Sales of $500 plane tickets for regional air travel still don’t seem to be picking up.
From June to last October — the first five months of the program’s second year — 14,345 round-trip tickets were sold. This is the basic data sent to TVA Nouvelles from the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility.
This part of the Regional Air Access Program is offered from June 2022. For the first full year of the offer, from June 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023, 44,302 round-trip tickets were sold.
Regions of origin are Sept-Îles, Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Fermont. These are also the destinations where more than half of the tickets have been sold in recent months.
A few tickets to Mont-Joli have been sold
In Mont-Joli, only 184 round-trip tickets were sold from last June to October. Last year, sales totaled 454 round-trip titles.
Carriers’ flight offer at Mont-Joli regional airport remains problematic. There are no direct flights to Quebec or Montreal.
TVA News
For the current $500 flight program, travelers to the regions must have Quebec and Montreal airports as their departure or destination.
Elected officials in the area said lifting the standard would help the program.
“We think it will take regional flights. There are many people here in Greater Rimouski who often want to go to the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. There is a very strong community of Madeleine here in Rimouski. So, yes, I think that is important. The demands of [Fédération québécoise des municipalités] For example, specify it to open as well [organismes à but non lucratif] or for some other organizations. Yes, we intend to open this program, it will probably become more attractive and it will produce more results, but as I said, it must be part of a larger plan or policy for all regions of Quebec,” explained Bruno Paradis, president. Belongs to the Intermunicipal Authority of Mont-Joli Regional Airport.
The Régie believes that we should return to a project like Région Air, which was developed a few years ago in response to problems in regional air transport.
TVA News
An organization awards contracts to air carriers to provide services, and the community mobilizes to stimulate demand.
Member for Matane-Matapédia, Pascal Bérubé, confirmed that the $500 ticket program missed its targets.
“We have more deficient services, whether it’s a bus, whether it’s a train, that should at least be available to those who can afford or want to fly. program. This is an emergency service. So, it was a program that flopped. This is not what we want. I invite the Minister of Transport to come and meet us in Mont-Joli, and we will present to her what is an accessible and effective program for the people of our region,” he said.
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