has the mayor of Regina started lobbying for airport yet. It is important that both cities get good flights. Business people really appreciate the convenience of direct flights or at the very least one transfer.

Once the customs issues are sorted out I am sure Regina will start seeing more direct flights to the States.

Regina should go for Chicago and Salt Lake City ... 2 of the largest air hubs in the central/western US.

I believe (1st choice) Denver and (2nd choice) Salt Lake City make for the best options for Regina...
MSP is a great hub for the East and Denver for the west..

Regina encirclement area (if thats what its called) will continue to shrink to the favor of Saskatoon unless YQR can keep pace with YXE.

there are still custom issues??

It depends on the day, but yields have been pretty good through the winter. For example, the flights to Denver for the long weekend are pretty much full.

Usually referred to as catchment area. If the higher competition at YXE gives lower fares, it might generate a small shift. But at this point I don't think there's enough difference in schedules or fares to enlarge YXE's catchment more than marginally at YQR's expense.

Loads and yield are very different things. Load refers to the number of people on the plane. Yield refers to how much money they are paying (usually in cents per seat-mile). While the good loads are a good thing, it's the day-in-day-out filling seats that counts, not just long weekends. And it has to be at reasonable yields, not just cut-rate fares.



Without customs preclearance facilities, I highly doubt either Saskatoon or Regina would get flights to Chicago. Operationally I just can't see United Express operating a lone flights from T5 to clear customs when every other flight runs from T2. The slot constraints at O'Hare wouldn't help, either. DEN and SLC are much better bets.

That's good to hear.

Do you also have access to other data, like, values for destinations/origins between Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Calgary?

If not, can you suggest some way of estimating flows?

I know very little with regards to the airline industry.

sidenote, I notice YXE is considered a "focus city" for Air Canada Jazz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_Jazz

yxe has about 10% more passenger movement the yqr.

there is some information on the statistics canada website on air transportation but its not very detailed, mostly lump sum type of information like total aircraft movements for all major airports

Thank you The Bess. I did find some values for domestic flights between the Prairie cities, although, 1998 is the survey year (passenger values have increased since, to varying degrees for each city).

Direct PDF download here

Source page here

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2162/...ntrapropq5.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5714/...inationkt7.jpg

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/600...flightsae9.jpg

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/8198/allcityibobnw0.jpg

I am primarily interested in these figures to understand the relationship between cities as expressed through passenger flows, and when we could expect implementation of a high speed rail network as an alternative to air travel.

After a quick review of the fight patterns between the Prairie cities, I have come to the conclusion that we will not pursue high speed rail service for the foreseeable future.

seems to be good news for the airport and city

In Saskatoon's John Diefenbaker airport alone, January was a record-breaking month, with a total of 107,650 passengers coming through the gates. That's a 10.5 per cent increase over last January and the highest number of monthly passengers ever, says Saskatoon Airport Authority spokesperson Maxine Montgomery.he volume of passengers isn't going to slow down any time soon, as the airport expects to serve more than 200,000 passengers during the spring travel season in February and March.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

More good news for travellers. This is sure giving Saskatoon & Saskatchewan alot of options finaly

Sounds like Regina is getting this as well. Great news for Saskatchewan. :cheers:

http://www.newstalk980.com/story/20090313/13365

With a daily flight to Chicago maybe PotashCorp CEO Bill Doyle can now move back to Saskatoon and bring his executive with him. Leave some underlings behind to run the Chicago office... :haha:

hope we get some good news next week..

.....

Regina Airport Authority need to market themselves better.. Within a 40 minute radius of YQR there must be over 1/4 million people. More and more people from southen saskatchewan will start trekking north to Saskatoon..

I am in moose jaw and as it sits now, if i want to go to Denver or Chicago, i would drive to Saskatoon, rather then have the hassle of changing planes and all the other stresses that go with travel, RAA needs to work harder in serving the people southern Saskatchewan...hopefully we get Denver...

i am surprised about the Chicago flight...To me it seems like overlap when we have Minneapolis and Chicago....

ps

RAA - Please get a direct flight to Ottawa!

