Kip Powick Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 Ottawa — Transport Minister Jean Lapierre says he intends to move “faster than you think” toward a deal with the United States that would allow American airlines to carry passengers between Canadian cities. Mr. Lapierre plans to meet with his U.S. counterpart in about two weeks to kickstart negotiations toward a so-called open-skies treaty with Washington. The travelling public and opposition politicians seem open to the idea of allowing U.S. airlines to compete with Canadian airlines on routes between Canadian cities, Mr. Lapierre said in an interview with The Canadian Press. Current rules permit foreign carriers to fly in and out of Canada but forbid them flying between communities, such as Toronto-Vancouver or Halifax-Montreal. An open-skies deal would also allow Canadian carriers to fly between American cities. “I may be moving faster than you think,” said Mr. Lapierre, who represents a riding in Montreal, home base for Air Canada, the country's biggest airline. “I have a great opportunity because we're meeting (Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta) ... in Ottawa,” he added. “At this time, I don't feel any opposition.... I feel a consensus in the country that we could move.” Mr. Mineta is expected in Ottawa on Feb. 24 to speak at a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the current Canada-U.S. air services agreement. He's also scheduled to meet with Mr. Lapierre that day. An open-skies deal that adds price competition could be good news for budget-conscious travellers. But it's not clear how much progress they'll make since there haven't been any preliminary talks yet on the issue, said an official with the U.S. government. “How far could we go in opening up our markets to Canada and how far would Canada go to opening up its markets to us?,” said the official. “At this point, we don't know and I don't think Canada knows because we haven't sat down and actually had a negotiation.” The timing also may be difficult. Air Canada only recently emerged from bankruptcy protection. And industry observers have said the American airline industry — struggling with huge debts, high fuel prices and high labour costs — would oppose giving Canadian competitors full access to their market. Mr. Lapierre first talked about an open-skies treaty last fall, saying he wanted the all-party Commons committee on transport to look into its feasibility. But the committee didn't bite, said Mr. Lapierre. “If there's no problem, if I can interpret that as a green light, then I'm ready to go.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cargo Agent Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 I can't see the US airlines supporting this in the current economic climate south of the border. There isn't much of a market for them to access north of the border, and it would pay in CDN dollars with their costs being in US dollars. The LCC market here is flooded with low-cost tickets (Jetsgo's $1 fares for instance) and landing fee's at some of our airports (YYZ) would only (IMO) make them hesitate to offer service onwards. How much traffic are they going to get on a ORD-YYZ-YOW flight on the YYZ-YOW sector unless they basically give it away? CA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagger Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 Cheap political talk. Lapierre has more chance of getting the US to drop tariffs on lumber and drop all regulations against the entry of beef cattle - even 10 year old cows barely able to stand - than he has getting cabotage for Canadian carriers in the US, assuming you define it as flying wholly within the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super 80 Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 No US airline is going to establish a terminated route network in Canada, and unless every airport in the country is going to rip their transboarder gates apart so they can do both domestic and pre-cleared, or unless their is a customs and immigration union between Canada and the US, which is a 100% political impossibility on both sides of the 49th this is a non-starter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 If our government allows the likes of Southwest and Jet-Blue, AA, NW, etc, etc, to show their product in our country, then companies like Air Canada, Westjet, Canjet, Jetsgo, Skyservice, etc. etc. will show our product in their country.. Fair deal I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rattler Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 Link to complete article Not quite a slam-dunk..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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