Why Flying in Canada Costs So Much

<p>Ottawa just offered Canada's 4 biggest airports to private investors. To judge that deal, it helps to know how flying here got so expensive, so here it is piece by piece.</p><p>1. About 30 cents of every dollar you pay a full-service airline is fees and charges, mostly for the airport, on the Competition Bureau's numbers. Leaving Halifax that's $35, whether you fly 2 hours to Toronto or 6 hours to London.<br>2. Fuel tax is about 1 cent of every dollar.<br>3. Over about 15 years, Ottawa sold Air Canada, leased the big airports to local non-profits that pay their own way through your ticket plus rent of up to 12 percent of their revenue, and sold air traffic control to Nav Canada. Each one made sense at the time, and each one moved a cost onto your ticket.<br>4. When 1 more airline joins a route, fares drop about 9 percent, on the Bureau's numbers. Canada still only lets Canadian airlines fly routes inside Canada.<br>5. Airports sold elsewhere tend to raise the fees they charge airlines, and also add routes and passengers. Watch 2 things in Ottawa's deal: whether anyone keeps an eye on the fees, and whether Ottawa's rent comes down.<br>6. If a big airline delays you 3 hours or more for reasons in its control, you can claim $400, and up to $1,000.</p><p>Where do you fly from, and what does getting to Toronto cost you?</p><p>The full guide is in my paid community at calmmoneycoach.com. My email list is free.</p><p>Photos: Trans-Canada Air Lines Lockheed CF-TGE by InSapphoWeTrust, CC BY-SA 2.0. Porter Airlines Embraer E195-E2 by Andrew Heneen, CC BY 4.0. Both via Wikimedia Commons.</p>