Quebec quietly scrapped more than 30% of $500 round-trip flights for regional travel

The Quebec government quietly reduced the number of $500-or-less airline tickets available under its regional air fare subsidy program (PAAR) by more than 30% for 2023-2024 back in April. The program was designed to encourage tourism across all regions of Quebec, with the ultimate goal of improving flight reliability and supply. But a year after the the PAAR began in 2022, fewer than half of the 98,800 round-trip tickets for $500 were used, according to Radio-Canada. The government therefore lowered the number of available round trips to 67,500 between April 2023 and March 2024 in order to adjust to demand. Nicolas Vigneault, a spokesperson for the government's Transport Ministry, says he does not see this as a failure of the program. "It's still too early to measure the effectiveness [of the PAAR]," he said. The 98,800 tickets subsidized by the government last year were "not a target" and therefore did not have to be sold in their entirety. "The program achieved its objective of making affordable airline tickets available on targeted routes," Vigneault said. According to those in the industry, the solution to increasing the program's popularity lies in revising its criteria. "We need to look at all the parameters we can modify to further boost this program," said Yani Gagnon, co-owner and vice-president of Pascan Aviation, one of the airlines participating in the PAAR. Gagnon says he has already informed the government of a number of possible solutions he considers "promising".<br/>