Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 21/98) - The Diamond Travel Club hopes a deal it struck with First Air to provide cut-rate fares to BHP rotational employees does not drive a wedge between First Air and Canadian North.

Both airfare offers were very similar but First Air was willing to give discounts to employees who are members of the travel club. Canadian pulled its offer off the table after the travel group asked them to beef up their offer.

"I told her, (Kelly Kaylo) I said, you'd better change your price so that it's worth it for us in the south to swing over. That was the last I heard from her. It was kind of ironic that it was at the same time when all this bullshit came out," said Rick Lucas, spokesperson for the Diamond Travel Club, an independent travel club not associated with BHP.

First Air has been on the firing line since the private deal was made public by city council. Critics say it's an anti-Northern deal that promotes travel to the south.

Canadian North downplayed the deal. Offering cut-rates to BHP rotational employees in the south does not encourage the NWT economy, said company spokesperson Kelly Kaylo. She also said if travel is managed properly, there's no need for discounted fares. Travellers can tap into seat sales and excursion rates similar to First Air's $350 per ticket offering of which the diamond club is looking to buy over 1,000 to 1,500 of each year.

"We went to different airlines and said, look, we know for a fact this is your low days of the week. You're only 16 per cent sold out on those days. You have 84 per cent not selling out and we want to fly those days. We're going to guarantee you this many flights, this many tickets. What kind of deal can you give us," said Lucas.

The club approached Canadian North, NWT Air/First Air and a number of charter companies in the south. It was cheaper to fly with a charter but it was not flexible enough for them, he added.

Canadian North's proposition with the travel club, which XXXYellowknifer obtained a copy of, included a discounted fare to the employee group for $353 per ticket and a number of other fringe benefits like bonus Canadian Plus points for fights.

Yesterday, Kaylo said Canadian put the deal out to the group while the company evaluated the situation. After some number crunching and analysis of the deal, Canadian decided to pull out.

"Everyone was quite aware that we had matched a fare while we explored our options on what we should do with this. In the meantime as we went through this, it was a business decision. We took into consideration other factors. In the long run we saw no benefit to our market," said Kaylo.

"We chose not to go ahead and pursue a fare. We phoned the association back and said I'm sorry we're not going to present a fare out there. We're not going to allow you to book at any rate with Canadian Airlines. That's the bottom line."

Airfares a fair deal

Lucas, a rotational BHP employee who lives in a small town north of Edmonton, takes offence when someone complains about employees flying in and out when no one has come forward with information encouraging them to relocate to the city.

"To me, those are my days off. The company and nobody has a right to tell me where I should live and what I should do," he said.

"I got a nice house down here. If I want to sell my house and move up there I got to spend another $100,000 to get the same house. Is it worth it for me? Plus, all my family is down here...There's so many things in the picture that influences a decision like moving up and back to Yellowknife."

If the city wants workers to stay they should have someone come forward with promotional packages and highlight what the city has to offer newcomers, he said.

"I know for a fact there are guys moving from New Brunswick. They come up, fly up to the site the first day, they get two weeks off. They come and stay in Yellowknife to try and figure out what the heck they're going to do next. Does anybody help those people? No. They freak as soon as we, as employees, get a deal from flying from there to Edmonton. That's not fair."