I also fly out of YOW fairly regularly, but mainly domestic. Every time I have used the Transborder area, it has been comically quick. Like, I can't even get my shoes off fast enough that security is waving me through the metal detector.
The YOW transborder area is a bit dated... but if you try the YOW connection on the way back to YEG, I think you will enjoy it. There are Nexus kiosks when returning to Canada. I have been able to go to the bathroom, then go in the Nexus line, and beat my friends through customs who don't have Nexus.

Also the domestic Nexus line in YOW is amazing. I waited no more than 2 minutes at 5:45 am when it was very busy about a month ago. The general line was likely 10-25 mins long though.

My travels take me through YYC a lot... and their non-Nexus domestic lines are insane. I'll take YOW 9 times out of 10.

Hope you try out Porter via YOW again!

The Halifax airport used to be Shearwater or Canadian Naval Air Group Station Shearwater. It was a busy Military airport when the new Civilian one was proposed in the late fifties and construction of Stanfield started I believe in 1961. The City is growing so quick it might bring the City to the Airport sooner than we know.

Lost my ball on that damn 16 hole last October.

Keep in mind that for YEG there were a few contributing factors:

1. Edmonton had a Downtown municipal airport 5-10 minutes north of the core.
2. A land deal was struck for YEG with a friendly handshake between land owner and purchaser.
3. Edmonton in the 60s was growing at a remarkable pace and anticipated to expand much further south than it did when it stalled in the 80s.

There was also a small airport in the West End that ended up being developed, and Bayers Lake was considered as an alternate location.

I'm not sure the story about the coastal location having bad weather is accurate. Environment Canada says Shearwater has more hours of good visibility and Stanfield gets a lot more snow. Stanfield is also at 145 m elevation (Bayers Lake would have been similar I guess). A lot of climate statistics come from Stanfield and don't represent the city very accurately (of course locally you'll normally get weather for the different locations, and it's not uncommon at all for it to be raining downtown and snowing at the airport).

Possible more fee's to tickets if this gets approved. But I never knew Airport Firefighters are not required to rescue passengers or enter a plane if there's a fire. I guess that's why I only see 1 or 2 firefighters at the Hamilton Airport.

https://www.iaff.org/news/iaff-suppo...-regulations/#

A delay like that at YOW is incredibly rare. Did the delay cut your connection close?

It is quite a lot of European capacity for YHZ, and I am surprised they are doing EDI instead of CDG. I know NS and Scotland have historic connections etc, but that can't be the only reason? CDG is not only home to one of its partner airlines (AF), but it is a massive connection point. EDI is the complete opposite, it is an odd choice TBH, I wonder if EDI is greasing Westjet behind the scenes lol. Edinburgh is an important city for sure, but historically most of the Scotland service to Canada has been from Glasgow (whether it is Transat, Zoom, Mytravel, etc.) they usually did Glasgow first. Interesting that WS is going all in on Edinburgh, from YYC, YYZ, and YHZ. Any Scots experts here, did something happen to switch preference away from Glasgow? I just assumed WS got some kind of sweetheart deal or something. The LGW route from YHZ will likely do well, just not sure about the DUB or EDI. Speaking of DUB, I can't believe WS is dumping more capacity on YYZ-DUB, it is already very well served (4x daily including 2 widebodies with Air Canada and Are Lingus running one each). Then TS operates one daily 321. And now that WS has collapsed its domestic capacity, where is the feed? They must be relying on O&D only, and with lots of competitors? The YYZ transborder network is very leisure oriented from Canada, I doubt it would see much International connections from the Florida beach towns. Are they relying on Delta to feed these flights? Delta already operates to DUB from MSP, BOS, ATL, and JFK, so I don't think Delta's YYZ flights would add that much? Essentially WS just did a direct swap from YOW and YUL to DUB and EDI. How bad must domestic have been to ditch them entirely and add these? Very odd, at least to an outsider like me.

