They’d both do well if timed properly. As would YHM.

WS continues its Asia expansion further increasing YYC-ICN to 6x weekly, bringing their total Asian presence to 13x weekly, so in terms of capacity YYC-Asia is close to double what it had pre-COVID. I'm going to boldly predict that NRT will end up staying daily year-round and ICN will eventually go year-round at 3x weekly in the winter.

ICN also got re-timed one hour earlier, so it departs similar to NRT.

WS86 YYC 15:55 - 18:45+1 ICN 789 X2
WS87 ICN 20:45 - 16:12 YYC 789 X3

The Asian expansion came at a cost though, with -3 frequencies on YYC-Europe.

YYC-FCO Reduced to 6x weekly
YYC-BCN Reduced to 3x weekly
YYC-EDI Reduced to 3x weekly

Its clear WS needs more 787s.

Also on the winter front, seems Cuba is a struggle bus? There's been continuous reductions.

YYZ-VRA Reduced to 1x weekly
YYC-VRA Suspended from Feb. 1 - Apr. 26

Cuba this winter is going to be down across-the-board thanks to the hurricane.

WS reducing Europe = shoulda' taken all 10 787s. Even in winter they'd find a use for them by redeploying half of them south & to Hawaii & to cycle the fleet thru maintenance.

Everyone is reducing Cuba. The fact they can't provide basic needs (i.e. electricity) is affecting demand. There is on and off jet fuel shortages as well. Most of the island's power grid relies on oil burning power plants, and they aren't getting enough oil for their own needs, much less for Jet A. Russia, Venezuela and other countries have reduced significantly their oil exports to Cuba.

It's not just NA carriers reducing service, but European ones as well. Condor is terminating all their Cuban flights next spring. Sunwing has removed 26 hotels and resorts from it's Cuba lineup this winter. That's huge, and will clearly affect the number of flights to the island.

Flair in the news again for the wrong reasons:

Flair Airlines CFO charged with manslaughter linked to fatal car crash in U.S.
By The Canadian Press
Posted December 10, 2024 12:49 pm. Last Updated December 10, 2024 1:25 pm.

Flair Airlines’ chief financial officer Sumanth Rao is facing involuntary manslaughter charges in connection with a fatal crash involving an underage driver who had been drinking at his Atlanta-area home.

Flair said in an emailed statement it was aware of the situation and had put measures in place “to ensure operational continuity” as the court case unfolds against Rao, who was hired in August.

The district attorney for DeKalb County in Georgia says a grand jury indicted Rao, his wife and the teenage driver of the SUV, in which his daughter was a passenger.

Sherry Boston says their daughter and the 18-year-old driver were able to crawl out of the vehicle after it crashed on a residential road on Feb. 24, but that passenger Sophia Lekiachvili died from her injuries in hospital...

...The district attorney’s office says Rao’s daughter and two friends had spent the evening at the family’s house, with the teens sharing a bottle of wine in the kitchen in view of the parents, who allowed them to leave for a drive shortly before midnight.

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/1...-manslaughter/

The Fredericton campus of Moncton Flight College is closing it's doors (at least temporarily).

The reason is that MFC has lost their contracts to train Chinese pilots. This is partly due to economic difficulties in China, and also due to the new Canadian restrictions on international students.

90% of the students at the Fredericton campus were Chinese nationals.

The Moncton campus of MFC is unaffected. This is because the Moncton campus focusses on domestic (Canadian) students.

MFC is one of the largest flight training colleges in Canada, and has affiliations with Mount Allison University and St. Thomas University so that students are able to get a bachelors level degree in aviation.

TVO had a segment that goes over why Air Travel is so expensive in Canada the other week. Nothing earth shattering for most of us but may be of interest to some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRw_...annel=TVOToday

Wasn't it year one for the Fredericton campus and they have something like 20 students?

The Fredericton campus has been operational for years, and at one point was actually larger than the Moncton campus (airport less busy, and easier for general aviation to get time). What you may be referring to is the affiliation of the Fredericton campus with St. Thomas University which I believe is new. The affiliation of the Moncton campus to Mount Allison has been ongoing for at least a decade.

More collateral damage. Instead of keeping the fake student present and future Uber-Eats drivers out we lose fee paying Chinese students who will return to their home country to be pilots afterwards. Sad we can't get our act together. Eliminating (or drastically reducing) the right to work during your studies would solve this problem with one stroke of the pen.

