Air Canada strike: How do other Canadian airlines fare?

CTV’s Genevieve Beauchemin speaks with expert on what options affected passengers have as Air Canada’s stroke drags on.

In a race to fill the void left by the Air Canada labour dispute, Canada’s airline carriers are adding more flights and adjusting the size of planes used on some routes.

However, it’s far from a smooth ride.

Passengers searching for alternate arrangements have found few options and high prices. Experts say scaling up is a tall order for airlines – both in the short term and for a short time.

“It’s not like (Toronto), if the subway goes down or the metro goes down … you can add a bunch of busses right away. It doesn’t quite work that way,” said Wayne Smith, director of the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Research at Toronto Metropolitan University. “The other thing is, you have to be able to get the gates at the airports … that gets complicated, and there are staffing issues.”

For example, regulations restrict the number of hours flight crews can fly, and the process of hiring and training new crews can take months.

Still, Porter, Air Transat and WestJet all say they are looking at adding some flights on selected routes and adjusting the model of airplanes on the trips they offer to adapt to demand.

In a statement to CTV News, WestJet said it “is positioning larger aircraft onto key routes and working with our airport partners, pilots and cabin crew to add a limited number of extra flights to help accommodate guests where we are able.”

“To respond to the strong demand, we have made some short-term capacity adjustments, including the addition of flights and the use of larger aircraft on certain transatlantic routes,” Air Transat said in a statement, adding that with the combination of high demand and limited number of seats, there could be an increase in airfares on certain routes, especially for last minute departures, as the price tag is determined by supply and demand.

An online search for a one-way trip from Montreal to Toronto this Wednesday with WestJet stands as evidence, costing as much as $1,105.

“Well, it’s going to be pricey, but that’s just the way it’s going to be,” said Smith. “All airline pricing is based on demand. The demand was high to begin with. You add in a thing like the Air Canada labour dispute and that’s driving demand even higher, especially with the uncertainty of it right now.”

Air Canada’s impact on the industry is hard to replace, as the airline handles nearly 43 per cent of Canada’s domestic market, seating roughly 50 million passengers each year.

Smith says this poses a challenge for some Canadian tourist destinations that were faring well this season before the labour dispute, and building a reputation worldwide.

“We’re getting people from Europe who are coming here to explore Halifax or Charlottetown or Quebec City – three places that I know are doing really well – and then they’re stuck with a problem with their flight,” he said. “It gets really challenging from that perspective.”

Charter airlines are likely to get a business bump, but the cost is high for travellers. Trains and buses may be an option on some routes, but are also packed, while the cost of rental cars is going, well, sky high.