In a marked change from its usual approach, Canada’s Competition Bureau has obtained two court orders requiring Air Canada and WestJet to provide information for its market study into competition in Canada's airline industry.
The Bureau announced the court orders on 03OCT, saying this marks the first time it has used its new information gathering powers in a market study.
“The orders, granted by the Federal Court, require the companies to produce records and answer questions in writing relevant to the Bureau's market study. Information the Bureau is seeking includes both airlines analyses of the state of competition in Canadian skies, key performance metrics, airport agreement and analyses of barriers to entry into the airline sector in Canada.
“This study is not an investigation into specific allegations of wrongdoing,” officials said. “However, if the Bureau finds evidence that someone may be doing something against the law, we will investigate and take appropriate action.
“Air Canada has already engaged with the Bureau about delivering the requested documents,” Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said in an email to Open Jaw. “We will continue to participate in the review which, as the bureau notes in its release, is to help it better understand competition in the domestic airline industry, and is not an investigation into specific allegations of wrongdoing.”
WestJet spokesperson Madison Kruger told Open Jaw that the court orders are “a normal and expected part of the Bureau’s market study process.” She also said the company encourages the Bureau’s market study “to focus on the issues that will grow aviation in Canada.”
One Canadian travel expert told Open Jaw that the court orders may have been sought to speed up the market study.
“The Bureau would have known that AC and WS would either not willingly release data, or, if they did, not in the degree of detail and area that the Bureau was seeking. The easiest way around that is a pre-emptive court order. That also speeds the process up.”
The Bureau said it launched the airline market study on 29JUL, 2024, “to better understand competition issues in the industry and examine what changes can be made to improve competition in passenger air travel in Canada.”
Their report is due in June of next year.
