YUL versus TLS: a small, unscientific comparison of 2 markets

When we moved to Montreal 4 years ago, I was surprised by the average price of flights on domestics and trans-border lines. In Europe I was used to much lower prices for trips from Toulouse to Paris, London etc. Even though I’m not a big fan of low-cost airlines, it’s a fact that they bring some needed competition to the European skies. It’s been a trend for several years now that passengers tend to hate low-cost companies but love their prices. Look at the situation of Virgin America, the US Company with the highest rating which is not very profitable and Spirit Airlines, one of the worst, which is making money. In Canada the market being smaller there are fewer choices but the spectrum of airlines is represented: Air Canada, Westjet, Porter, Air Transat and Sunwing. But still, going from Montreal to New-York or Toronto (1-hour flight) can be as expensive as going to Europe …

Here’s a concrete example (nb: I’m not an aviation expert, even though I’m very interested by the economics behind this industry I don’t have any special knowledge, so feel free to correct me in the comments!)

I went to the companies’ websites to compare a trip between two airports in Canada and France. In both countries I chose:

Domestics flights because trans-border generates differences like airport taxes etc.
Airports with a similar sizes (national hub and secondary international airports)
Lines with same volume, I was not able to find the exact number for Montreal-Toronto but I think is quite comparable – it’s one of busiest line in the world

Flights have been researched on the same day (26th May) for the same dates (Friday 26 July – Monday 29 July). As you can see the differences can be found in the taxes and the ticket price. I’m not sure why there’s such a big difference between the 2 countries. I found this article in the National Post and it gives some clues about the problem.

Details of the Montreal-Toronto flight on Porter: