A price hike may be on the horizon for northern air travellers following the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 planes in Canada.
Canadian officials decided to ban the use of the planes after 157 people were killed in a recent crash involving one of the jets.
Officials say the grounding of will likely cause a few weeks of chaos for Canadian travellers both at home and in other countries, however, it hasn’t caused much of an issue so far for northern fliers.
“It hasn’t affected passengers too much yet because there’s been a bit of space that they’ve been able to make up for. With the airlines that fly from Prince George being Westjet and AirCanada, they’ve had that airspace to make up for it,” said Miranda Kynoch, owner of ExpediaCruiseShipCentres in Prince George.
Kynoch said WestJet has less than eight percent of flights out of the air and Air Canada only has 24 planes out of 400 that they fly.
“Overall, they have extra planes they can make up for space. So far it’s just been a lot of confusion for people,” said Kynoch.
“Nothing is going to be done more than three days out. Go on with your vacation plans, when you check in you’re going to be given alternatives if you are on a Max 8, and you won’t be flying on it so there’s no concern of safety.”
There is a concern, however, according to Kynoch, of what may happen to the price of tickets.
“There are rumours in the marketplace that we’re going to see, for the next 90 days minimum, that they’re not going to put this aircraft back in the air.”
Kynoch said that means there will be a reduced capacity in the marketplace for air, which means there may be a price hike.
“If you’ve got a big trip coming up that you haven’t quite booked flights for, you’re better off to book now and not have to worry about it.”
She said they’re securing a lot of their customers travelling internationally right now so as to avoid a skyrocket in price.
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