Interest in the regional air access program (PAAR) remains quite low in Quebec. Only 14,000 tickets at $500 round trip have been sold in the last five months. The government is already considering setting up more direct connections to reverse the trend.
Between 1er June and October 31, 14,345 tickets were purchased through the PAAR, reveal preliminary data from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD) made public on Wednesday. The said program was launched with great fanfare by the Legault government in April 2022 to revive air transport in the region, by offering discounts to reduce the cost of a plane ticket.
In some airports, barely a few hundred tickets were purchased. In Baie-Comeau, for example, we are talking about 425 tickets in the space of five months, while in Chibougamau, it is 395. At Bagotville airport, in Saguenay, 200 tickets at $500 were sold , while in Mont-Joli, it is less than 185.
In Sept-Îles, on the other hand, more than 3,700 plane trips were made at low cost thanks to the program. In the Magdalen Islands too, which remains one of the most popular regional destinations for Quebecers, air carriers managed to sell more than 3,580 tickets between last June and October.
These two sectors have also been the most popular since the start of the program. Wabush airport, used by Fermont residents, also remains popular with 3,160 tickets sold in recent months.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF QUEBEC
Not a failure, retorts Quebec
However, the challenges remain great. It must be said that from the very beginning, the project experienced difficulties or, at least, did not quite meet expectations. Last August, more than a year after its launch, the program generated the sale of only 45,000 return tickets in 12 months, while the government had mentioned that around 100,000 tickets were offered.
In short, with only some 14,000 tickets so far this year, the performance of the government initiative could be even poorer than last year. At the MTMD, however, we argue that “the success of the program cannot be measured with a ticket sales target”.
“The number of available tickets announced at the launch of the PAAR was not a target, but rather the number of tickets available since the purchase of plane tickets is of course done on a voluntary basis on the part of customers” , argues the spokesperson for the Ministry, Louis-André Bertrand.
According to him, “the savings from which Quebecers were able to benefit constitute a more appropriate indicator.” Quebec maintains that “the figures indicate that the number of tickets available was sufficient”.
Any improvements in sight?
Questioned on this subject on Wednesday, the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, affirms that she is working “on modifications to the program and on other actions to improve regional services”, with her government assistant, the deputy Yves Montigny, who is also chairman of the standing committee on regional air transport.
“We want to better connect the regions to each other. We’re not ready to announce everything, but it’s coming. We are particularly considering opening the PAAR program, therefore more clienteles and from one city to another rather than going through Quebec or Montreal. There is nothing signed yet,” said the minister’s communications director, Maxime Roy, in writing.
He nevertheless emphasizes in turn that “the program is still working well” and that “several cities remain very well represented”.
Several regional players in the world of aviation had called for a reduction in ticket prices as well as an increase in the frequency of flights in recent years. This all came as Air Canada had abandoned markets such as Baie-Comeau, Gaspé, Mont-Joli, Val-d’Or and the Îles-de-la-Madeleine, outside of summer service, in June 2020.
Before the arrival of the PAAR, the Air Fare Reduction Program (PRTA) allowed only six regions – Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Côte-Nord, Gaspésie and Îles-de-la -Madeleine, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Eeyou Istchee Baie-James – to benefit from reimbursement rates ranging between 30 and 60%.
The annual ceiling varied between $500 and $3,000 and a reimbursement request had to be submitted to the Ministry of Transport.
With Charles Lecavalier and Julien Arsenault, The Press