To people really not get why things have changed? For any of us who work in the industry its clear. There are exactly 0 airlines that use there 90's business model - it would fail. Everything has changed in the last 30 years.

Not sure what you're alluding to??? I was responding to the question of CP having flown YOW-LHR in the 90s.

Speaking of business models changing, and this is an area where change is imperative, AC have announced that YQB's ground service equipment (GSE) will be 100% electric by the end of 2025 for all baggage and ramp tractors, belt loaders, power stows, container loaders and aircraft tractors: https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...844212957.html

That's a great step towards GHG emissions reductions where ground equipment is the one area where airlines can rapidly electrify with existing technology.

I can't find it now but I recently saw that YHM was also going electric. I seem to recall it was more the cargo operations but it might have been passenger as well. Although cargo would have much more impact there than passenger at this point.

Do we know if YUL is still getting that mysterious new airline that was talked about earlier this year? Can't help but wonder.

Unfortunately, no. They're not starting for S25. This being said, fairly confident they will start YUL in the near future. Once the airline is revealed, you'll most likely understand the reason for the delay.

Press release from YQM issued a couple of weeks ago (just before the Porter announcement about YQM/YYZ Embrear service)

Trump Airways ??

Air Rusky ?

Why the mystery?

ITA delaying adding YUL until they join Star Alliance? I saw the PR earlier this week about entry applications and sponsorship by LH into Star has commenced.

I hope, maybe naively, that this is the worst of it. I am somewhat encouraged that they are stating only a 10% decline, some news had mentioned 70% declines the other week. So 10% is not quite as catastrophic.

I am happy to see that so far, the weird ghost schedule that I saw on Google Flights a couple weeks back has not materialized. It was very stripped down, way more than the published changes. But I think there's probably been some other reductions that just haven't been noticed. For example, it doesn't show any reductions on YYZ-SFO. YYZ-SFO will be 4x daily on 737 Max this summer. I thought they used to be 5x daily, but could be wrong. But there definitely used to be heavy aircraft on some flights, I am not imagining that. There used to be 1 or even possibly 2 daily heavies in summer. Even if the frequency has not changed at 4x daily, the capacity would have dropped. If YUL dropped marginally in seats from 2366 to 2174 with the same frequency, then I don't believe YYZ stayed the same. YYZ also has UA now with 2x daily, which is higher than they started with, and a big addition on a route pair that Air Canada used to have exclusively. So I find it odd that AC didn't cut seats on YYZ-SFO. I know the comparison in the article is between 16FEB25 vs 30MAR25, so maybe the change had already happened, and therefore not included in this update?

The prevalence of heavy aircraft on AC's transborder transcontinental activity has certainly dried up. One daily A330 on YUL-LAX and one daily 787 on YYZ-LAX, that seems to be it. There used to be 2x heavies between YYZ and LAX, plus to SFO as well. YUL I think had heavies sometimes to SFO; they likely only ever had 1x heavy to LAX, so that isn't a loss for them. YVR lost its daily 787 to EWR in recent years as well (although they doubled frequency, so its an overall seat gain, but still losing a heavy). This doesn't mean any of these routes are junk or weak. Rather that AC's heavy aircraft are in demand; for them to be used on routes that could easily be flown by an A320 or 737 means they are easy targets when a heavy is needed elsewhere. And that would be international it seems.

'AC's domestic widebody ops are more or less stable overall, with YUL seemingly closing in on YYZ's dominance in yet another metric:

Domestic Heavy Ops
YUL - 7x daily (YHZ 1x, YYZ 1x, YYC 2x, YVR 3x)
YYZ - 7x daily (YUL 1x, YYC 1x, YVR 5x)
YVR - 8x daily (YYZ 5x, YUL 3x, YOW 1x)
YYC - 3x daily (YUL 2x, YYZ x1)

So while YYZ and YUL both have 7x daily heavies, YUL has more destinations at 4 vs. 3 for YYZ. For YYZ and YUL to be tied in the number of heavies domestic + transborder is so surprising. The proportional usage from YUL is also much higher, for whatever it's worth. Heavies represent 3/5 or 3/6 dailies to YVR, 2/4 dailies to YYC, and 1/4 dailies to YHZ. The YYZ proportion is way lower due to much higher frequencies overall, of course. It is such a change from years past. Combined with all the international additions, AC really seems to be levelling it’s capacity at both airports more and more equally.

Again, this doesn't mean anything on overall seat totals, the loss of heavies can be replaced by other aircraft and added frequency, resulting in overall gains. I am only analyzing use of heavy aircraft here, nothing more.

