Air North reports good summer
'We're going to give it every opportunity to hold its own during the winter, but we're not going to be sustaining losses all winter long,' said president and founder
Walter Strong
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 20, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A turnaround may be in the works for Air North.
As recently as May of this year, the airline's director of commercial development was grim on the airline's then three-month-old Yellowknife to Ottawa flight.
"It's suboptimal at this point," Moore said. "The flights are half-full or less than half-full. In three months, we've had (only) one flight that has paid for itself."
That was approximately three months after Air North's inaugural flight on the three-day-per-week flight.
Joe Sparling, Air North president and founder, recently told News/North the summer was a welcome relief from initial empty seats.
"The months of June, July and August produced some very good load factors for us," Sparling said.
"We're approaching industry averages for the first time in a very long time, but it took some very low fares to do that."
Both Air Canada and WestJet recently posted high-load factors over the summer.
In August, Air Canada reported seats were 89.8 per cent full. The airline also reported seats were 84.7 per cent full in September, up by 1.5 per cent over last year.
WestJet reported its highest load factors ever at 89.3 per cent last August, up from 87.9 per cent the August previous.
WestJet reported 75.9 per cent load factors for September, down slightly from September last year.
As privately-held companies, Air North, Canadian North and First Air do not report on their specific load factors for competitive reasons.
But Sparling offered that Northern carriers generally operate at a much lower seat-to-passenger ratio than the major carriers enjoy.
"I've stated many times that our market is flying around in the mid to high 60s," Sparling said.
"Given the fare structure over here, that is not a self-sustaining dynamic."
Sparling said the route showed signs of life in June and finally did well in July and August.
"September showed positive results, but we can see signs of traffic diminishing for the fall," Sparling said.
"People who live in the North find it to be a great product - people who are buying their own tickets - but we're not seeing the uptake that we need from public sector purchasers."
Sparling added that for Air North to continue with the route year-round, it will have to see the public sector ticket purchases it had anticipated from both federal and territorial governments.
Despite not qualifying under the GNWT's Business Incentive Program (BIP), Peter Vician, deputy minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, previously told News/North that Air North should find no issue attracting GNWT dollars.
As the only direct flight between Yellowknife and Ottawa, the Air North route would be preferred, all other factors being equal.
"I think it's proved itself at least as a seasonal route," Sparling said.
"We're going to give it every opportunity to hold its own during the winter, but we're not going to be sustaining losses all winter long."
"It's the same with any route. If it doesn't pay its way then you've got to make some changes."
