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If you live in Glasgow, Scotland, and find you need to get to London this weekend to visit a sick family member, you can book a flight with low-cost carrier easyJet for $244.

But if you live in Winnipeg and discover you need to get to Regina quickly, a trip of similar distance, it would cost you more than double that amount with Air Canada.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or John Ivison: Ultra-low cost airlines impeded by Canada's outdated foreign ownership rules Back to video

Griping about the cost of air travel in this country is as endemic as bitching about the weather — it’s as if nothing can be done about either of them.

But that’s not the case. Canada is the only major air market in the world without an ultra-low cost carrier, a point that was noted in a major review of the country’s transportation systems by former Conservative (and Liberal) minister, David Emerson.

His report, which landed on the desk of the current transport minister, Marc Garneau, this year, argued that the foreign ownership limits on domestic air carriers should be increased to 49 per cent from the current level of 25 per cent. This is a seemingly arcane point but it is crucial in the battle to attract capital investment, as a new low-cost start-up, Jetlines is discovering.