Surely given the pilot shortage here they could shift focus on that campus to domestic students?

Was there some indication that they were turning away domestic students?

No.

The need for the second campus in Freddy was driven entirely by demand from China. As has been previously noted, these students were sent here for training under contract from Chinese airlines, and were expected to return following completion of their training. These were not Uber drivers.

Odd, I wonder why they didn't approach Halifax-based Chorus Aviation (aka Jazz aka AC Express) earlier about being their training school. Instead Chorus launched its own:

Jazz Aviation welcomes Cygnet Aviation Academy to its pilot pathway program
March 28th, 2023

HALIFAX, NS, March 28, 2023 /CNW/ – Chorus Aviation Inc. (‘Chorus’) (TSX: CHR) subsidiary, Jazz Aviation LP (‘Jazz’), is pleased to celebrate the launch of Chorus’s Cygnet Aviation Academy (‘Cygnet’) and welcomes Cygnet as the 13th educational institution participating in its Jazz Aviation Pathways Program.

"We’re pleased to congratulate Cygnet and to be working with another Chorus company to provide opportunities for aspiring pilots," said Steve Linthwaite, Vice President, Flight Operations, Jazz. "By supporting the next generation of pilots, we are not only shaping the future of our business, but also contributing to the growth and sustainability of the aviation industry as a whole."

Jazz and Cygnet are collaborating to deliver Jazz Approach – a unique pilot training opportunity that offers an accelerated career path for aspiring professional pilots. After an extensive selection process, qualifying applicants receive a conditional letter of employment from Jazz contingent on their successful completion of the program. The program takes an all-in-one practical approach, whereby cadets will earn an Integrated Airline Transport Pilot License from Cygnet, with extensive use of flight simulators, and acquire a CRJ200 type rating, all within 20 months. This represents the fastest path to an airline First Officer position in Canada. Once hired, all candidates are required to successfully complete the same ground school, Transport Canada Pilot Proficiency Check, and safety requirements as all other Jazz First Officers. The first cohort of Jazz Approach cadets is now underway....

https://chorusaviation.com/jazz-avia...thway-program/

The Feds sold off the Air Canada shares they had purchased during Covid over the past week. Guess they have to plug that deficit somehow! :P

Federal government sells its Air Canada stake
Eric Atkins Transportation reporter
Tim Kiladze
Andrew Willis
Published 2 hours ago
Updated 58 minutes ago
For Subscribers

The federal government has sold its roughly 6-per-cent stake in Air Canada in the past few days, according to a source.

Ottawa bought $500-million in Air Canada AC-T +1.36%increase
shares for about $23.18 apiece in April, 2021, becoming the biggest investor as part of a bailout package that aimed to shore up the finances of Canada’s largest airline, which lost billions in the COVID-19 shutdown.

The average selling price was about $25 a share over the past few days, according to the source, whom the Globe is not identifying because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

A government spokeswoman declined to comment on Thursday.

“The government does not intend to be a long-term shareholder of Air Canada and the shares will be divested in due course,” Ministry of Finance spokeswoman Marie-France Faucher said in September...

..Air Canada shares were trading at about $25.45 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday and have risen by 60 per cent in the past three months.

As part of the selloff, Ottawa unloaded 14 million shares in the past two days through two large block trades, one for 4.15 million shares on Wednesday and another for 10.13 million shares early Thursday, according to trading data reviewed by The Globe and Mail. The average weighted price for these sales was $25.02 per share....

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...-canada-stake/

Transat's year-end and Q4 2023-24 results: https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...803833762.html

Good, government of Canada made a profit on Air Canada.

This removes any perception that the government of Canada is in a conflict of interest owning Air Canada while at the same time directing Air Canada to address its deceptive baggage fee policy. Now the Government is free to take a hard line with Air Canada.:tup:

Good. The government shouldn't be a shareholder in companies like that and ditching them as soon as possible is for the best, especially as they made a profit off it.

Porter just updated their route map:

https://i.postimg.cc/D0z2nbqP/porter2.png

https://www.flyporter.com/en-ca/abou...er-and-embraer

Surprised no Kelowna or Fort Mac on the potential future destinations.