Despite the overall COVID-19 situation improving thanks to a steady vaccination rollout, provincial governments within Canada don’t seem quite ready to encourage travel just yet- not even domestically. However, this hasn’t stopped Canadian carriers from offering some truly stellar deals – especially when considering the normal cost of flying within Canada! Let’s take a look at some of the airfares for domestic travel in Canada, and examine why carriers might be offering them.
*Please note that all monetary figures contained in this article are Canadian dollars (CAD), as we are discussing Canadian domestic airfares.
Less than half of a ‘normal’ airfare
Anyone who’s flown from Canada’s Westcoast to the nation’s largest city, Toronto, knows that this five-hour journey would typically cost about $500 Canadian round-trip. In ‘normal,’ non-pandemic times, $500 might even be considered a good deal. That’s why it’s quite shocking to see what airlines are currently offering on one of the country’s busiest long-distance services.
- Relative newcomer Flair Airlines (an ultra-low-cost carrier) has YVR-YYZ priced out as low as $162 for a nonstop flight.
- Meanwhile, WestJet has this route selling for as low as $235.
- More expensive than the rest, Air Canada has fares from $277 – still a good deal when compared to what you would normally pay.
If we look at a slightly longer route between Vancouver and Montreal, we see that fares are also quite heavily discounted from normal prices.
So why are airfares currently so low? There are several factors that might explain the low-cost of tickets.
Competition
Firstly, the presence of relative newcomer, Flair Airlines, may have the effect of bringing ticket prices down. The ULCC’s airfares are…