On another note, I am feeling bad for YYF (Penticton). First Air Canada cancels the YVR service, which I was surprised by, and now WS drops YEG. Edmonton and Vancouver would be 2/3 of their biggest markets in and out, so to lose them both entirely is sad. I know the pilot shortage was one factor, but definitely YYF's proximity to YLW was another factor. The distance between them is probably one of the closest of any two airports AC served, if not the closest (other airports could be closer to each other ie. YVR and YXX, but AC doesn't serve them both, ditto with YYZ and YKF). But YLW and YYF both had AC service, so they really must have used that as a factor. In my opinion, this hurts other communities in the Southern Okanagan and Similkameen more (towns like Keremos Osoyoos, Oliver), since they are quite a ways to YLW, and it isn't really convenient. Especially for people from the Vancouver area, flying to YLW and then driving to Osoyoos wouldn't make a ton of sense, it's over 2 hours while the drive from Metro Van to Osoyoos is only 4/5 hours. So I feel for these places most. Penticton itself isn't going to suffer as much because it's not too far from YLW. I think they will get something back, I don't see AC staying away forever. The thing I hope helps Penticton is that a lot of people do a big Okanagan visit, where they go to Kelowna and Penticton, and lots of other small places in between (for wineries, mainly). So I think they will get a decent amount of tourism. And in the summer at least, a lot of people vacationing there have driven from the Lower Mainland or Alberta (I'm sure more Calgary than Edmonton, but healthy representation from both). So they will still have a ton our tourists, families, etc. But makes it harder for outbound travel as well as international visitors coming by plane (not sure how much of a number the international ever was, always seemed a major domestic destination mostly).

I am more than ready for all of these frickin issues to stop. Pilot shortages, supply chain problems, material shortages, chip shortages, etc... Pre-pandemic these things were almost never a thing, now it's like a bunch at once, plus inflation. It's so nuts, when Covid hit all people were thinking about was the health aspect and the isolation/distancing factor (plus the remote working thing). But no one really thought how it would affect economic things years later, like these shortages of everything

EDI is a bigger tourism destination than GLA, and considering both of them are only 42 miles apart, North American carriers usually only serve one, not the other.

As far as TATL flights go,

EDI has AC, WS, VS, UA and DL.
GLA has TS and TUI airways to CUN. That's it.

So airlines are clearly ditching GLA in favor of EDI. EDI is doing to GLA what GLA did to PIK all those years ago.

Well, 8P still fly YVR-YYF from the south terminal. They even increased the service to 10x weekly after AC pulled out. Just that it will be harder to connect at YVR due to terminal change.

=========================

From this week's AC update:
YVR-BKK service increase further, now scheduled 5x weekly for the month of March. This is the 5th time they increase service on this route for this winter season.
YYZ-EDI resumption delay till May
YYZ-DUB increase to daily starting mid-March

This will probably be the last one from me until next year.. Guess I'll miss the AC domestic update for S24...

Yes 8P is there, but with the tiny Beech 1900 from the south terminal. It 's something, but no replacement for AC. But I think that flight will return once the (pilot issue?) is resolved. I found WS dropping YEG-YYF more strange actually, I would have thought the route was quite popular (and maybe it was, just not as much as others). Just sucks when two different airlines cut two different major routes.

And with EDI, I know it is a popular destination, not arguing that. It's just funny that in the recent past, leisure airlines served GLA more, and for more cities. EDI does seem to have replaced GLA, curious the reasoning since they are is close and I don't think most people could identify what makes one city that different from the other (no offence to either city, just odd to see airlines pack up and relocate to a neighbouring airport like that). Must be so cost thing, or incentives by EDI maybe.

WS are starting a daily Encore YQR-MSP route as of 28APR24.

That was a foreign decision - the airport was built by foreign forces during WWII, I think Canadian but could've been American. Our government recommended fog-free highlands to the southwest of the City, but the (Canadian?) military insisted on the East End, which is by far the foggiest part of the Northeast Avalon.

It plagued us until we installed whatever the fancy gear is that lets flights land in fog almost without exception.

Canadian.

CAT III ILS. It’s made a huge difference at YYT.

Back from the dead ! Three and a half years between posts ! Where ya' been ? :cheers:

PD launch YOW and YYZ daily today to MCO.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...809346300.html

YYC October 2023 Stats:

Domestic: 1,142,144 +9.7% [2019 = 1,046,834]
Transborder: 342,218 +33.3% [2019 = 289,301]
International: 167,773 +39.9% [2019 = 117,017]

October Total: 1,634,135 +16.4% [2019 total = 1,453,152]

2023 YTD: 15,737,861 +31.23%

Both US / International have pretty big increases compared to 2019. I fully believe YYC is on track to surpass its 2019 total with approx. 18.1 million.

