There has been lots of talk about the high cost of air fares within the province again the last couple of days. Talk on CBC that is; yesterday on radio Noon Talk Back the guest was the mayor of Labrador City.
The callers ranged from the deputy mayor of Lab City to a lab West representative of a service organization to some folk from the Island complaining about the high cost of getting into Labrador to a business traveler from St. John’s who travels regularly to the North Coast to the regular stand by from Rigolet Richard Rich.

The guy from St. John’s claimed that a recent return trip to Nain cost his firm over $2, 200:00. I thought this a bit outrages and my be incorrect so I checked the Provincial booking site, low and behold a ticket leaving St.John’s this week and returning next week was quoted at just over $1,900:00. And I could not get the flight dates I wanted, they were booked up on the return.

Not surprising was the absence of any elected officials or senior civil servants of the various levels of government representing the peoples of Nunatsiavut or a representative of any service organizations representing the good folks of the same area.

Could it be that all the above mentioned travel on the publics dime and when on these free travel junkets those above mentioned folks avail of cheaper shopping opportunities, and then I believe they get double the baggage allowance on their return. Could it be that if one is not hurting personally then why bother sticking ones neck out to stick up for the proletariat and the unwashed, just a thinking aloud hypothesis of mine.

The guy from St. John’s did offer up some good advice though, research needs to be done, compare other similar markets to see how fares compare with getting into and within Labrador.
Having said that; be careful what you wish for; we will see.

The host of the show kept asking callers to come up with some suggestions on ways to lower air fares. No one did a very good job of that if they indeed did tackle the question. I think it unfair to ask the ordinary person to come up with suggestions considering the complexities of the air line industry.

The complexities were emphasized this morning when the new owner of Air Labrador was interviewed on Labrador Morning. When asked how the fares could be lowered Mr. Earl did not have any thing to offer except to say that in small population markets it is very difficult balancing your bottom line, so to speak.
When asked how the $5, 0000:00 to be put into air travel announce by the province could be used Mr. Earl suggested maybe some money could go into the coastal infrastructure like the waiting room and booking areas, they are way too small and with inadequate services. If tourism and business is to be encouraged then a lot of upgrading is needed. Not to mention fares lowered [my quote]
Apart from that it seems to be status quo at Air Lab in the short term.

One thing that sticks out to me during all this chatter: Encouraging another airline or subsidizing another airline to come into Labrador will not lower air fares in the long term. This has been proven time and again in all sizes of markets.
We have two air lines whose fares within Labrador are almost the same; Air Lab usually offers the lowest by a small amount from what I see.