After my last post on air transportation costs (and to be clear I think the high cost of air travel up here is a social justice issue, and it is high time the different levels of government, and others start thinking of it as such) I got to thinking about how best to put travel costs in perspective. Now I know there are many ways to make comparisons, and this is just one way, but here is a breakdown on air fares by cost per kilometre.
A note on the information. All of the Northern/Nunavut fares were taken from First Air's Website. There are other carriers that service some of these destinations. Vancouver to Halifax and Toronto to Sydney Australia fares are from Air Canada's website. London England to Ascension Island and Copenhagen to Nuuk Greenland were taken from comments on my last post, and I did not check them further. Fares and distance were based on Return flights, departing March 4th, 2009, returning April 4th, 2009 or dates close to that. The cheapest fares found are the ones used. Mileage is "as the Raven flies" and calculated from this site, or in the case of London to Ascension Island on Google Earth. Whew.
Arctic Bay to Iqaluit: 2420 kms at $2188 = $.90/km
Arctic Bay to Ottawa: 6220 kms at $3642 = $.59/km
Resolute to Iqaluit: 3150 kms at $2384 = $.76/km
Pond Inlet to Iqaluit: 2126 kms at $1452 = $68/km
Cape Dorset to Iqaluit: 784 kms at $598 = $.76/km
Pangnirtung to Iqaluit: 594 kms at $412 = $.69/km
Iqaluit to Ottawa: 4194 kms at $1852 = $.44/km
Moving out of the Baffin Region but staying in the north we find the following…
Rankin Inlet to Iqaluit: 2352 kms at $1366 = $.58/km
Cambridge Bay to Yellowknife: 1700 kms at $1216 = $.72/km
Cambridge Bay to Edmonton: 3738 kms (via Yellowknife) at $1732 = $.46/km
Kugluktuk to Yellowknife: 1194 kms at $870 = $.73/km
Kugluktuk to Edmonton: 3232 kms (via Yellowknife) at $1508 = $.47/km
Yellowknife to Edmonton: 2038 kms at $494 = $.24/km
And finally a couple of southern domestic and international flights…
Vancouver to Halifax: 8858 kms at $568 = $.06/km
Toronto to Sydney Australia: 31,108 kms at $1466 = $.05/km
Copenhagen Denmark to Nuuk Groenland: 7068 kms at $2412 = $.34/km
London England to Ascension Island: 13400 kms at $3664 = $.27/km
For the most part I'll let you make what you will from this. It is a pretty basic comparison and I realize that other factors fall into play. Now I didn't check any other Baffin fares (perhaps I should) but obviously within this data Arctic Bay (Nanisivik) has the highest fares within the context of price per kilometre of travel (and for this service I'll point out that you get a box lunch – my last two were frozen). The Vancouver to Halifax fare is for Air Canada's Tango service which is pretty bare bones, however if you were to ask me whether I'd prefer bare bones at six cents a kilometre to get from here to Ottawa or half bare bones at sixty cents a kilometre I wouldn't have to think about my choice to hard.
I was actually quite surprised at the costs for Cape Dorset and Pangnirtung, as I thought they'd be better deals per kilometre. The other northern surprises for me was the CamBay and Kugluktuk legs to Yellowknife. Again I thought they were fairing better. They of course get the benefit of the low Yellowknife to Edmonton leg, should they be venturing farther south.
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11 responses
You’ve used the wrong Ascension Island. You want one that’s the former British Colony in the Atlantic, not the one in Micronesia.
The correct distance is 6727 kms at $3664 = $0.54/km
I got the distance from
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/calculate-distance.html
Hi Bnsr.
thanks again. I did use the one in the Atlantic, my km totals are based on return flights, so in essence double the 6700 kms.
Thanks also for your original post regarding fares to Ascension on the previous post.