Hello, I'm new here. I've been reading these forums ever since I stumbled upon them after WestJet announced seasonal service to Las Vegas.

Anyway, I just want to say it's great that Regina is finally getting another option when it comes to travel to the U.S. But I don't think the timing has much to do with how YQR markets itself. For whatever reasons, United chose to start service in the province in Saskatoon instead of Regina (even though both airports have about the same number of people to draw upon, although YXE has slightly higher passenger numbers).

Obviously the Denver flights there are working and they see Saskatchewan doing well, so they've added service to and from Regina. If these ones do well, maybe we'll see flights to Chicago by next winter. I do agree though it is a bit strange to have both Minneapolis and Chicago (unless Chicago opens the gate to more travel to Europe, I'm really not too sure though).

Chicago has a tremendous number of flights, not just to Europe, but all over the world.
A lot of European airlines fly to Chicago's O'Hare, but Canadian destinations have been overlooked.

I live in Toronto (former Saskatonian). Flying back to Toronto from Europe, I often have to change planes in Chicago - even though it increases the travel time, and I have to deal with that annoying Homeland Securities KGB that operates out of US airports.

Congratulations on the flights to Chicago. I think you'll find that travel options will be vastly improved.

More good news for Saskatoon and Regina.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/t...171/story.html

Saskatoon-Salt Lake is now official: Daily during the summer with a 50 seater, then larger weekend only service in the fall.
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/Sports...781/story.html
I agree with Restall, that this is a bit of a suprise, given that retrenchment is more the order of the day than expansion right now in the airline industry.

wow..Saskatoon Airport is becoming a major league Canadian airport and Regina will lose ground


I wish Regina could keep up with Saskatoon airport ...I am a 40 minute drive to YQR and would personally like to see YQR keep up with Saskatoon. Saskatoon also has a direct flight to Ottawa that i wish we could get.

YQR desperately needs another AC JAZZ daily flight to Calgary..I just booked a Flight to South Africa and my homeward bound connection has given me an 8 hour layover in Calgary for my connection to Regina. :yuck:
That is brutal Regina Airport Authority!!..You are doing a good job , but you can certainly do a better job

WestJet drops direct flights between Saskatchewan and Winnipeg
Meanwhile, competitor Air Canada is adding another daily flight
Last Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2009 | 4:00 PM CT

CBC News
WestJet and Air Canada are re-jigging their schedules between Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. (Canadian Press file photo)
People looking to fly WestJet from Regina or Saskatoon to Winnipeg will have to make a small side-trip, through Alberta.

The airline is dropping direct flights between Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The new route to Winnipeg will see passengers directed to Edmonton or Calgary first.

The change will add several hours to the flight time. On a direct route, the trip to Winnipeg is about one hour. Going through Alberta will add about five hours.

With the total time clocking in at roughly six hours, a trip to Winnipeg, from Regina, would be faster by car. Add in time for getting to and from the airports, pre-boarding security and baggage pick-up and the WestJet travel approaches the same time that a bus would take, which is 8 1/2 hours via Greyhound.

Robert Palmer, a spokesperson for WestJet, told CBC News there was not enough demand to support the direct service.

"There had been a flight that went through Winnipeg and then on Toronto, but the Winnipeg leg of that flight, the loads were very poor, very low. Very few people were using it," Palmer explained.

WestJet had been using a 737 Boeing aircraft on the route, which has room for 136 passengers.

Air travelers were not impressed with the airline's decision.

"It's not very efficient," Tamara Horechko told CBC News when asked about the change. "It's going to waste a lot of our time when we're flying back and forth."

In contrast to WestJet's move, Air Canada recently announced it would be adding another daily flight, connecting Saskatoon and Regina to Winnipeg, starting in May. Air Canada uses smaller aircraft than WestJet for its regional service.

"I'm coming to Regina every week," Winnipeg-based traveler James Stevenson told CBC News. He said his job has him in Regina for two days every week, and it would not make any sense to for him to spend much of the time in the air.

"It's nice and convenient to fly in, spend a full day [or two] and fly home," Stevenson said. He said the WestJet route would never work for him.

WestJet told CBC News that it will monitor the situation to see if there is demand for a different route.