Well, given that their 12 month rolling total is 18.2M, it’s guaranteed they’ll surpass 2019’s total. ;) YYC will likely finish just over 18.5M for the year. Not too shabby for a little prairie town. Traffic movements way down, but average size of a/c substantially larger.

Oh, you know, 4 busy teenagers, wife and I diligently working opposite shift work schedules like ships in the night, busy social life, and general adulting… :dead:

^ Not too dissimilar for me. 3 kids instead of 4, and surfing the midnight shift wave for 3 years now as well.

Anywho, good to have you back. Considering your last post before your disappearance was in March 2020, I was beginning to think you took the COVID isolation requirements a bit too seriously!

So happy about YQR MSP!!

WS updated its S24 schedule this weekend. Following changes apply between April 28-June 30.

YYC-ATL - Increased from 10x weekly to 2x daily
YYC-DTW - Increased from 5x weekly to 1x daily
YYC-BNA - Increased from 4x weekly to 1x daily
YYC-DEN - Increased from 4x weekly to 1x daily
YYC-ORD - Increased from 4x to 5x weekly
YYC-BOS - Increased from 4x to 5x weekly
YYC-SAN - Increased from 4x to 5x weekly
YYC-PHX - Increased from 2x to 3x daily
YVR-ATL - Increased from 8x weekly to 2x daily
YEG-MSP - Increased from 5x to 12x weekly
YXE-MSP - Increased from 3x weekly to 1x daily

Schedules also been extended to April 2025 with YYC-NRT at least being extended into November.

Don't want to start a feud here, but is there a specific reason YQR got daily flights on Encore, and YXE got 3x weekly on a 737? The Encore is more seats overall, and of course daily. Westjet could have done it the other way, or even done a mix of both maybe, but they seemingly gave the better deal to YQR. I don't know anything about the local dynamics, so this is an open question for anyone who might have theories. Based on pax traffic, YXE is ahead. Although they are both similar in # of airlines and destinations, YXE appears to be ahead in this regard as well. And on metro population, Saskatoon comes out decidedly ahead (funny how they are ranked directly beside each other though lol out of 41 CMAs they are #17 and 18). So you would think WS would give the daily frequency and higher capacity to YXE, and give YQR the 3x weekly. I'm sure there is a fleet scheduling thing behind it since the cities appear quite similar in demand, just wondered if anyone had theories why WS did it this way? Or maybe it was just a six of one/half a dozen of the other situation, but that's usually not how route planning works...

I really wonder if Canada and China are going to get back to decent relations politically. Right now it's so bad for so many reasons, especially for a country like Canada that usually doesn't get dragged into diplomatic spats as much as somewhere like the US. But seems lately we are, with China and India namely. The Indian spat could still prove to be a big issue since it has to do with Punjab and that's very sensitive for both countries. But so far, it doesn't seem that explosive, and India has even resumed the visas to Canada. The fact that America has now publicly said the same thing about Indian agents being in their country planning assassinations, they (India) kind of backed down a bit on the outrage of Canada's claim. They still officially are. angry about it, but they kind of know it's true and other countries say it, so they're not pushing it. I only mention this because of air travel. Canada and India were wayyyyyy under-served in terms of non-stop flights, absurdly so considering the links. It took forever to get some respectable non-stop frequency, and from multiple cities. Right now the Russian war is the bigger problem, as it has cut all of AC's YVR-DEL flights, which they would certainly be operating if not for the airspace restriction. But we get 7x daily Air India 777, which is a nicer add for the airport in terms of unique airlines and planes. No clue about the service at all, I'm not speaking as a traveller, speaking as an airport enthusiast. And it's a daytime departure at 10:15am, and gets into DEL at 1:15pm, definitely more my preference than a 2am departure or something. But my point is that flights between the two countries did not suffer as a result of the spat (and fingers crossed it doesn't happen!).

But then with China, it's insane the effect the diplomatic frost has caused. Yes it was COVID that killed the flights originally, as there were still plenty of flights up until the shutdown in March 2020. And China remained sealed off and heavily restricted air travel up until very recently, probably the last country anywhere to reopen. So in people's minds, the extended pandemic curtailments made it seem normal to not have any meaningful service to/from China. And over the last few years, that was fairly true, no foreign city had good service to China, so everyone was kind of in the same boat. I even remember making a post about how YVR was relatively decent still for China service (relative to other European and NA destinations I mean). Yet it was only 4x weekly on AC to PVG, and 1x weekly each to PEK (CA), XMN (MF), TFU (3U), and SZX (HU). That was as much as we could hope for really, the rules were so strict.

