Canada has a new low-cost airline
Flights will be performed as early as September.
We've written repeatedly about Canada's tourism crisis, endless airport chaos, travel delays and flight cancellations.
Canada's newest budget airline announced Friday that its first scheduled flight will depart in late September. Canada Jetlines will begin flights from its tourist hub at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Sept. 22, with two flights a week from Toronto to Calgary and back on Thursdays and Sundays.
The announcement was greeted with excitement. Bob Sartor, president and CEO of the Calgary Airport Authority, predicts a return to pre-doc workloads:
"The launch of Canada Jetlines is another milestone marking the recovery of the travel and tourism sector."
The airline says other routes to different destinations will be announced soon.
Canada Jetlines is far from the first carrier in the line of budget airlines currently operating in the country. After launching as a charter airline in 2004, Flair Airlines has been operating since 2018, and Lynx Air, which uses a Boeing 737, has been operating since early 2022.
John Gradek, a professor in McGill University's aviation management program, notes that the growth of low-cost airlines has become a trend as the industry recovers from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. He expects a number of carriers with different levels of service and a variety of routes to create a niche market.
Despite the overall positive tone of the news, the expert believes that we cannot relax and it will be important for Canada Jetlines to quickly increase its fleet, in addition to its first Airbus A320, to prevent delays in case of mechanical or other problems.
