Canadian airlines fear acceleration of cross-border travel to Cuba

Canadian airlines say impending US travel to Cuba could spur cross-border travelling by Canadians in search of cheaper flights from American airports to the Caribbean island. While the low loonie has generally discouraged treks by Canadians to border-area airports in recent months, an eventual rise could prompt them to head once again to the US, especially if those hubs start offering an array of flights to Cuba. “It definitely has the potential to exacerbate the leakage of passengers,” said Marc-Andre O’Rourke, executive director of the National Airlines Council of Canada. That would add fuel to the industry’s long-standing complaint that its competitiveness is hurt by “a Canadian policy framework that treats the aviation industry as a source of public revenue by downloading govt taxes, fees and other charges on airfares.” <br/>