But now you can see we are being iced out purposely. Not only were we removed from the approved destination list (which is huge, that basically governs where the entire Chinese local population can and can't go). We had the designation, then lost it. And if you read aeroroutes.com (any airline/airport fan has to read it, it's the most comprehensive source for routes on the internet), you can see tons of posts of Chinese airlines finally adding back capacity, on all of their carriers and to a huge variety of destinations around the world. The reopening seems to be happening swiftly now, yet Canada is totally left out. YVR used to be one of the biggest Western airports to China in terms of traffic, destinations, carriers. So to go from that to basically getting the same amount of flights as somewhere like Budapest is ridiculous. I know there's bigger factors at play obviously, but this is an airport forum and I'm going to rant because this is a big empty void in our air service, which is otherwise well connected. Just shows how bad Canada offended them, and/or how we aren't that important to them. The US has said way worse things than us. And Australia has had their share of public issues with China as well, but they patch things up, and stay on the approved list, and are getting tons of flights again. With 138 countries on China's approved list, Canada being excluded is that much worse. It's so weird for Canada to be the odd one out and having a big rift, while the US, UK, Australia, and basically everywhere but here are invited to the party. It sure challenges the old outlook that Canada is nice and diplomatic lol, obviously not always and not anymore.

But this is about flights, bring them back!! Pre-pandemic there was so much hope and possibility for even more flights than we already had, which was already a lot. People thought China service had nowhere to go but up... it literally did the exact opposite, and now we have basically nothing!

Well I guess my question about YXE/YQR to MSP is a non issue now lol, hollywoodcory made a post while I was composing mine, and looks like YXE-MSP will be daily. Nothing is on the booking engines or OAG yet, so can't see for myself. Is YXE-MSP still 737, just daily? Or has it switched to Encore now that it's been upped to daily, so it would match YQR?

As noted above YXE-MSP has been increased to daily for S24. (Presently only until June 30 / but I imagine it will get extended to the full season at some point).

Edit: To answer above it's still a 737. I can see in the OAG (you can view it here: https://www.flightview.com/flighttracker/ ). Should be bookable later today

Awesome, thanks for the link! Lots of added capacity, I wonder if there's cuts to provide the added flights? Or did they just have enough slack that they could add that much without cutting?

I'm wondering when WS will make their anticipated expansion in YWG, as alluded to earlier this year. They have already established a new pilot and crew base in the city, but nothing further from them in months. YVR, YYC, YEG, YXE and YQR all getting routes expanded or added, but nothing for YWG. It really is odd and a bit frustration to witness.

Don't expect the summer schedule to be finalised until sometime in February. Until then there'll be probably quite a few little adds. From YWG I definitely see YUL returning next summer.

Hopefully, we've been told of a fairly sizeable expansion for WS at YWG is planned, so I'm hoping it comes sooner rather than later.

Also, the WS schedule is showing all flights on Sunday, 21 Oct 2024 as being cancelled, in all cities everywhere. What's the go with that haha.

October 2024 is so far away that nothing on that date is actually cancelled, it's probably just a temporary glitch/mistake on the WS direct flights web page.

Speaking of WS expansion out of YWG the LAX/ATL additions are a fairly big deal so I think they're already on a roll.

True, but considering what we lost due to the pandemic (Europe and other continental flights), we are still a long way off from what we had in 2018/2019. The ATL and LAX are nice but only limited offerings, 3-5 times per week. These routes would be better served as daily flights. I mean, all other cities with these destinations via WJ are daily year round if not at lease seasonally, which service better as connection hubs. It would be great for WS to get these flights to daily by next summer, at the very least.

edit dup post

With limited 787’s (plus all Europe flights going out of YYC) I would think WPG won’t be getting Europe flights back any time soon. Maybe Prime Air will sell back the 767’s🤣

Now that its in the reservation system I've corrected these:

