By Andrew Macdonald
Maritime Business
A new positive development is emerging at Saint John Airport, and it involves the soon-to-fly route between Saint John and Halifax.
Maritime regional service between the two cities is set to resume with an inaugural flight on Sept. 9 aboard a Pascan Aviation 30-seater aircraft.
Regional service in Atlantic Canada was halted during the pandemic, as flights between Halifax Stanfield to Saint John, Charlottetown and Sydney disappeared.
Now Saint John Airport CEO Alexander ‘Sandy’ Ross is excited the new service between Bathurst-Saint John and Stanfield will allow New Brunswickers to board in the Port City, and connect to flights on Air Canada going to London, U.K., Vancouver and New York.
In an exclusive chat, I spoke to Ross about this exciting development.
The Vancouver and Newark routes will start in October 2024.
According to Saint John Airport, the connecting flights are cheaper than rates offered on the travel website Expedia on the Pascan-Air Canada interline agreement.
Pascan will also connect New Brunswickers to Toronto, Montreal and Boston. There are also flight opportunities to Newfoundland and Ottawa.
Using random dates the ticket to board in Saint John and fly to Halifax will cost the following:
• Boston: $795 return (four hours total travel time)
• St, Johns: $814 (under four hours travel time)
• Deer Lake: $1000 (Cheapest and fastest only 3:30 mins travel time)
• Ottawa: $865 (travel time: four hours)
Ross says for now travellers from Saint John connecting to other flights at HFX Stanfield will have to book the connecting flights with a travel agency, such as Maritime Travel. Eventually, those connections can be booked on Air Canada or Pascan’s website, expected to happen later in the fall.
“There has been some expansion to the service offering coming to the Bathurst, Saint John and Halifax route, and you will be able to get interline tickets on Air Canada,” Ross said.
“If you book through a travel agent out of Saint John and into Halifax, the interline agreement is on Air Canada’s destinations out of Halifax. So, that includes Gander, Deer Lake and St. John’s.
But it also includes London, Boston, and, later in the fall with a minor schedule change, New Brunswick travellers will be able to connect flights to Newark and Vancouver.
The London connection lands at Heathrow.
“It’s a one-ticket solution,” added Ross.
“In the beginning, you need to book it through a travel agent, or American Express or through Expedia. You won’t be able to arrange it on Air Pascan or Air Canada websites, because it is an interline agreement. But it does mean with one ticket you can get to London Heathrow or Vancouver or all those other places in between on one ticket with your baggage handled at the airport. It is essentially one ticket as far as the travelling public is concerned,” said Ross.
Prior to this new agreement with Air Canada, if New Brunswickers wanted to go to Newfoundland, as an example, they had to drive to Stanfield or fly first to Montreal or Toronto, and then connect to The Rock.
Meanwhile, the Saint John-Halifax route and connecting flights to Newfoundland will be cheaper than the Upper Canada option, said Ross.
When it was suggested to Ross that this development is a big deal for Saint John Airport he readily agreed.
“It is. It re-connects Saint John through Halifax and opens up all those destinations.
If you want to get to London Heathrow you will be able to get there through Halifax. It’s a morning departure you can get in that night and be there 12 hours sooner than otherwise if you were to take the connection through Toronto (to Heathrow),” added Ross.
“For the connection to Vancouver, which will be available in late October 2024, you will be able to get there three hours faster then you would if you made the connection through Toronto or Montreal from Saint John – with competitive prices,” he explained.
“Your baggage is taken care of, it is one price to get to London Heathrow (or other connections)”, for the Saint John Airport traveller, added Ross.
The first flight on Pascan from Bathurst – Saint John- Halifax, and return from Halifax to NB is set for September 9.
“Bookings should start to begin piling up now because they see most of their bookings taking place 30 days in advance of flights, so they have told us they are happy with the traffic they have seen up to this point,” he noted.
“We know the first day is getting sold out, partly because (Saint John Airport) is buying a bunch of tickets ourselves to go to Halifax to celebrate the reconnection the sleepy little fishing village of Halifax to the metropolis of Saint John.”
Ross is a former Haligonian. He became CEO of Saint John Airport during the beginning of the pandemic.
I asked Ross if Pascan would connect Halifax again to Sydney or Charlottetown – Halifax currently has direct flights to Newfoundland & Labrador.
“I can’t speak for Pascan. I know they have been having some discussions with other airports and we have been happy to help facilitate making introductions. But I do not want to speak for them. I think right now their focus is nailing this first connection (Saint John-Halifax) and making it successful. For them, with other airports, the proof will be in the success of Saint John-Halifax, which has always been commercially viable. That is their calling card going forward. I know they are well received at other airports.”
Ross said Air Canada and Pascan’s website eventually will also handle bookings.
“Their agreement will need to shift from an interline agreement to a codeshare agreement, that is the mechanical process that has to take place. I have been chatting with both airlines, and both have expressed a desire to make that next step,” he said.
“Both will want to make sure the base route between Saint John and Halifax is successful and accepted by the market and once they (Pascan and Air Canada) see that that route is successful they will make the investment in the codeshare (arrangement)…. I believe that is how they are viewing this.”
Interline vs codeshare
“Interlining is the most basic form of airlines working together to help passengers get to where they want to go,” said Saint John Airport spokesperson Lori Carle.
“Airlines with interlining agreements will handle all ticketing and baggage drop-off for each other. This can be booked through a travel agent or online travel company such as Expedia,” she added.
“A codeshare agreement is when one or more airlines agree to operate flights and sell tickets for each other’s flights. You can book directly from the airline yourself,” explained Carle.
Saint John Air Canada connections boosts Halifax Stanfield
While the Pascan and Air Canada agreement means a great deal for N.B. travellers, it also is meaningful for Halifax Stanfield, because it sees a return of hub service to Stanfield, that disappeared during the pandemic.
“The reason I think this is important for Halifax, as well, is of course when Air Canada came back with its revised business model last year and they de-hubbed Halifax – because they had been using Halifax pre-pandemic as an Air Canada partner from Saint John to Halifax, they were flying from Sydney to Halifax, essentially it was a hub,” explained Ross.
“If they can start an interline agreement and move to codeshare, that effectively means Air Canada is facilitating travel through Halifax through other partners – and that means a lot of new business into Halifax. Halifax is obviously the biggest airport in this region, and we all have an interest in its international connections and we all want to take advantage of it, so I think the strength that it lends to Halifax – maybe the Saint John model can be applied to other markets, feeding into Halifax and that bolsters the case for Halifax to be a stronger international airport.”
Saint John is the home base for some big corporate players, such as JDI, Cooke Aquaculture & Moosehead Breweries, and Irving Oil, of course.
“We have been in discussions with Irving Oil, JDI, Cooke and Moosehead. Most of them have interests in particular in Newfoundland, so getting an effective route to St. John’s is important, getting to Boston is important so all those connections through Halifax are things that we have gotten super positive feedback from those corporate entities about supporting this route,” said Ross.
