Jazz Air cutting workers and service...

Travellers will find job and service cuts at Jazz Air results in fewer direct flights between the country's smaller cities and rising prices for air travel, an aviation industry expert predicts.

Jazz Air (TSX:JAZ. UN) announced Thursday it is cutting 270 of its roughly 5,000 employees and plans to reduce services by five per cent of its current capacity later this summer.

The airlines' fleet of Dash-8 turboprops and regional jets are a key source of transport between the country's smaller communities, providing 860 flights daily across the country to 57 Canadian destinations and 29 American destinations.

"What the average consumer will see ... is less complete service, and a downgrading of service in terms of size of aircraft and in the number of non-stop flights," said Louis Gialloreto, a marketing professor at McGill University who follows the airline industry.

Gialloreto also said that some small airports, such as those in northern Ontario or small towns in the Maritimes, could lose service altogether.

"In addition there are also going to be rising prices for airfare, which is starting to be a big block to air travel in some parts of the country," he said in a telephone interview.

Prices for shorter flights are reaching the point where people in regions such as the Maritimes are starting to travel longer distances by car -or are arranging teleconferences -rather than travelling by air, he noted.

A spokeswoman for Jazz said the airline has to wait for Air Canada's announcements in late July of its route changes before Jazz gives specifics on where it will reduce service.

The decisions will only come "when we have the finalized schedule from Air Canada," Manon Stuart said.

The Jazz cuts follow a move by Air Canada -from which Jazz was spun off as a separate regional carrier -to cut its flying by seven per cent with the loss of 2,000 jobs.

Under an agreement between the two airlines, Air Canada buys nearly all of Jazz's capacity based on predetermined rates.

As Air Canada reduces its size, it has also decreased its need for Jazz's services.

Leslie Dias, the president of the Canadian Auto Workers local at Jazz, said she's concerned that smaller airports will see staff reductions at service counters.

"There aren't a lot of alternatives in the communities which Jazz services," said Dias, who represents customer service agents, crew schedulers and technical support staff.

"We're looking at many airports with 15 to 20 per cent staff cuts and that's going to leave an unacceptable level of service available to the travelling public."

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