2023-11-11 22:34:52
From December, the air carrier Pascan Aviation will reduce its number of frequent flights and eliminate certain unprofitable services.
In a document obtained by Radio-Canada, Pascan informs its employees that it is forced to make temporary or permanent layoffs as well as pay adjustments to guarantee the sustainability of its activities.
To explain this decision, the carrier cites the end of the Quebec government’s assistance program for the maintenance of essential regional air services and the considerable labor costs.
This program, initially implemented during the pandemic to provide service to communities in remote regions, was extended last spring, before ending on September 30.
The economic update presented Tuesday in Quebec does not provide any envelope for its renewal.
Air services eligible for this program were those whose final destination was either the Magdalen Islands, Anticosti Island, the Lower North Shore, Fermont, Schefferville or the Nord-du-Québec region. .
Source : Ministry of Transport and Mobility durable
Pascan, however, did not specify which regions would be affected by this drop in service.
Clip Carrier Wings
The MP for Îles-de-la-Madeleine and transport spokesperson for the Parti Québécois, Joël Arseneau, denounces the government’s decision not to have once again extended the program.
[Le gouvernement] causes a situation that will be absolutely disastrous for the regions served by Pascan, who will see their service completely abandoned or drastically reduced, he maintains.
By pulling the rug out from under the feet of regional carriers, who maintain services at arm’s length, the government is obviously causing a crisis.
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Joël Arseneau is the Parti Québécois MP for the Magdalen Islands. (Archive photo)
Photo : Radio-Canada / Sylvain Roy Roussel
The Madelinot MP reiterates that the regions depend on air service, particularly in terms of health.
There are medications, medical supplies, patients, healthcare professionals being transported. That’s the basis. There is also the economic lever that air transport represents. Here we are in the unknown. We don’t know what services we will be entitled to in the coming months, he insists.
Joël Arseneau also criticizes the government for focusing solely on stimulating demand for air transport services with the $500 ticket program, the Regional Air Access Program (PAAR), criticized by several elected officials.
Already the [PAAR] is a bitter failure, he says, but the government decides to cut the only aid program for the maintenance of essential regional air services. It’s an absolutely catastrophic series of events and the government is clipping the carriers’ wings.
He asks the government to reverse its decision not to renew the Assistance Program for the Maintenance of Essential Regional Air Services and demands the intervention of the Standing Committee on Regional Air Transport.
A complex file
The president of the Intermunicipal Authority of Mont-Joli Airport, Bruno Paradis, for his part, is calling for the establishment of a new long-term aid program.
The air transport issue is complex and particular, he says. But if we want to have something structuring in the long term, it will take long-term programs that correspond to the needs of both the communities and the transporters.
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Bruno Paradis, president of the intermunicipal management of the Mont-Joli regional airport (Archive photo)
Photo: Radio-Canada / Jean-Luc Blanchet
According to him, current financial programs allow neither carriers to ensure the sustainability of their services nor users to regain a certain confidence in the reliability of these services.
The solutions have the a’s and we have already named them, affirms Bruno Paradis, who already spoke on this subject last January. We wouldn’t like to see a solution that seems to come out of a hat and that will magically resolve the situation, when in fact, it’s just wishful thinking, adds- he.
Mr. Paradis indicates that he has not received a signal suggesting the loss of connection to Mont-Joli airport.
At the time of publishing this text, Pascan’s management as well as the office of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility had not responded to our interview requests.
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