Please correct me if you find other data, I am just using the same Jul. 13 week as Aeroroutes, and pulling random days, so I am not claiming this to be 100% accurate. But I think AC used to do heavies on YYZ-YEG sometimes, and even to YWG and YHZ here and there? Not this summer though. Even 5x daily to YVR and 1x daily to YYC seem on the lower end of historic frequencies for heavies on each route, which have definitely been higher before. But this summer seems like a record for YUL domestically, at least to non-YYZ destinations.

Side note, the aircraft lineup on YUL-YVR is truly a mix of everything this summer. On most days, there’s 1x A330, 1x 787, 1x 321, 1x 320, 1x 777, and 1x 737. Can’t think of another route pair that has that many daily flights, and no repeat aircraft. And such a variety all the way from the 320 to 777, it's basically covering all aircraft types except the 220 (I am intentionally not including the 319, which is basically obsolete, and the 767 which was a late minute substitution on a limited basis). Otherwise, all meaningful aircraft in the fleet operate one flight on the route.

Also 2x daily on Porter (which I'm booked on).

AC 787-9 Delivery
 

I've been looking for news of the last of 3 787-9s added to the original 29 units.
It seems that C-FEGI passed thru YYZ on the way to the UK for some interior work last week.
They could have used that ship last year,....
Maybe a useful part of the YVR-MNL launch going forward.

I don’t think it will be ITA. It will most likely be Iberia to Madrid, and the reason for the delay is because of the A321XLR.

I do, however see ITA adding YUL at some point down the line.

Why not? It's all part of the fun...;)

It also crossed the Atlantic, all the while staying close to YFB, SFJ and KEF on the way to BHX. Probably an ETOPS issue.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...-fegi#39b68495

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=yyz-bhx...&EV=410&EU=kts

I actually didn’t list IB because IAG have basically publicly stated it’s a matter of time until YUL-MAD happens with the XLR.

WS has increased YYC-NRT to daily, year-round.
https://westjet.mediaroom.com/2025-0...-round-service

Perhaps someone with a better sense of history, but when was the last time YYC had year-round daily service to Asia? When AC ran NRT it was never daily in the winter.

It could still happen, but I suspect ICN will mostly remain seasonal for now.

I don't think YYC has ever had daily year round service to Asia, right? At least not within the last 30 years or so

Back in the days of CP flying YYZ-YYC-NRT on the D10, it was never more than 3x weekly at any time of the year.

Good points, (if) I’m not mistaken Hainan Airlines was a daily flight ✈️ route between Calgary YYC- Beijing PEK- YYC in the 1st year the route started up it operated daily, before it got reduced to seasonal service & then it got cut end of October 2019.

Hainan operated 3x weekly through its entire run. When it was announced they said it would go 4x, but the 4th never happened. It’s last winter it was down to just 2x weekly.

It was never daily. Not even in the summer.

Seems like a very solid, smart move by WS, on a route that historically has proven it can succeed on various airlines and is even stronger now. Some of WS's additions over the last while have seemed less solid and more just attempts to see what succeeds most at utilizing aircraft. But deploying the 787 to Tokyo year round would make a lot of sense I'd think, especially if US weakness continues and frees up 737s, these could go to places like CUN instead of the 787.

Just shows how strong Tokyo/Japan is as a market both for O&D and connecting. And also how WS is still more route focused than potential alliance focused. Even though they have heavily leaned into Skyteam overall, they realized demand for Tokyo was higher and expanded service and JL (OneWorld) codesharing instead of focusing on ICN and KE. That will naturally be next I'd say, but smart to do Tokyo first.

YUL released Feb 2025 stats. It's not pretty:

Domestic: 408,493 -2.3%
Transborder: 339,559 -8.3%
International: 744,409 -4.8%

Total: 1,492,461 -5.0%

https://admtl.my.salesforce.com/sfc/...TLQaw6Hx6AH8j4

That's a decrease of ~78,000 passengers compared to Feb 2024, quite a significant drop.

However, due to the leap year last year, Feb 2025 had 1 less day than Feb 2024, so a decent chunk of the decrease is attributed to that, as YUL handles an average of ~54,000 passengers a day during February. Remove that, and the decrease is around 25,000 passengers.

However, even if we remove the leap year discrepancy, it's still quite a significant drop in passengers, due to the simple fact that YUL has been seeing tremendous growth of late, to the tune of around +100,000 to 200,000 passengers per month. Sometimes more.

So the way I see it, it's potentially a drop of a quarter million passengers.

There are several reasons for this:

- Weak Canadian dollar, affecting international travel.
- Trump 2.0 policies.
- Weather: February was pretty brutal for YUL. Two massive back to back snowstorms dumped almost 80 cm of snow over the city and airport in a span of four days, from Feb 13-16. These consecutive storms contributed to Montreal's snowiest February in over 50 years, with total accumulations nearing 100 cm for the month. So the result was plenty of flight cancellations, which surely affected the numbers. Sunwing, in particular, was a total shitshow.

