Route Performance

The Commission analyzed BC Ferries’ reports on the traffic and financial performance of the seven route groups for the first two years of the Coastal Ferry Services Contract. Here are its observations.

  • For the 22 (“non-major”) routes receiving a service fee, BC Ferries’ Net Route Earnings for FY2004/5 totaled $6.299 million compared to a Net Route Loss of $3.8 million for the previous year.  However, the 2004/5 earnings do not include deferred fuel costs of $6.331 million. Thus, if the deferred fuel costs had been included in the FY2004/5 results, it would have been a break-even year.

    • • Major Routes showed an overall 4% growth in passengers and vehicles. However, the apparent strong growth is largely a recovery from a drop of traffic in 2003/04, primarily due to the strike in that year.  The 2004/05 growth in traffic over the two year timeframe from 2002/03 was 1.1% for passengers and 2.0 % for vehicles.  Major Routes Net Route Earnings in 2005 grew 3% over 2004 to $33.6 million.

    • Minor Routes had an overall 2% growth in vehicles and 1% growth in passengers, showing steady growth from 2003 through 2005.  Net Route Earnings in 2005 grew 3% over 2004 to $2.7 million.

    • Route 3 (Langdale – Horseshoe Bay) showed a 17% growth in ancillary revenue to $4.6 million, likely due to the introductions of reservations and the resulting fee revenue.

    • The Northern Routes (Queen Charlottes – Mid-Coast – Port Hardy) had the same passenger and vehicle and traffic figures as last year.  However, Northern Route losses increased 10% to $2.2 million after a service fee of $13.5 million.

    • Route 12 (Brentwood Bay - Mill Bay) showed a 27% increase in passenger and vehicle traffic because last fiscal year included a long refit period when there was no service.

    • Route 13 (Langdale – Gambier – Keats) showed a profit this year of $366,000 compared to a loss last year of $528,000.  Because the route is on a fixed price contract until the end of the contract term, the route profit is on track to accumulate to over $1 million while the service fees from the province will total about $2.5 million.

    • Powell River traffic increased between 4% and 5% on Route 7 (Earls Cove – Saltery Bay) and Route 17 (Comox – Powell River).

    • Salt Spring traffic showed little change year to year. Route 4 (Fulford – Swartz Bay) and Route 9 (Long Harbour – Tsawwassen) were the same, while Route 6 (Vesuvius – Crofton) had 5% growth in passengers and 3% growth in vehicles.

    • Route 8 (Bowen – Horseshoe Bay) showed 4% growth in passengers (to 1.2 million) and vehicles (to 557,000) to maintain its place as the 5th  ranked route in terms of passengers.

    • While most routes showed growth, or no loss of traffic, Route 24 (Quadra – Cortes) and Route 25 (Alert Bay – Sointula – Port McNeill) had reduced passenger and vehicle traffic in the 1 – 3% range.

    Vessel refit costs that are not consistent year-over-year for a route are the most common cause of significant swings in Net Route Earnings.  In most cases, significant changes in Net Route Earnings were explained by the timing of vessel refits.

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