Air Canada disrupts Calgary woman's hopes of visiting ill father
The price hike stems from the sudden dip in flights, as passengers snatch up seats during the busy summer vacation season, travel experts say.
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Both the airline and the union representing 10,000 of its flight attendants remain at odds over pay and various other issues.
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'It's been a challenge for travelers who are overseas, currently trying to get back home to Canada,' said Vicky Young, with Travel Agent Next Door in Calgary.
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One of Young's clients was supposed to fly from London to Ottawa on Saturday, but that flight was cancelled early Friday morning.
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'Even though we were fairly confident it would be canceled, we were crossing our fingers and toes,' Young told Postmedia, while waiting to hear back from Air Canada to re-book her client's seats.
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'The client's not (going) to spend $7,000 per passenger to get home in the next day or two, so we do need to really wait to see,' she said.
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'We're seeing the impact on pricing as we speak,' said John Gradek, an aviation expert from McGill University in Montreal.
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Those looking to book a flight from outside of Air Canada may be faced with eye-watering fees.
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The 'normal' one-way fee for Toronto to Vancouver through an airline like Flair is around $400, and now it's up to $1,000, Gradek said. Round-trip flights through other carriers were up to $1,800.
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Another Calgary-based travel agent said people have looked at alternative flights as an 'insurance' or 'guarantee' they'd be able to fly, but 'costs were sky high.'
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'Well, it's not surprising, because you're looking at booking last minute in the summer season,' Lesley Keyter, founder of The Travel Lady, told Postmedia.
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Removing all the Air Canada seats from the air, it mostly comes down to supply and demand, Keyter said.
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Air Canada makes up about half of the available seats for air travel in the country, said Gradek.
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Still, algorithms have had an increasing role in determining airfare in recent years, according to Keyter.
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'I don't even think it's people really making the decision,' she said.
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'If Air Canada has a seat sale, then somebody else will come up with an algorithm and they'll have a seat sale as well . . . it's understandable that the other airlines will pick up on this. Of course, that's business,' Keyter said.
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Greyter said the situation will create a short-term 'blip' in consumer confidence and trust, but nothing substantial.
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