Less than half of the 98,800 $500 plane tickets sold during the first year of the aid program put in place by the Legault government to reduce the cost of air travel.
• Read also: $500 tickets: Regional passengers exasperated by delays and cancellations
From June 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023, “the equivalent of 44,302 round-trip tickets were purchased through the Regional Air Access Program (PAAR)”, indicated to the Log Louis-André Bertrand, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport.
“It’s a bitter failure that hurts the regions,” exclaimed the PQ MP for the Magdalen Islands, Joël Arseneau.
Barely a few hundred tickets were sold for cities like Saguenay or Baie-Comeau.
The most popular destination was by far the Magdalen Islands, for which 13,882 subsidized tickets were sold.
Moving from boat to plane?
Result: around 40% of visitors to the islands went there by plane last year, compared to 20% in 2019, said the mayor of the municipality, Antonin Valiquette. The proportion of travelers arriving by boat has consequently fallen from 80% to around 60%
Photo taken from LinkedIn
Antonin Valiquette, mayor of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine since March 2023.
The number of tourists to the islands rose from some 68,000 in 2019 to 75,000 last year, an increase of 7,000.
We can therefore deduce that the number of visitors arriving by plane fell from around 14,000 to 30,000 while the number of visitors arriving by boat fell from around 55,000 to 45,000. request from the boat to the plane.
CTMA, the company that operates the ferry to the islands, did not respond to the LogTHURSDAY.
Mayor Valiquette, however, maintained that the PAAR has helped extend the tourist season on the islands by increasing the number of visitors in the spring and fall.
- Listen to the economic column with Yves Daoust, director of the Money section of the Journal de Montréal and the Journal de Québec at the microphone of Richard Martineau via QUB-radio :
Poor reliability
The program, if it has made connections between major centers and regions more affordable, has failed in terms of the reliability of air services, according to many. Several media outlets have noted in recent months that regional flight cancellations and delays are commonplace.
“What we see on a daily basis, since the establishment of the PAAR, is that reliability has deteriorated, and that’s lamentable,” said Mr. Arseneau indignantly.
Despite everything, at the Ministry of Transport, it is estimated that “the program has made it possible to achieve its objectives”.
“In a context of emerging from the pandemic and after only 12 months of implementation, it is however premature to make a full assessment of the program. As the population becomes familiar with the program, more and more people will be able to take advantage of these tickets at reduced rates,” said Mr. Bertrand.
The cost of subsidies for the 44,302 tickets sold amounted to $22.4 million, he said, or $506 per ticket on average. Quebec therefore spent $15.6 million less than the $38 million projected a year ago.
The Ministry of Transport spokesperson also pointed out that the number of subsidized tickets allocated to airlines, approximately 98,800 for the first year of the PAAR, “does not represent a sales target”, but rather what the government deemed necessary “to meet anticipated demand”.
Number of $500 round-trip tickets sold from 1er June 2022 to May 31, 2023
- Magdalen Islands: 13,881
- Sept-Iles: 6809
- Fermont: 6445
- Gaspe: 3076
- Rouyn-Noranda: 2364
- Val d’Or: 2147
- Blanc-Sablon: 1614
- Schefferville: 1089
- Bonaventure: 882
- Chibougamau: 861
- Baie Comeau: 713
- Anticosti Island: 679
- Saguenay: 642
- Mont Joli: 454
- Other destinations: 2645
- Total: 44,302
Source: Transports et Mobilité durable Québec