Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

BC HIGHWAY CLOSURES

‘It’s always fairly expensive’: holiday flight prices spike in Kamloops

Dec 8, 2021 | 4:26 PM

KAMLOOPS — Non-essential travel by road between the Interior and Southwestern B.C. is not allowed right now.

The fastest alternative to get to and from the Lower Mainland is flying. But the current cost of flights is raising questions around airlines possibly price gouging travellers are arising.

Kamloops travel agent Sonja Thomas, branch manager with Vision Travel – Travelwise, says the latest flight prices are predictable.

“That initial sticker shock is happening because the availability is just gone,” Thomas explained. “A lot of times at Christmas pay the highest fare or if they book last minute. Even in the summertime, I have people that spend $800 to $900 for a return trip to Vancouver.”

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Thomas says flight prices are based on supply and demand and booking a last-minute Christmas ticket within the month of December is going to be a higher price when there are hardly any seats left.

“They will have so many seats on the plane available at the lowest price level. Then, they have another set of seats available at the next highest price level, and so on. Until you’ve got the last few seats that are usually expensive at the full fare seats,” Thomas said.

Some frequent Vancouver travellers at YKA say they weren’t surprised by their pricey ticket.

“Pretty well, I find, the prices in the smaller cities very high for the actual distance you’re flying,” one man said.

“I usually only fly in the wintertime and it’s always fairly expensive,” a woman explained.

Thomas believes the pandemic is the main reason for higher ticket prices. She says since the pandemic hit, there have been significantly less flights than before.

Pre-pandemic, West Jet says it was operating more than 700 flights a day, as compared to 400 flights a day.

“I don’t know that they’ve been able to add into a lot of flights because of the road conditions due to COVID, so we still have less capacity,” Thomas continued.

Regarding the B.C. highway closures, West Jet told CFJC News in an email:

“In terms of B.C. specific, we capped our inventory and prices as quickly as possible and have extended that approach for travel through to December 14.”

Thomas says the only way to avoid costly flights is to book ahead of time.

“If you look to book your Christmas travel flights in September – you’re going to get the best fare. You might still get a $300 to 400 return to Vancouver. As opposed to paying you know $600, $700, $800, or over $1,000 when it’s last minute and the flights are sold out,” Thomas said.