So all of this being said, March will paint a better picture of how the year should look. Sadly, I still foresee a lot of red, but probably not as bad as February.

YVR seems a bit better, especially remove the effect of leap year which attribute to 3.4% of the decrease.

I guess opening of APAC (China) helps things a lot. But the big increase in Europe is quite surprising...

Domestic: 908,394 -0.4%
.. Transborder: 435,962 -6.0%
.. Asia Pacific: 336,176 +8.9%
.. Europe: 85,479 +3.1%
.. Misc intl: 143,491 -6.5%
International: 1,001,108 -0.8%

Total: 1,909,502 -0.6%

https://www.yvr.ca/en/about-yvr/facts-and-stats

I haven't paid close attention to exact frequencies and types for some time, but for what it's worth:
- some of the reason for that is the end of 767 service, first with their transfer to Rouge and then their retirement - 787's have not been used as extensively on domestic routes
- YYC-YYZ used to have around half of the flights operated by 767's, but that's been 20-25 years ago
- YEG-YYZ had widebodies regularly, but could be spotty. Just before the AC/CP merger I think it was one 767 flight, maybe only in the summer.
After the merger it might have been a little more 767 operations, but dropped down over time. Not surprising given the capacity of the 737-8 and A321 fleets.
- YHZ-YYZ had 1 or 2 widebody flights, but I think that was partly for aircraft rotation purposes to operate YHZ-LHR
- YWG-YYZ would receive substitutions from time to time, but I don't think it has had any 767 service regularly in the schedule since the early '90's. For a 2 hour flight, and with an A320 pilot base in YWG, that's not all that surprising.

Here's a snapshot of domestic widebody arrivals in YYZ, circa June 1999:
YYC-YYZ - 767's, 27x weekly on AC (surprisingly nothing on CP)
YEG-YYZ - 767 6x weekly on AC
YHZ-YYZ - 767 14x weekly on AC
YUL-YYZ - 767 55x + A340 6x weekly on AC, plus 2x weekly A310 on Royal
YOW-YYZ - 767 6x weekly on AC
YVR-YYZ - 767 43x plus 747 2x plus A340 6x weekly on AC, 767 plus 39x 747 3x plus DC10 12x on CP, plus 3x A310 on Royal

I remember as a youth through the 80's and into early adulthood in the early 90's, I used to go to Halifax from London pretty much yearly to see my dad, and typically it was either from Toronto or connecting there. I had 747 at least 3 or 4 times and L-1011 a few more times on the YYZ-YHZ, and 767's a couple times towards the end of that regular travel. Toss in a few 727's, a DC-9 same plane from YXU-YOW-YHZ and even the BAe-146 a couple times, it was quite the variety of aircraft back then.

We knew from January that YUL's transborder number would be down but domestic down in February is surprising given YOW was up about 8% domestically in the same month...and with the one fewer day - mind you winter 23-24 had ridiculously low domestic capacity (e.g., a mere 2 Dash 8s a day to YHZ, which would have been on par with capacity in 1980!). If you factor in the leap year day in 2024, YUL domestically was essentially flat - not bad considering the snowstorms, which probably drove a bunch of people onto trains or cancel outright.

YOW in Q1 has brutal international numbers just because of the large loss of capacity with no WS (CUM & MBJ) and F8 (CUN & PUJ) vs winter 23-24...and like YUL the snowstorms.

YOW might breakeven or even finish up on international for the year thanks to AC's return to LHR and 3 additional weeks of full daily AF service...and AF using the slightly larger 772 this summer vs 359 last summer. It'll all depend on how WG-WS merger integration capacity looks for winter 25-26 and whether PD jump into international sun flying - with the bloodbath Florida appears to now be, I don't think they'll have any choice but to be ready for next winter. AC's already showing mixed results for winter 25-26 out of YOW as it appears they won't have any November sun flights but mainline MAXes taking over for rouge 319s. TQO appears to be getting replaced by MBJ.

How has Tulum fared out of YUL, YQB & YYZ this winter?

DJs Aviation has a segment on unhappiness with their Embraer’s availability:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hVT_Z9...lhdGlvbg%3D%3D

I'm not sure what peak frequencies were overall out of YQB on CUN/TQO this winter, but all I see loaded in for next winter this far is CUN 1x weekly on the MAX. It's interesting that YHZ/YQB have sun routes loaded from the beginning of November whereas YOW only has them beginning mid-December. All three are secondary markets that were served by Rouge 319s and have been loaded with MAXes for next winter on Caribbean routes.

I see YYZ-TQO and YUL-TQO are loaded 4x/3x weekly for next winter, respectively. Also on mainline MAXes from Rouge this winter.

