Bearskin cuts routes.

[rookiepilot]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder- ... -1.7085282

[shamrock104]

Seems to be a lack of people travelling those routes.

[JustaCanadian]

Political move? Cut these routes and demand taxpayers dollars to bring them back.

[rookiepilot]

Political move? Cut these routes and demand taxpayers dollars to bring them back.

Maybe. Like bus service in these places. Can’t subsidize forever.

[goingnowherefast]

Dryden used to have jet service! Interesting how things change

[rookiepilot]

Dryden used to have jet service! Interesting how things change

Its a nice little airport.

[DanWEC]

On a more serious note connectivity in the North is a constant tug-of-war. The economics aren't there to support constant availability for sporadic passengers, and subsidy via mail and cargo doesn't always work.
It's likely that someone with a different structure will hopefully fill in the gap, and the cycle continues.

[‘Bob’]

Everyone knows that Bearskin is the keystone to Canadian aviation.

If they fail we all fail.

I sold my Canadian airline stock today and am planning a career change.

[fish4life]

Bearskin cutting routes might have just as much to do with the lack of pilots as their is a lack of passengers.

[rookiepilot]

Tracking the industry.

Spirit Airlines, following the collapse of the merger with Jetblue


https://www.reuters.com/business/aerosp ... 024-01-17/

[Inverted2]

Back on topic, wasn’t a lot of their business government related with indian related travel? Maybe some cutbacks from the provincial government.

[goingnowherefast]

Bearskin cutting routes might have just as much to do with the lack of pilots as their is a lack of passengers.

I was wondering the same. Anyone know more about their staffing levels?

[JasonE]

I am not surprised. When I looked at flying into Dryden it was $850 each way for the Thunderbay to Dryden leg of the journey. For $200/hr I'll rent a car and drive.

[rookiepilot]

Bearskin cutting routes might have just as much to do with the lack of pilots as their is a lack of passengers.

I was wondering the same. Anyone know more about their staffing levels?

They say its demand, FWIW

[pelmet]

A lot of these northern routes are probably only viable with one carrier charging fairly high prices(and possibly with some sort of subsidy/guaranteed government work on top). This is the same issue with service to small towns.

Does Bearskin have competition on these routes? If so, probably both are losing money. It takes a lot of money to offer a safe air service.

[Tbayer2021]

A lot of these northern routes are probably only viable with one carrier charging fairly high prices(and possibly with some sort of subsidy/guaranteed government work on top). This is the same issue with service to small towns.

Does Bearskin have competition on these routes? If so, probably both are losing money. It takes a lot of money to offer a safe air service.

When I spent time in NW Ontario, I remember hearing that Dryden received 1 million in subsidies from either the feds or provincial government. This was supposedly to maintain scheduled service. I wonder how much, if any of that made its way to the Bear.

[lownslow]

They say its demand, FWIW

People say a lot of things. I have no horse in this race but it’s not far fetched that a business would deflect reasons for shrinking to be an unfixable external force.

Speaking of, I strongly suspect the ‘blame someone else’ approach is the reason for terrible OTP at the big airlines.

[North Shore]

Selectively pruned to take out a lot of unhelpful, unconstructive, and thus unnecessary posts..

[fish4life]

Bearskin cutting routes might have just as much to do with the lack of pilots as their is a lack of passengers.

I was wondering the same. Anyone know more about their staffing levels?

They say its demand, FWIW

Put it this way let’s say you have 20 metro captains and you can make $xxxx per hour flying them on a perimeter route or you can make $xx per hour flying a lower yield bearskin route. Which route are you operating them on? Perimeter definitely doesn’t have a surplus of metro captains so they will utilize them where they can produce the most cash.

[rookiepilot]

I was wondering the same. Anyone know more about their staffing levels?

They say its demand, FWIW

Put it this way let’s say you have 20 metro captains and you can make $xxxx per hour flying them on a perimeter route or you can make $xx per hour flying a lower yield bearskin route. Which route are you operating them on? Perimeter definitely doesn’t have a surplus of metro captains so they will utilize them where they can produce the most cash.

Makes sense.

[The Hammer]

Ask a Bearskin pilot how many pax on are on these flights post Covid. They were thin routes before COVID. YQK, YHD, YAG are hardly northern routes. YQT-YXL is very busy, because of the far north. YQT-YHD was pretty empty 5 year ago when I flew there. Bearskin press release says they average 2 pax per flight now. Unless somethin has changed this route didn't use more crew as it was paired with YYB-YSB-YAM-YQT and was a min credit day anyway. I

AC's schedule between YQT & YYZ is brutal these days, 2 flights a day with the last flight to YYZ is at 10:30 am which I'm sure doesn't help. WJ doesmt connect with YYZ anymore either. Locals don't fly so if the connections aren't there...... In NW Ontario, like much of the country except area codes 905, 416, 604, 514, driving the highway is just part of life.

Once the lumber industry went to shit and the mills closed the traffic died. Miners and a long drive to anywhere keeps Red Lake busy.

It's too bad. Once JT mandates electric cars it will get busier in the winter when they start to run out of juice near Ignace and people fight over the hand full of charges there.

[CaptDukeNukem]

People still fly on metros?

Any passenger should avoid getting on a plane that one of the pilots needs to be the first one off in order to “cool the engine” by “climbing the props”, should be more worried about that than the 1/2 inch of “trace ice” on the leading edge.

[digits_]

People still fly on metros?

Any passenger should avoid getting on a plane that one of the pilots needs to be the first one off in order to “cool the engine” by “climbing the props”, should be more worried about that than the 1/2 inch of “trace ice” on the leading edge.

I think there's a lot of superstition going on with spinning those props. Others do it, so we do it as well. And no Chief pilot is brave enough to remove it from their SOPs.

[Inverted2]

People still fly on metros?

Any passenger should avoid getting on a plane that one of the pilots needs to be the first one off in order to “cool the engine” by “climbing the props”, should be more worried about that than the 1/2 inch of “trace ice” on the leading edge.

I think there's a lot of superstition going on with spinning those props. Others do it, so we do it as well. And no Chief pilot is brave enough to remove it from their SOPs.

I had a flight attendant see them spin the props and ask me why they did it. I told her it was to wind up the rubber bands to start the engines for their next flight.