PG to Mexico Holiday Flights Grounded?

Monday, April 30, 2007 04:05 AM

The Vice President of Transat Holidays, Vic Nakhleh, says the travel company has not included Prince George in its direct flight plans to Mexico this coming winter.

“It is not a dead issue, absolutely not, we would like to keep it on", says Nakhleh, "but we have to look at load factors and we have not been able to get them up. Our loads out of Prince George to Puerto Vallarta have been running at 83%, and believe me at 83% we don’t make any money. Having said all that, I still am asking head office to reconsider Prince George."

The Travel Company says Iit did have a couple of flights towards the end of the run that did make it better. There are several companies operating out of Kelowna the company says, the results from that city have been unbelievable, "We also have had a tremendous response out of Comox and the company will be continuing their flights out of both those centers again this year" says Nakhleh.

Asked if a Ft. St. John- Prince George to Mexico flight could be established, Nakhleh says, "We are tied to the amount of time that the flight crews can fly during the day and by adding Ft. St. John we would exceed that limit."

The bottom line? Nakhleh says that last minute bookings are a killer "Those last minute bookings, trying to fill a plane only result in us losing money and then head office says we won’t accept that, its just business."

Travel agents in the area say that there are lots of people flying to Mexico who live in Prince George and area, they don’t leave from PG but rather have been leaving from Edmonton, Calgary, Kelowna and Vancouver. Although the prices end up being the same, once you add in the extra travel expense and overnight stay, but agents say some people just don’t understand what having the direct international flight means to the region.

The General Manager of the Prince George Regional Airport says other travel companies are looking at Prince George if Transat Holidays decided to cancel its run into the city.

"A number of other operators have been looking at this airport to fly out of to holiday destinations , we will just have to work hard to make sure that they come here", says Stieg Hoeg

"Last year one of the problems that we had is that there were no flights available during break up, or spring break when people can travel in this area. The primary vacation periods were not covered this past season and in spite of this we had good numbers for the flights. "

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Posted on Monday, April 30, 2007 04:05 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: jonnypg on April 30 2007 4:47 AM

Its a dead issue!

Posted by: tiemens1 on April 30 2007 9:42 AM

It would be a shame to lose those direct flights. I would love to see more - to the east coast of Mexico - but after reading the article, that's probably not possible due to the limits on flying time for crews.

Posted by: lmorg on April 30 2007 10:01 AM

Time to be real - we here in pg are just so far out of the way ecomically. We know victoria has only been throwing us a few bones to keep us happy up here. The writing is on the wall when even airlines will no longer offer this type of service.

Posted by: owl on April 30 2007 10:34 AM

"agents say some people just don�t understand what having the direct international flight means to the region."

So if the travel agent knows what it means ... do share please.

From my point of view, for those who fly to other cities first, it is still the same passenger flying out of the same airport. No additional movement through the airport. To not fly directly means fuller flights for those who serve the only reasonable international hub in BC, and the west of Canada for that matter - Vancouver. That makes them more viable and may up the frequency of their flights thus this would serve the interest of many more people in PG and the immediate area.

If there were an economic viability to siphon off a few more direct flights out of here to Calgary, Toronto, Chicago, wherever, then those local connector flights would soon be cut back by a flight or two a day.

End result??? A bunch of flights all operating at a loss and the whole system comes crashing down and we need to start from the beginning to get back to where we are now.

To assume that direct international flights are a positive to the region may very well be in error. Let us look at the details before we decide that. So, I am looking forward to hear what a travel agent thinks are the net economic results of one versus the other.

Posted by: Chadermando on April 30 2007 2:47 PM

I Still think a direct flight to Hawaii or LA makes more sense to me. Who wants to go down to crime ridden Mexico to begin with if that's the only option offered.

Posted by: Palopu on April 30 2007 6:21 PM

You need a bigger population and more people inclined to travel before you can expect to get direct flights to anywhere from Prince George. This is not going to happen in the near future.

Despite the Sombrero's, Guitars, and Fanfare, when these flights were first started they were doomed to failure. The obvious question is how many people actually go to Mexico in a year (especially) Puerto Vallarta, and how many would go more than once. With a small population you would run out of people very fast. It seems that they never got beyond 83% in any event.

This was a pipe dream from the *Get Go* . They originally tried to tie it in with people out of Ft McMurray Alta, and that didnt work. Then they flew people out of Victoria, to Prince George, and then on to Mexico, last year. Im sure the people from Victoria were thrilled with the 2 hours extra flight time, plus clearing customs in Prince George. Finally they got their numbers up to 83% and had a direct flight from Prince George, however at 83% they cannot make any money.

For a short period of time they were flying customs people in from Vancouver to clear people through customs, and then I beleive they finally put some people on full time in Prince George.

What this all means is that this venture actually costs money to run out of Prince George, especially the Customs portion. In addition we built the facilities for this venture before we had a clue, as to whether or not it was a viable operation. It appears that it wasnt.

Next venture failure. **Expanded Airport Runway, with wide body Cargo Jets, landing and taking off to Asia. Probably as much effort put into this plan as the Customs Facilities.

Posted by: lmorg on May 1 2007 10:01 AM

Kelowna and Comox have direct flights. Hmmmm Kelowna obviously has the population base to support the flights. Comox on the other hand: has approx 30 thousand people in the area (courtenay incl.), but there is also a direct flight from edmonton to comox (alberta - van island money pipeline). I guess we here in little ol poor pg don't rate........

Posted by: Death to Socialism on May 1 2007 1:14 PM

Terrible news. It was great to have an easy way to escape the winter. Guess it's back to wasting 2 days time & money killing time in Vancouver.

Posted by: Palopu on May 1 2007 3:07 PM

Death to Socialism. Better you spend two days of your time in Vancouver spending your money and wasting your time, than having the taxpayers pick up the tab in Prince George so that you can fly direct.

Dont think for a minute that having Customs Facilities in Prince George doesnt cost big bucks. When you only have approx 12 flights per year to Mexico, I suggest that Vancouver is the best option.

I would like a direct flight to Prince Rupert, what are my chances??, How about a direct flight to Philadelphia, or New York. Why do people who fly to Mexico think they are entitled to better service than people who fly to other parts of the world??

Have a nice day.

Posted by: Death to Socialism on May 1 2007 6:44 PM

Wow! How horribly self-centered of me.