Statistics Canada says airfares rose 2% year-over-year in June and continued to exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Consumer price index figures show the increase follows a 4.5% year-on-year rise in May and a relatively flat April.
Prices were also nearly 19% higher than what travelers paid for their plane tickets in June 2019.
The higher fares are partly due to less competition among airlines and reduced flight capacity, which have more than offset slowing demand since the post-pandemic travel boom.
National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen says fares have been rising for most of the year – including on major domestic routes – after an 11-month stretch of year-over-year declines, mostly in 2023.
However, he says WestJet may have to lower prices in the short term to lure customers back after a two-day mechanics’ strike that canceled more than 1,300 flights and disrupted the plans of at least 170,000 travellers.
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