N.B. education minister sparks conversation after calling for deregulation of airline industry

New Brunswick’s education minister took to Twitter over the weekend, commenting on something unrelated to his portfolio, but it's a topic Dominic Cardy says he has experience with.

"Atlantic Canada has worst commercial airline service of any place I’ve lived. Including Bangladesh & Nepal,” Cardy tweeted on Saturday. “We pay rip-off fares for flights late or cancelled. Canadian govt needs to deregulate the airline industry, like most countries did decades ago. Start the process. Now."

Atlantic Canada has worst commercial airline service of any place I’ve lived. Including Bangladesh & Nepal.

We pay ripoff fares for flights late or cancelled.

Canadian govt needs to deregulate the airline industry, like most countries did decades ago. Start the process. Now.

— Dominic Cardy 🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DominicCardy) June 11, 2022

While at a luncheon event in Saint John Monday, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs was asked about the social media comments. He said, the last he checked, he didn’t believe Cardy is the transportation minister.

However, Higgs did say he suspected the comment was made out of frustration, because Cardy has been doing a lot of work trying to help Ukrainians fly into the country and province.

He was also sympathetic to the Canadian airline industry.

“My son-in-law's a pilot in a commercial airline and he tells me how difficult it is to get people -- not only pilots -- but getting people, baggage handlers, customers service,” Higgs said. “It's all a big problem and we're seeing it everywhere. With getting people back out of the pandemic, I mean nowhere was it more disruptive than the airline industry.”

Passengers flying through Canada's busiest airports are experiencing long lines, flight delays and cancellations. Experts believe most of the problems stem from staffing levels at customs and immigration desks, the surge in passenger traffic, as well as COVID-19 border measures.

The Canadian Airports Council says the industry is getting back to pre-COVID traffic levels incredibly fast.

“We have more flights, more carriers, more destinations in terms of Atlantic Canada, specifically New Brunswick, getting back to pre-COVID levels of traffic already for this summer,” said the interim president of Canadian Airports Council, Monette Pasher.

“So, I think you’re going to see a market that is served quite well, I think some of it’s even coming back faster than we anticipated.”

Pasher says there’s more ultra-low cost carriers in the Canadian market too – foreign ownership now sits at 49 per cent, up from 25 per cent.

She applauds the step taken by the federal government to suspend mandatory random COVID-19 testing at all airports for vaccinated travellers – which started Saturday and will remain suspended until June 30.

Atlantic Canadian airports can’t help but be affected by the problems plaguing Toronto’s Pearson, or other major airports in the country, says Fredericton International Airport Authority’s manager of public relations, Kate O’Rourke.

“When you're in the aviation world, everything is connected. So, the plane, obviously, is arriving or departing from here but then it's going to another airport. So, if our larger hubs are having some challenges, as they are right now, then that has a trickle-down effect to all of our airports,” she said.

New Brunswick just released a five-year air sector strategy, promising $4 million to study how to strengthen the industry in the province. Higgs said over a million trips made by New Brunswickers are from airports outside of the province, including the United States.

In follow-up comments on social media, Cardy said Atlantic Canadians shouldn't have to deal with “awful service and ridiculous prices.”

“If prices are high, there’s no excuse for the appalling service Atlantic Canadians endure,” he wrote.