YYC-ATL - Increased from 10x weekly to 2x daily
YYC-DTW - Increased from 5x weekly to 1x daily
YYC-BNA - Increased from 4x weekly to 1x daily
YYC-DEN - Increased from 4x weekly to 1x daily
YYC-ORD - Increased from 4x weekly to 1x daily
YYC-SAN - Increased from 4x weekly to 1x daily
YYC-PHX - Increased from 2x to 3x daily
YYC-SFO - Increased from 18x weekly to 20x weekly
YYC-IAD - Reduced from 3x to 2x weekly (resumes May 20)
YYC-PSP - Reduced from 6x to 3x weekly
YVR-ATL - Increased from 8x weekly to 2x daily
YEG-MSP - Increased from 5x to 12x weekly
YEG-LAX - Increased from 7x to 9x weekly
YXE-MSP - Increased from 3x weekly to 1x daily

Additionally YYC-PDX gain 4x weekly 737 mainline flights

WS1505 YYC 10:30 - 11:19 PDX 737 4567
WS1500 PDX 12:30 - 15:16 YYC 737 4567

The 2x daily Q400 Encore flights remain unchanged for now, with now up to 3x daily scheduled on 4 days.

The schedule doesn't extend into the rest of the summer yet, does it? From the reservations I see, it only goes to end of June? Which would be odd, increasing just before the summer officially kicks off and then cutting back for peak times? Guess we'll keep checking and see when/if it gets extended

Not yet, the changes only go to June 29. I'm guessing this same schedule will apply in July/August at some point too.

In the past they didn't finalize the summer schedule until February/March.

You guys had already lost the weekly LGW after 2018. However, YWG is just about fully recovered from 2019 which is way ahead of a lot of other airports in this country. It’s why YWG will likely hang onto 6th place by about 15k pax over YOW for the second consecutive year. If it weren’t for PD and AF, YOW would still be getting slaughtered. AC, WS and now F8 have massively hacked YOW…which is why PD have this huge opening to expand massively there. Expect YOW-YWG to be announced soon.

Once one of Canada’s busiest by aircraft movements, YKZ, is now officially closed. The closure had been delayed for years.

https://canadianaviationnews.ca/toro...am-now-closed/

First announced, what, like ten years or more ago?

I think there's some more YVR changes based on the last week of June (compared to S23)
YVR-SAN - Increase from 3x to 4x weekly
YVR-MCO - Increase from 1x to 2x weekly
YVR-LAS - Increase from 11x to 13x weekly
YVR-SFO - Reduce from 11x to 7x weekly

Also WS has its 789 scheduled on YYC-LAX from April 28 5x weekly.

Is this a mistake? That seems weird and not a good use of a 787, especially in that wind down of sun flying and ramp up of Europe flying!

Is it possibly some slack in the fleet. With spring break happening around then and Mexico 787 usage winding down. Might be filling some gaps?

There is definitely slack in the WS 787 fleet, just like last summer, but a bit less, since the routes that are replacing LGW are all longer. So could be LAX was chosen for this very reason. It could also be that instead of rotating that spare frame to YYZ, a route that is massively crowded, they probably feel LAX will yield better. Could be either/or, or a combo of the two.

I wonder if cargo plays a role in this. They are more likely to be able to generate some revenue moving cargo between Europe and California.

I thought about that also, but you would think it would make more sense to send one of the 737 freighters sitting around doing nothing instead.

Either way LAX is a market Westjet knows very well, so its not like its some huge risk they are taking, Just a way to keep a 787 moving.

Additionally WS filed its initial W24 schedule. Here's its initially planned changes to the 787 schedule:

YYC-LHR 1x daily
YYC-CUN 1x daily
YYZ-CUN 1x daily
YYC-PVR 6x weekly
YYC-CDG 4x weekly
YYC-NRT 3x weekly

YYC-FCO runs 3x weekly until November 16 / BCN runs until November 9. It seems every year they extend FCO's season. Both appear to resume in March/April.

Additionally YYC-BNA also appears to be going year-round too?

PD and TS want to form a joint venture. Here's the press release: https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...854649926.html

Wonder if this means whether Transat will actually look at serving YOW again transatlantic from 2025 onward or continue to keep their token winter presence.

I don't know about that. I could see Porter expand service into the US out of Toronto and Montreal timed to provide connections onto Transat European service. Basically do what Air Canada and WestJet are doing with Europe.

PD and TS already codeshare for the YYZ flights from the west. Not sure about YUL though.. since PD is building YHU. I guess PD will going to build bases at both airports, similar to YYZ/YTZ? But not sure if Montreal would have the demand for PD to provide high frequency routes out of both airports, as per their business model.