I’ve been to Arctic Bay, and a few other places in the Canadian Arctic. So when I needed to get my work team to Nuuk last summer, I was nervous about the cost. Imagine my surprise when the prices were nowhere near those for the Canadian Arctic. Using IcelandAir’s current fares to Keflavik, Iceland (return); and Air Iceland’s current fares Keflavik to Nuuk (Nuuk)
YYZ-KEF return: $601-$725, 8836km = 6.8 to 8.2cents/km
KEF-GOH return: $595-$1190, 2800km = 20.8 – 42.5 cents/km
if we consider point to point distance,
YYZ-GOH return: 5748km, which brings us to 20.8 to 33.3 cents/km.
Note that my fares are “all in”, i.e. include taxes and fees (not all airlines are as obnoxious as AC when they quote fares), fares are economy, variation is due to booking class – the “low” fare is the tango equivalent, the “high” the next class up (tango plus).
Air Iceland flew me to Nuuk in a Dash8. Both airlines included meal service. Air Iceland will put on an extra plane if the flight fills up completely well ahead of the departure date.
Given that I’ve always considered Iceland to be an extraordinarily expensive place and labour and fuel costs there can be expected to be high, I find it interesting that Air Iceland can make a profit in small planes in very remote areas at less than a third of the cost per km of flying to Arctic Bay. Air Iceland fares are converted from the Icelandic Kronur; however, I didn’t fly in the very cheapest fare classes last year and I recall my KEF-GOH trip costing around $880 return and this was before the Icelandic economy went pfffft.
(I found Greenland to be a much more affordable place than the Canadian Arctic in other ways, including food prices and accommodation.)
Thanks Johanna, those fare comparisons illustrate my points even better than the ones I used. Wish I’d thought of them.
We are planning our travel budget for the year. I sent the link to my boss. Thanks, we might get to go see you now 🙂
That would be great Kent.
Very interesting! When I wanted to visit the north I found it was cheaper to fly to Vancouver and then to Whitehorse than to fly up your way to the eastern arctic. (I took a van/camping trip to Inuvik and only a quick flight from there to Tuk.)
The Western Arctic has a few more options. The only road between two communities in Nunavut was the 30 kms between Arctic Bay and Nanisivik. Nanisivik no longer exists. There really is no close jumping off point here. Driving to Yellowknife and then flying up is actually more expensive than coming up through Ottawa – $4446.00 plus. Although I have heard one has a better chance of flying out on points via that route. Via Ottawa it is practically impossible, without booking months in advance.
Watch tonight. We have a story on this, and i brazenl;y stole your numbers (after confirming myself of course) 😉
Will do
I’m enjoying your “series” (series of rants?) on air travel.
I just flew up to Grise Fiord and was pondering the first piece you wrote as I flew.
Y’know, considering we have the most, or probably nearly the most expensive flights in the world, is there any particular reason they are so rickety and uncomfortable?
Cripes, the plane to Resolute was so inadequate we had to stop in Hall Beach for fuel on the “direct” (no Nanisivik stop on Wednesdays) flight! No room for carry-on baggage (on a five-hour flight, when you factor in the detour and fuel stop), squeezed into ancient seats like sardines wearing parkas, with right leg on fire from the ancient heating system.
And then don’t get me started on Kenn Borek! $150 excess charge for ONE extra piece of baggage (~43 lbs), and an airplane that you could literally fall out of, and no way to contact the pilots over the cargo pile if you had an emergency, and with cargo secured in a manner that it would fall on us (and has, in the past!) if there was any turbulence or a rough landing.
It’s absolutely insane. I can see how flying Ottawa to Grise is more expensive than Ottawa to Halifax, but most of that should be proportional due to distance. And sure, flying in the north would be a bit more expensive… IF we had the same quality of planes, which we do NOT. I think with the quality of the equipment, per km charges should be equal, as the poor quality and comfort on the northern flights should defer any increased costs (I mean, they were de-icing in Resolute with a broom- I’m not kidding. How much more expensive than southern de-icing systems can that be??!!?!)