EDMONTON- Air Canada says it wants to “set the record straight” about its decision to suspend direct service from the Edmonton International Airport (EIA) to London’s Heathrow Airport during its winter operations.
In an open letter to the Edmonton Journal Saturday, Air Canada’s vice-president of corporate strategy, industry and government affairs says the company is proud of its operations in Edmonton and the decision to suspend the direct flight from January 8 to March 28, 2014 was a business decision.
“Our service to London, Heathrow from Edmonton, which commenced in 2007, has been successful in the summer, but we have faced revenue challenges in winter. The summer service was subsidizing the winter operation,” Derek Vanstone wrote.
“In the case of the London, Heathrow service, our analysis shows the impact of subsidized competition on our year-round operation will make it unviable, and we decided to cancel our less-profitable winter operations. We will continue to operate this service in the summer, but we determined we could no longer cross-subsidize the winter operations in this environment.
“As with all such decisions on routes and frequency, if we are able to satisfy ourselves that year-round operations can be profitable, we are always open to re-establishing winter service.”
Vanstone went on to write that seasonal operations are not unusual.
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The letter comes two days after the Edmonton Journal obtained another letter from Vanstone, addressed to EIA’s CEO Reg Milley. In the letter, Vanstone stated the recent announcement that Icelandair will start offering non-stop flights from EIA to Reykjavik, Iceland next March gave Air Canada “cause to revisit (its) YEG international operations.”
In Saturday’s letter, Vanstone said Air Canada recognizes Edmonton’s desire to maintain the year-round service, and has been working with EIA to make the winter operation more profitable.
However, he went on to say “although airports will at times offer subsidies to attract airline service to new destinations, this is not generally done to entice new entrants to compete with existing services.
“It is in this context that we are most disappointed with the Edmonton Airport Authority’s recent initiatives to attract a new competitor focused on European connection traffic,” Vanstone wrote. “Air Canada never shies from competition, but we look for the playing field to be fair.”
Air Canada will resume its direct service from EIA to London on March 29.
Icelandair’s year-round service from Edmonton to Reykjavik will begin on March 5, 2014.
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