WestJet welcomes the Competition Bureau’s market study released June 19, 2025. The market study acknowledges the clear issues negatively impacting affordability and competition in Canada.
The study has recognized air travel as essential—not a luxury—for connecting Canadians, supporting rural communities and driving national economic growth. Canadians deserve an aviation system that is affordable, competitive, and sustainable. That requires tackling the real root cause of high prices: Canada’s uniquely high fees, charges and taxes.
The study confirmed that third-party fees, charges and taxes, which are much higher in Canada than other jurisdictions, are undermining affordability and deterring competition in Canadian air travel. The Competition Bureau found that Canadians pay airfares that are more than 40 per cent higher because of government-imposed fees and taxes and third-party fees and charges. As an example, for a typical round-trip in Canada, a passenger must pay $133 in fees (none of which goes to airlines), compared to only $49 in the U.S. Lowering fees and charges would allow millions more Canadians to afford air travel, grow the size of the market, and create room for new entrants and more competition, which in turn delivers more choice and more affordable travel for Canadians.
A clear path forward: Modern, affordable aviation
The Competition Bureau’s report provides further evidence that Canada needs a comprehensive reset of its air transportation policy to treat air travel as essential economic infrastructure, as other countries do.
WestJet welcomes a holistic review of the user-pay model to reform Canada’s air transportation policy, with the following urgent priorities:
- Modernize the funding of Canada’s air transportation infrastructure based on global best practices through a comprehensive review and government report.
- Immediately freeze all federally imposed air travel-related fees and begin a phased approach to explore opportunities for efficiencies to reduce these fees. This will unlock new private capital for critical infrastructure upgrades that address capacity and trade bottlenecks.
- Modernize passenger protection: The current rules are well intended but do not work, and the amendments proposed by the government last year (APPR 2.0) would make things worse, creating a system that adds $1 billion per year in costs to air travel with little to show for it. There needs to be a fundamental reform to the passenger protection policies to provide travellers with a simpler system with clearer benefits and choice, without all the overhead costs. As the report finds, APPR is increasing costs, while reducing incentives for airlines to serve regional routes.
WestJet stands ready to work with government, regulators and industry partners to build a stronger system that is affordable and promotes a competitive environment for Canadian air travel.