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I picked a random date in November and compared the price for a flight to Fort Lauderdale from Plattsburgh and Montreal. The Allegiant flight out of Plattsburgh cost $357 return. Round trip from Montreal on Air Canada cost $562. Even factoring in the exchange rate, the Montreal flight cost 40 per cent more. For a family of four, the premium to fly out of Montreal would be close to $700. That’s a lot of incentive to drive to an airport 100 kilometres to the south.

So far, Ottawa hasn’t been hit as hard as other Canadian cities including Toronto and Vancouver. Even so, Ottawa’s airport authority estimates that it loses more than 100 passengers a day to U.S. airports.

That could get much worse if Ogdensburg goes ahead with its expansion plans, including new routes to vacation destinations to be provided by Allegiant. The northern New York airport isn’t expecting a sudden spike in traffic from the 11,000 people who live in Ogdensburg. Instead, they’re launching a direct competitive attack on Ottawa’s business, taking advantage of the fact that Ogdensburg’s airport is located less than 10 kilometres from the junction of Highways 401 and 416.

Airlines and airports have been pointing out the economic costs of the Canada-U.S. price disparity for years. The solutions aren’t simple. According to the Conference Board, the price disparity is driven by a wide range of factors that are more favourable in the U.S. including wages, productivity, the price of aviation fuel, and leasing and depreciation costs. Those may not be easy to change, but the government could look at Canada’s higher airport fees, navigational costs and other taxes.