THUNDER BAY – A national carrier will be flying larger airplanes in and out of the Thunder Bay International Airport starting in a few months.
Air Canada on Thursday announced it would be transitioning to flying Air Canada Rouge jets on a number of routes, including from Thunder Bay to Toronto.
Beginning on May 1, the current six daily flights on the Q400 propeller aircraft will be replaced by three flights per day on the Rouge A-319 jets.
Thunder Bay airport president and chief executive officer Ed Schmidtke said it’s been a number of years since jets have provided regular service in the city.
“It’s a big change in the market. The substitution sees the jet come in with 136 seats, as opposed to the 78 seats per propeller airplane,” Schmidtke said.
“I haven’t seen a schedule yet but I would expect we’re 15 to 20 minutes shorter on each leg now. It’s going to be an interesting reaction from the market. Will people prefer the frequencies or the faster jet airplanes we haven’t seen here for a while?”
In its press release, Air Canada said the planes will have two cabins along with wireless internet and in-flight entertainment streamed to travellers’ personal devices.
“Those jets will have a business class cabin we haven’t seen here in a long time. There’s now true product differentiation in the market,” Schmidtke said.
“We have carriers that are providing propeller aircraft, there’s now Air Canada now with jets three times a day to Toronto Pearson. There’s Porter with six or seven frequencies a day into Billy Bishop. People have some very distinct choices now.”
Schmidtke said early indications appear to show prices are going to be very similar.
It’s too early to tell whether other airlines will follow Air Canada’s lead, Schmidtke added.
“With every change in the market there are always new opportunities for others. That’s going to take some time to evaluate. We’re going to have to see how the market responds to this change to see where the new opportunities really are,” Schmidtke said.
“I wouldn’t expect any changes in the short to medium term but it will be interesting to see what the fall schedule or next summer’s schedule will look like.”
