Pioneering company Canada Jetlines will begin flying between Calgary and Toronto in September. (Canada Jetlines/Instagram – image credit)
Canada’s newest discount airline announced Friday that its first scheduled flight will take off in late September.
Canada Jetlines will begin operations from its travel hub at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on September 22, with bi-weekly flights from Toronto to Calgary and back on Thursdays and Sundays.
“The launch of Canada Jetlines is another milestone marking the recovery in the travel and tourism sector,” said Bob Sartor, president and CEO of the Calgary Airport Authority.
As of Friday, flights on the Canada Jetlines website that fly one-way from Calgary to Toronto were priced at $99 at the lowest price and $254 at the highest price. Flight cancellations and checked baggage are available at higher rates.
The airline flies the Airbus A320 as its standard, starting with one of these aircraft in 2022. The airline says it expects to fly 15 aircraft by 2025. The A320 is an all-economy aircraft with 174 seats.
Ravinder Minhas, a founding member of the airline’s board, previously told CBC News in May 2021 that Canada Jetlines sees this as a positive time to launch, even though airlines have lost billions of dollars at this point.
“We were able to get planes at a great price,” Minhas said, adding that the airline will soon be able to offer flights to sunny destinations at cheaper prices.
Canada Jetlines had previously planned to launch earlier this year from Toronto to Winnipeg and Moncton, but delayed and rescheduled that launch while it awaited its air operations certificate.
The airline says more routes to other destinations will be announced soon.
The rise of low-cost airlines
Canada Jetlines is the latest in a string of low-cost airlines now operating in the country.
After launching as a charter airline in 2004, Flair Airlines began offering scheduled service in 2018. Lynx Air, which operates a fleet of Boeing 737s, launched earlier this year.
John Gradek, a lecturer in McGill University’s aviation management program, said the rise of low-cost airlines is a trend as the industry recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The story continues
“There were quite a few carriers that parked aircraft during COVID. And they’re slowly taking those planes out of storage and bringing them back in,” he said.
“But there is an opportunity for a number of carriers to actually look for aircraft that have been stored and then bring those aircraft into their own fleet by negotiating a deal with a leasing company or outright buying old aircraft.”
Sent by Flair Airlines
Gradek said he expects a number of carriers to emerge with different levels of service and different routes, so that they create a different niche in the market.
“Canada has seen its fair share of lower-cost carriers over the years,” he said. “The longevity of these carriers is a function of the strength of the economy. And, you know, how aggressive the incumbent carriers are in trying to match or beat the price and level of service offered by those carriers. So that’s something we’re seeing as these carriers evolve.”
He added that it will be important for Canada Jetlines to quickly grow its fleet after its first Airbus A320 to prevent delays if mechanical or other problems arise.
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