Air Canada's reduced service to Sept-Îles leaves residents feeling held hostage

Air Canada's decision to drop its evening flight to Sept-Îles has caused a major inconvenience to residents and business owners, who are "hostages" to the airline's monopoly, the town's mayor says. 

Air Canada eliminated the evening flight on the Quebec City to Sept-Îles schedule in May, reducing daily flights from three to two.

That change is forcing residents and business owners in Sept-Îles to take on the added cost of staying overnight in Quebec City when they visit the capital — an unnecessary waste of time and money — said Mayor Réjean Porlier.

Porlier said it was "really frustrating" that there was no consultation with people in Sept-Îles before the change was made.

"We work really hard to make a strategy to have attraction for people, for workers, and for families," he said. 

He said the reduced number of flights will stunt the town's ability to grow, because people will not want to travel to the North Shore if it is so logistically complicated. With the evening flight gone, the schedule has daily flights from Quebec City to Sept-Îles at 8 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. 

Porlier said anyone travelling for business typically took the early morning flight to Quebec City and returned at the end of the work day, an arrangement that is no longer possible.

The hour-and-a-half-long flight can cost several hundred dollars for a round-trip, and can cost upwards of $1,000 for last-minute travel.

The mayor said the new problem with air travel is especially discouraging after almost a year of ongoing issues with ferry service.

"The road is not finished, the ferry issues, there is no bridge over the Saguenay — and now the plane," he said.

He said the region needs more help from the government to find long term solutions to the transportation issues along the North Shore.

Porlier said Air Canada upgraded to bigger planes for the Quebec City to Sept-Îles flights, but he doesn't believe that makes up for the schedule changes. In an email, a spokespoerson for the airline wrote that a larger plane was introduced to improve reliability in adverse weather conditions.

The spokesperson wrote that the airline reserves the right to make changes to its schedule.

"Air Canada revises and makes changes to its schedule on a regular basis for commercial and operational reasons," they wrote.

The president of Commission Scolaire Du Fer, the local school board, also expressed concerns over the flight changes in a letter he wrote to Air Canada.

Not a fair partnership, mayor says

Porlier said he doesn't appreciate that the people of Sept-Îles have to put pressure on Air Canada to provide good service and fair partnership, especially considering the airline has a monopoly in the region.

"This is not a good service, it's just 'I make what I want and the population just has to adjust'," he said. "It's not acceptable. We are hostages."