Sunwing Flies East...

[flyervic]

Sunwing flies east


BRENT JANG
Globe and Mail Update
Sunwing Airlines, the upstart in domestic skies, is poised to shake up the competition in Atlantic Canada. The new carrier is part of a travel company, owned by Toronto's Hunter family, that specializes in winter vacation packages to sun destinations but is expanding into scheduled summer flights within Canada.

While Sunwing has only two 189-seat Boeing NG 737-800 aircraft, it's adding a third plane in June and that could spell potential trouble for closely held CanJet Airlines, controlled by Halifax businessman Ken Rowe.
WestJet Airlines Ltd., Air Canada and Jazz Air Income Fund are expected to weather the storm from the new entrant, says National Bank Financial Inc. analyst David Newman.

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“While Sunwing could erode some marginal network traffic from WestJet, WestJet should only compete with Sunwing on three non-stop routes — Toronto-Halifax, Toronto-St. John's and Toronto-Charlottetown,” Mr. Newman said in a research note.

With Halifax-based CanJet recently adding a 10th plane to its fleet, it will be interesting to see how the stepped-up competition plays out, he said. “The Atlantic market could become particularly competitive.”

CanJet already faces contract talks with newly unionized pilots and flight attendants, so the emergence of Sunwing adds to the pressure, Mr. Newman said.