Qujannamiik, Iksivautaq . Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for appearing in front of this committee.
I don't normally sit here, but I thank my colleague, MP Taylor Bachrach, for inviting me to sit here today while you study air travel in the north. My questions will be directed to Susan Wright.
Thank you so much for providing us with your testimony. The purpose, why I want to ask you questions, is that it's a bit more comparable to what my reality is in the riding of Nunavut.
As we all know, Nunavut has 25 remote communities, which are all fly-in communities. There are no roads between them, so the airline industry is very much the lifeline for Nunavut.
I want to do a quick comparison, Susan. A one-way ticket from Iqaluit to Ottawa is about $1,500, and the distance from Iqaluit to Ottawa is about 2,085 kilometres. Then, compare a flight from Ottawa to Winnipeg, where the distance is about 2,138 kilometres. It's just a little further, but not by much. When I look at the price comparisons between Ottawa-to-Winnipeg and Iqaluit-to-Ottawa, I see that they're astronomical. A one-way ticket is anywhere between $68 and $600.
Since you're in the airline industry, are you able to help us understand why there's such a huge discrepancy between flights that have relatively similar distances?