Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, for the opportunity to appear this morning to outline for you why the National Airlines Council of Canada does support wholeheartedly the passage of Bill C-42.
We are here on behalf of WestJet, Air Canada, Air Transat, and Jazz to briefly outline for you the operational and economic fallout that would occur if Canadian carriers were denied access to U.S. airspace for overflight. We fully realize there are other issues on the table, of course, that are impacting the decision you'll have to make, but we did want to take the opportunity here to tell you about the economic impact.
During debate at second reading, it has been implied that denying Canadian carriers access to U.S. airspace for overflight may simply make flying time somewhat longer. In fact, the impact is far greater than that. Simply put, air services from Canada to Mexico, the Caribbean or South America would no longer be commercially viable if we were denied access to transit through U.S. airspace en route to those destinations.
Flights from Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes would all have to head further east over the Atlantic Ocean. Up to four hours additional flying time round trip for each flight would result in significantly increasing fuel burn and drastically reduce the amount of payload carried. By payload, we mean passengers, cargo, bags, etc.
More significantly, the additional flight time would mean that the vast majority of destinations could no longer be served. You could not fly there anymore, because they would exceed the safe performance limitations of the aircraft. Flights from western Canada would need to head west over the Pacific, and would run into similar operational and geographic realities. The airspace west of the continental United States is one of the busiest oceanic routes in the world, due to east-west traffic from the continental U.S. running to various Pacific destinations.
From an air traffic control perspective, north-south flights across the corridor would simply be impractical, as they would be prohibited or, at best, severely restricted by air traffic control. Furthermore, even if there were a handful of destinations that might still be served, the dramatic increase in flying time and the necessary increase in airfares to cover the increased fuel burn would make the flights completely unattractive to Canadian consumers. Why would someone choose to fly out of Canada on a flight that is now up to four hours longer, when you could simply cross the border and fly on U.S. carriers to take advantage of the much shorter flying time and commensurately lower fares?
Thus, from a commercial and operational perspective, being denied access to U.S. airspace for overflight would be an unmitigated disaster for Canadian air carriers and our passengers. Given the operational realities and the commercial impact, carriers would largely cancel service on these routes.
The economic impact on Canadian carriers would be severe. The winter schedules are already set, the tour packages and room nights, etc., are already booked, the crew scheduling is already taken care of, as is aircraft scheduling already locked in. Denial of access to these markets would create insurmountable challenges and seriously undermine the economic strength of the industry.
We urge the committee and Parliament to pass Bill C-42.
We would be happy to take your questions.