Affordable air travel to and from Labrador is something that provincial and industry officials are trying to address.

Last fall the Goose Bay Airport Corporation released a report showing that air fares had increased by 33 per cent in central Labrador and by 47 per cent in Labrador West since 2019.

The national average over that same time span was 9.2 per cent.

The premier met with PAL Airlines after the report’s release, and reached out to the federal minister responsible to have the issue addressed.

Lake Melville MHA Perry Trimper says regional airlines servicing Labrador and other northern and remote routes, have been suffering since the pandemic.

“Regional airlines are really hurting” says Trimper, “we have not recovered. Wed don’t have the same amount of ridership, we lost a lot of planes, we lost a lot of pilots,” whereas the larger routes managed to recover.

Trimper believes the country needs to “split-out” its regional airline services. He then suggests, not unlike a PUB exercise, look at the cost to operate an airline, and the cost to keep an airport going, and then determine a fair price for travelers.