CALGARY — When Air Canada announced this summer it was cutting a range of flights—including its non-stop service between Calgary and Ottawa—it set off a game of musical seats. Major carriers eliminated, added and effectively shuffled routes in an effort to drive down costs.

Calgary has taken the brunt of the cuts, leaving residents with fewer flights to choose from and potentially higher prices. It comes at a crucial time for the city’s burgeoning tech sector and as businesses across Alberta struggle to attract talent amid a deep and persistent labour shortage. 

Here’s what you need to know. 

Your flight has been grounded: The changes began in late August, when Air Canada announced it was cutting non-stop routes from Calgary to six cities: Ottawa, Halifax, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Honolulu and Cancun. 

Days later, WestJet said it would double direct flights between Calgary and Ottawa beginning this fall, up to 14 per week. In October, Toronto’s Porter Airlines said it would step in to fill the gap—albeit on a modest scale—by launching direct connections between Calgary and Ottawa starting Feb. 14. At the time, Porter had recently introduced a direct service between Ottawa and Edmonton.

Help wanted, Alberta is calling: While the new flights should head off an outright dearth of connections between Alberta and cities in Eastern Canada, Air Canada’s cuts still irritate broader efforts in the province to secure high-skilled talent.

Alberta’s tech sector is expanding rapidly, cleantech is booming and a sharp population surge in the province continues to feed economic growth. But that has intensified an ongoing talent shortage, one so deep that the provincial government launched an “Alberta is Calling” campaign to lure workers from urban centres like Toronto and Vancouver. The availability of convenient and affordable flight options is one factor in the competition between cities and provinces to attract skilled employees.

For Calgary, which is trying to attract workers and reinvigorate its sleepy downtown, the elimination of Eastern connections could compound other negative stereotypes that Calgary’s Chamber of Commerce said have already hampered hiring efforts. 

“It’s always concerning when flights to and from Calgary—regardless of airline—are removed,” the chamber’s president, Deborah Yedlin, said in a written statement to The Logic. 

According to the organization’s latest business survey, 31 per cent of owners said their greatest concern over the next quarter is labour availability, while 37 per cent expect challenges acquiring products and supplies over the next 12 months. 

“Anything that compromises our ability to facilitate the flow of people, goods and services from coast to coast is a concern for us,” Yedlin said. 

Your competition is lacking: The changes also suggest that Canada’s two largest airlines are increasingly retreating into separate markets—one in the East, the other in the West. 

Paula Simons, an independent Alberta senator who sits on the upper chamber’s transport and communications committee, said it has “become clear that Air Canada and WestJet are, to an extent, divvying up the country.” 

Years ago, Calgary-based WestJet all but shut down its Atlantic Canada operations, with Air Canada recently replacing some of its competitor’s former connections. WestJet also suspended Montreal-Toronto flights until spring, while Air Canada, based in Montreal, has slashed several regional routes in Western Canada. Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau has pursued a more hub-based strategy centred around three core touchpoints: Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. 

“It’s a problem when you have a country with so little competition,” said Simons. “And if the two big carriers are tacitly dividing things up so that they’re not competing with one another, that doesn’t just leave you fewer options, that leaves you with less flexibility.” 

Air Canada spokesperson Angela Mah did not directly address questions about how the airlines appear increasingly divided along regional lines, but said the company remains “fully committed” to Western Canada and made the August changes to improve “overall operational stability.”

WestJet spokesperson Denise Kenny rejected the suggestion the two airlines are carving up the domestic market, noting in an email that WestJet ran summer flights this year linking the East Coast with Western Canada. The company complies with competition law, Kenny wrote, adding that it “does not engage with our competition about network decisions or any other aspects of our business.”

A matter of national unity? It’s hard to ignore the glaring symbolism here. At a time when Western resentments are running high—or, at least among a specific cohort of the voting public—the operations of Canada’s airlines appear increasingly regional.

Simons, who was appointed to the Senate in 2018, rejects this interpretation. The flight changes are a “cold-blooded business decision,” she said. Canada’s sprawling geography makes air travel a difficult business; discount airlines have winked in and out of existence in this country as long as planes have been flying. 

Simons was, however, somewhat sympathetic to the idea that the deepening East-West divide between airlines is “making people in the West feel like Air Canada doesn’t love them.” 

“But you know what? I’ll tell you a secret,” she said. “Air Canada doesn’t love anybody.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include comment from Air Canada