Joshua Krane is a partner at McMillan LLP and led the team that represented Sunwing during the merger approval.proposed merger between WestJet and Sunwing
Canadians have voiced their discontent about air travel. The problems started last summer, when airlines struggled to reboot as travel levels began to pick up again. Thenand the busiest travel season in years, causing miserable flight delays for thousands of Canadians. Airline and airport executives were rapped on the proverbial knuckles by members of Parliament, and the industry apologized for the upset and delays.
The Competition Bureau believes that having more competitors is better for the industry. But the reality of operating some of the most complex machines on Earth, over a vast territory, in a cold and ever-changing climate, makes scale and efficiency equally important considerations as well. So simply increasing the number of airlines isn’t an answer. Nor is strengthening the Air Passenger Protection Regulations despite the recent public and government attention. The idea we should just “make the airlines pay for their delays” is good politics. It’s not good policy. Ultimately, travellers would pay the price through higher fares to cover the costs of regulatory compliance or cancelled service.
Less competition is not good for the consumer’