If you plan to travel by air for your vacation this summer, you will have to pay a high bill. For some destinations, such as Europe, ticket prices have doubled compared to last year, and this trend is not expected to disappear anytime soon.

Unsurprisingly, “as is the case in any economic sector, inflation played its role (...) in the tourism sector,” confirmed Michel Archambault, Emeritus Professor in Tourism and founder of the "Transat" Chair of Tourism at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), in an interview with Radio Canada.

For example, the current price of a round-trip flight from Montreal to Porto in Portugal is about $1,200, compared to $770 last October.

Archambault points out that the rising price of airplane fuel, labor shortages, and the limited number of seats available on planes together caused heavy losses for airlines that find themselves forced to increase their prices.

But despite the price increase, demand exists, according to Jack Nantel, Emeritus Professor at the Montreal University Business Studies Institute (HEC Montréal). Families who were deprived of travel during the COVID-19 pandemic are ready to resume their habits.

In the same context, airports are operating at full capacity to accommodate the many travelers.

In Europe and the United States, travelers can always turn to low-cost airlines, such as EasyJet and Southwest. But the situation is completely different in Canada, which is a “very small market internationally,” leading to market concentration, noted Professor Nantel.

Michel Archambault sadly added: "Unfortunately, the regulations were not favorable to establishing a real low-cost airline in Canada."

Professor Ibrahimi went in the same direction, saying that conditions are not currently available to allow new players to emerge in the market. Knowing that the government's role is to encourage competition, according to him.