Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here today.
Also, I want to thank once again my fellow committee members for allowing me to substitute in for this meeting and also for helping me to bring this important study to your committee to shed light on some of the challenges that regional airlines are facing, particularly in the north.
In the first meeting of the study, which was on May 30, Joseph Sparling, the CEO of Air North, Yukon's airline, spoke to some of the challenges. Under his leadership, Air North has really built a strong regional airline through a lot of smart business decisions over the years, by taking some risks as well as by earning the support of the local population and developing a partnership with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. Air North is very forward-thinking and innovative and is offering direct competition with mainline carriers.
However, in his testimony Mr. Sparling talked about, and I'll quote, how “In the post-deregulation environment, regional services have become consolidated and centralized, with many communities losing jet service in favour of turboprops and some communities losing service entirely.” He goes on to say that the “risk was acknowledged” in a previous report from this committee, in which two of the 42 recommendations called “for mandatory interline and code-share agreements between all Canadian scheduled airlines”.
He, in his testimony, said, “This would serve to level the playing field between the small regional carriers and large network carriers by providing regional carriers with access to mainline networks”. He reflected that this has been “addressed through legislation in both the telecommunications industry and the railroad industry.”
My first question is about regional interline agreements.
Ms. Wright, perhaps you could comment on whether this resonates, whether you see some agreement or not in this area of interline connections and how this might support you as a regional airline.