In theory Seattle should be no competition for YVR with repsect to Whistler. The extra journey time, the border wait, hours spent in a bus should make it a no brainer in favour of YVR.
However the lower costs of transit through Seatac, and the extra flight convenience make Seattle a viable and serious competitor. This alone brings hundreds of room nights to Seattle hotels and millions of dollars per year to Seattle shops, money that could have been spent in Vancouver.
I was, specifically, not engaging in the question of whether particular airlines are acting "fairly" or "poaching" customers from other carriers. How you feel about that largely depends, I think, on one's politics and perhaps on aspects of one's employment.
As far as I know the 'Golden Age" of regulated air travel was regulated for political (commercial) reasons as much as for safety and we see the hangover in 'slots' and the lingering rules about who can fly into where. It is rather strange. Fancy saying, for instance, that a toy manufacturer could not have access to a particular market for toys for five to ten year olds because they don't make toys for ten to twenty year olds.
Surely the answere for Air Canada is to provide a better service and if they can't compete on price then they should compete on value
Way back in the late sixties the value of the German Mark was going up so fast compared to the Pound it was hard to keep track and labour costs in Germany were higher than in the UK. I remember thinking at the time that the German car industry was doomed. Same again when the Japanese invasion started, but today you can't go anywhere without being knee deep in Mercedes, BMWs and VWs. I agree though, it sure is hard for AC when their home airport taxes etc are higher than the competition's but that's not the fault of the other airlines.
Canada needs a good airline infra structure more than Europe, the alternatives are not nearly as good, but our fares between cities domestically are nothing short of scandalous. I paid less than half, per mile, to travel around Asdia thgis last month than I 'd have to pay to get around Canada. I can't wait for the real low cost revolution to get here.
Last edited by ChrisVJ; 31st May 2012 at 07:34.