Air Canada Adds Seasonal Fort Lauderdale Link from Halifax

Canadian flag carrier, Air Canada, has revealed plans to introduce a new seasonal flight between Halifax Robert L. Stanfield International Airport in Nova Scotia and Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport in Florida, USA. The weekly flight will operate between December 14, 2013 and the end of April 2014 and will be flown using a 97-seat Embraer E190.

The new link will complement Air Canada’s existing winter weekly seasonal service from Halifax to Tampa and twice weekly link to Orlando from the Canadian city and has been scheduled to offer customers easy connections to and from major Air Canada destinations in Atlantic Canada.

"Our upcoming winter sun schedule offers our customers in Atlantic Canada a choice of several popular holiday destinations to escape the winter cold," said Marcel Forget, Vice President, Network Planning, Air Canada. "Our new Fort Lauderdale service complements Air Canada's existing Halifax flights to Tampa and Orlando. This winter, Air Canada will be offering 12 per cent more seats from Halifax to the warm sun and beaches of Florida."

Air Canada will compete directly with low-cost carrier WestJet Airlines between Halifax and Fort Lauderdale. The latter has been operating a seasonal flight between February and April for the last three years and plans an extended operation in the coming winter schedule with flights commencing a month earlier in January 2014. According to MIDT data, an estimated 25,000 bi-directional O&D passengers travelled on this route in 2012, up 7.8 per cent on the previous year.

"We are delighted to welcome Air Canada's seasonal service to Fort Lauderdale," said Jerry Staples, Vice President, Air Service Marketing & Business Development, Halifax International Airport Authority. "Southeast Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach are becoming increasingly popular among sun seekers and this additional service provides our passengers with another great option to meet their winter travel needs."

In our analysis below we record the development of air capacity between Halifax and Florida, a market that has witnessed year-on-year growth since 2009, and new records being achieved in the last three years. This year’s flight schedule represents a 17.2 per cent increase over the previous year, a strong growth but an actual slowing in growth following increases of around a third in the previous three years.