Neha Jain: http://canadaaviationnews.blogspot.com/4

1. Westjet not likely to expand to Fort St. John anytime soon

For a number of months, a petition has been circulating online requesting that Canada's second largest airline, Westjet, expand to Fort St. John.

At the same time, the airline has been posting good numbers coming out of the recession. They expanded service on some routes and said their flights averaged more than 77 percent capacity for January--it's the second busiest January in terms of percentage of full airlines in the company's history.

And while the company recently added Orange County, California to their list of destinations, that petition to bring the airline to the Peace may not be successful anytime soon.

"The challenge is, the region has to be large enough both in terms of the city itself as well as the commercial trading area surrounding the city to be able to fill an aircraft of our size," said Robert Palmer, Westjet manager of public relations.

Currently, the only major airline to connect the Energetic City and a major market is Air Canada Jazz. It flies to and from Vancouver several times a day. Their planes are much smaller than even the smallest Westjet plane and when they aren't flying at capacity, Palmer says that's enough reason for there not to be an expansion at this time.

"The smallest aircraft we have seats 119 guests," said Palmer. "When our competitors are flying the same routes with 37 and 50 seat turboprop aircraft and not even necessarily filling those aircraft on an ongoing basis, it tells us there is not sufficient demand for a jet service."

Palmer did say, however, that the company is aware of the interest from residents of the Peace to get their service to the region.

2. Airlines keep eagle eye on rising fuel prices

Just as the long-awaited rebound in air passenger traffic finally picks up speed, surging oil prices are threatening to quash it.

Airline revenues have been on the mend since the recession in 2009, but the growing recovery in passenger numbers will be threatened if fares rise to compensate for higher fuel prices, the International Air Transport Association warned Thursday.

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IATA said it’s concerned about jet fuel prices, which climbed along with the oil rally and have been further fuelled by “political turmoil in Egypt and fears of a domino effect on other oil-producing states in the region.” Contracts for benchmark West Texas intermediate crude remained above $90 (U.S.) a barrel on Thursday, sharply higher than the $40 in early 2009, though lower than the record of $147 in July, 2008.

Given that spending on airfares has a ripple effect in other areas, such as hospitality and tourism, reduced passenger traffic would dampen the still-fragile economic upturn.

For now, IATA is sticking with its forecast of a $9.1-billion (U.S.) profit for global carriers this year, down from $15.1-billion in profit last year but a vast turnaround from the $9.9-billion loss in 2009. The wild card will be how much airlines will be able to either incorporate higher fuel bills into advertised base fares, or slap new surcharges on tickets.

In September, 2008, Air Canada (AC.B-T3.180.113.58%) and WestJet Airlines Ltd. (WJA-T13.350.070.53%) dropped North American fuel surcharges, only four months after they were implemented. Since then, Canada’s two largest carriers have used a formula that rolls fuel charges into their base fares in North America.

Air Canada’s pricing already imposes fuel surcharges on overseas routes, and those extra fees could rise if jet fuel prices continue their ascent, say analysts, who add that it is a tricky balancing act for carriers to raise fares without scaring off customers, especially price-sensitive vacationers.

Passenger fares and yields – the average price paid by one passenger to fly one mile – rose about 10 per cent in 2010, according to IATA, which noted that the return of business travellers led the way for the industry’s comeback.

National Bank Financial Inc. analyst Cameron Doerksen said WestJet had a strong January, though its load factor – the proportion of available seats filled by paying customers – slipped as the Calgary-based carrier attempted to push through higher average fares and yields.

WestJet’s January load factor retreated to 77.8 per cent, compared with 78.8 per cent in the same month last year. But its January traffic increased 9.7 per cent to 1.37 billion revenue passenger miles, while its seat capacity grew 11.2 per cent to 1.77 billion available seat miles.

Porter Airlines Inc.’s load factor in January jumped to 51.7 per cent from 44.1 per cent, ushering in what Porter president Robert Deluce expects will be another year of expansion. The Toronto-based regional carrier’s traffic escalated 36.8 per cent while its seat capacity rose 16.7 per cent.

Montreal-based Air Canada will report its fourth-quarter financial results next Thursday.

David Goldstein, chief executive officer at the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, said improvements to travellers’ airport experiences should help maintain passenger traffic. He expects changes announced Thursday by Ottawa to streamline airport screening will reduce the frustrations of lengthy lineups and scale back the hassles for business and leisure travellers.

3. WestJet, Porter boost capacity in January

OTTAWA (Reuters) - WestJet Airlines Ltd (WJA.TO: Quote), Canada's No. 2 carrier, and privately held regional carrier Porter Airlines said on Thursday they boosted capacity in January as demand for air travel continued to recover.

WestJet said its load factor, a key industry measure that tracks the proportion of available seats filled with paying customers, was the second highest for the month of January in its history.

WestJet's load dipped to 77.8 percent from 78.8 percent in January 2010 as the Calgary-based airline increased capacity, or available seat miles, by 11.2 percent from the year-prior period.

Traffic, or revenue passenger miles, rose 9.7 percent, the airline said.

"We are encouraged by improved pricing and demand in the air travel market, as well as the growth of our business bookings," WestJet Chief Executive Gregg Saretsky said.

"Our capacity additions continue to be absorbed and we are happy with our strong January load factor."

Porter, a small airline that flies out of Toronto's downtown Billy Bishop Airport, said it increased capacity by 16.7 percent and traffic by 36.8 percent over January 2010.

The January load factor rose to 51.7 percent from 44.1 percent, Porter said.

"These numbers are a good beginning for what we anticipate will be another year of growth at Porter," said Chief Executive Robert Deluce.

4. Qatar Airways plans Montreal-Doha flights
CSeries or no CSeries order, Qatar Airways said Tuesday it will start three flights a week between Montreal and Doha in June.

The carrier, which has been dickering with Bombardier Inc. for more than a year on a purchase of its coming CSeries airliner, was allowed its first three landing slots by Canada last fall. At that time, Ottawa denied additional landing rights to two other airlines from the region, Dubai's Emirates Airlines and Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airlines.

Competing airlines, particularly Air Canada, Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France/KLM, have strenuously objected to the Mideast carriers' rapid expansions on the ground that they constitute unfair poaching on their turf. Consumer groups, however, welcome the additional competition, arguing that it would improve service and lower ticket prices.

Montreal would be the fourth North American destination city for the Mideast carrier, after New York, Washington, D.C., and Houston.

The route is part of a forceful international push by Qatar Airways, a growth strategy similar to the two United Arab Emirates airlines -and notably Emirates.

Qatar Airways chief executive officer Akbar Al-Baker said in Belgium this week that he plans to add 22 destinations for a total of 120 by 2013.

The airline operates 1,000 flights per week to 98 destinations.

Reports said that Qatar would fly Boeing 777s on the Montreal run.

Qatar added Brussels to its network this week and will soon follow up with Stuttgart and Aleppo in Syria.