hard to beat those prices in Canada.

 

[Tantor]

Here is what I did, punched in a trip to MCO from YYZ just to see what the taxes were....



Fare Summary
Passenger Type Adult
Departing Flight - Tango Plus 139.00
Returning Flight - Tango Plus 139.00
Surcharges NAV 15.00

Taxes, Fees and Charges
Canada Airport Improvement Fee SQ 20.00
U.S.A Transportation Tax US 39.52
U.S Agriculture Fee XA 6.14
Air Travellers Security Charge (ATSC) CA 7.94
U.S Passenger Facility Charge XF 5.52
Canada Goods and Services Tax (GST/HST #10009-2287 RT0001) XG 16.05
September 11 Security Fee AY 3.07
U.S.A Immigration User Fee XY 8.59
Total airfare and taxes before options (per passenger) 399.83

Number Of Passengers 1
Grand Total - Canadian dollars $399.83 CAD


Almost $60.00 of it is for US taxes....interesting