The UBC Student Whose Commute is a 1-Hour Flight

Tim Chen looked at the numbers and made a rational decision. He had three hours of class a week. Vancouver rent for a one-bedroom was running $2,700 a month. A return flight on Air Canada took one hour. He booked the flight.

The Rent That Made the Runway Cheaper

Vancouver has been one of Canada's most expensive rental markets for years - but 2024 took it to a new level. By January of that year, the average one-bedroom sat at $2,700 CAD a month, with two-bedrooms pushing $3,890. For a student on a tight budget, those figures weren't just uncomfortable - they were functionally impossible.

Chen, a final-year arts student at the University of British Columbia, was already living at his parents' home in Calgary. He paid utilities. Nothing else. The calculation he ran was surprisingly simple: if he flew Air Canada's Calgary-to-Vancouver route twice a week, at roughly $150 CAD per return trip, his total monthly outlay landed around $1,200 CAD. That's less than half the cost of the cheapest solo apartment in the city his university calls home.

Seven Flights in January

In January 2024, Chen did seven return trips - Calgary International (YYC) to Vancouver International (YVR) and back, each way under an hour. He would fly in for class in the morning and return the same evening. He called himself a "super commuter at UBC." The commute was eccentric by any standard. But the spreadsheet made sense.

"I've been flying on Air Canada for all these flights," Chen told media. He also pointed other students towards Air Canada's student flight pass programme as a way to reduce the per-trip cost further. His advice was practical: check whether the maths work before you sign a lease.

What UBC Said

UBC's Associate Vice-President of Student Housing, Andrew Parr, acknowledged the problem publicly. "We recognise that finding affordable rental accommodation in Vancouver and Kelowna is a challenge for some of our students, as it is for others renting in the communities," he said. "In Vancouver, it is especially difficult." The university announced plans to add 4,800 new student housing beds as part of a housing expansion - a figure that underlines how far behind supply has fallen.

Rational, Not Ridiculous

Chen's story went viral across Canada in February 2024, picked up by CTV News and outlets in the UK and US. The reaction split neatly in two: half the comments called it absurd. The other half asked why more students hadn't thought of it. His own explanation was hard to argue with: "This is the only financially viable option." The flight is one hour. The alternative costs more than double. Commuting by plane wasn't the weird part. Vancouver rent was.