Should cheaper airline tickets be an election issue?

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – This week, Air Canada senior VP Kevin Howlett pointed out a nearly $317 price difference for a flight from Vancouver to Phoenix versus one out of Seattle – blaming it all on what he calls the “prohibitive tax structure” north of the border.

Brad Davies with Virtually There Travel says he sees it happen all the time. “If we are pricing a trip as an agent and we look at Vancouver as one scenario, out of Bellingham as another and out of Seattle as our third one. Vancouver has got this magnificent airport but they are at a competitive disadvantage in many cases with our friends in Seattle.”

Davies explains it all comes down to airport tax. “And the reason for that is the Canadian government looks at airports as being a cash cow….whereas the Americans are a little bit more enterprising than we are so the airports pretty much run themselves.”

Ottawa has appointed the former head of YVR to review the Transportation Act, but the report isn’t due out until December, well after the election.

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