YYC's February numbers aren't pretty either:

Domestic: 835,791 -3.2%
Transborder: 266,531 -3.2%
International: 203,733 +4.6%

Feb 2025 total: 1,306,055 -2.0%

YTD: 2,651,258 -0.10%

The international numbers have continuously been trending up while domestic and now US is trending down.

Also 4Y launched YYC-MUC yesterday, I believe this is the first non-WS new long-haul destination for YYC since...... HU launched PEK in 2016?

Remember last Feb was a leap year with an extra day. To do an apple to apple comparison, you need to add 3.4% to this year's number. In this case, YYC have an increase.

Again, if you add 3.4% due to one less day, the daily average for domestic actually goes up.

Here's YOW's March numbers. Transborder is an all-time monthly record - took 13 years to beat the previous monthly record. It's also the first time transborder's been > 90K in a single month at YOW. With the current travel sentiments, who knows how long it'll be before 90K will get broken a second time.

Sector / Mar-24 / Mar-25 / % Change
Dom: 236,517 / 266,968 / +12.9%
TB: 80,088 / 90,458 / +12.9%
Int'l: 71,824 / 64,141 / -10.7%
TTL: 388,429 / 421,567 / +8.5%

Sector / YTD 2024 / YTD 2025 / % Change
Dom: 655,743 / 746,446 / +13.8%
TB: 216,704 / 242,603 / +12.0%
Int'l: 211,856 / 190,508 / -10.1%
TTL: 1,084,303 / 1,179,597 / +8.8%

March % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / March / YTD % recovered
Dom: 84.1% / 86.1%
TB: 113.6% / 113.1%
Int'l: 97.2% / 100.6%
TTL: 91.1% / 92.8%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2023
Dom: 3,522,203 / +10.0%
TB: 767,348 / +33.2% - just under 12K from the all-time record from 2012 of 775,040
Int'l: 412,567 / +30.2%
TTL: 4,702,118 / +14.8%

YWG have finally posted their 2024 November, December and year-end numbers. They also have Q1 2025 up, which I'll do in a separate post.

November

Sector / Nov-23 / Nov-24 / % Change
Dom: 249,582 / 283,535 / +13.6%
TB: 32,314 / 42,913 / +32.8%
Int'l: 12,883 / 15,947 / +23.8%
TTL: 294,779 / 342,395 / +16.2%

Sector / YTD 2023 / YTD 2024 / % Change
Dom: 3,373,152 / 3,353,279 / -0.6%
TB: 287,745 / 417,351 / +45.0%
Int'l: 132,899 / 169,369 / +27.4%
TTL: 3,793,796 / 3,939,999 / +3.9%

November % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / November / YTD % recovered
Dom: 102.1% / 95.1%
TB: 114.6% / 94.6%
Int'l: 221.1% / 103.5%
TTL: 106.2% / 95.3%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2022
Dom: 3,588,049 / +28.3%
TB: 450,490 / +173.2%
Int'l: 202,457 / +187.2%
TTL: 4,240,996 / +39.9%

December & Year-End 2024

Sector / Dec-23 / Dec-24 / % Change
Dom: 234,770 / 280,211 / +19.4%
TB: 33,139 / 42,358 / +27.8%
Int'l: 33,088 / 34,910 / +5.5%
TTL: 300,997 / 357,479 / +18.8%

Sector / Y-E 2023 / Y-E 2024 / % Change
Dom: 3,607,922 / 3,633,490 / +0.7%
TB: 320,884 / 459,709 / +43.3%
Int'l: 165,987 / 204,279 / +23.1% - 1st time YWG's ever broken the 200K mark
TTL: 4,094,793 / 4,297,478 / +4.9%

December % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / December / YTD % recovered
Dom: 98.3% / 95.3%
TB: 101.9% / 95.2%
Int'l: 138.5% / 108.2%
TTL: 101.6% / 95.8%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2022
Dom: 3,633,490 / +30.0%
TB: 459,709 / +178.8%
Int'l: 204,279 / +189.8%
TTL: 4,297,478 / +41.8%

Here's YWG's Q1 2025 numbers:

January

Sector / Jan-24 / Jan-25 / % Change
Dom: / 235,857 / 257,765 / +9.3%
TB: 34,600 / 41,913 / +21.1%
Int'l: 43,862 / 46,265 / +5.5%
TTL: 314,319 / 345,943 / +10.1%

January % of traffic recovered vs 2019
Sector / % recovered Jan 2024 vs Jan 2019
Dom: 92.3%
TB: 93.9%
Int'l: 98.2%
TTL: 93.3%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2023
Dom: 3,655,398 / +1.3%
TB: 467,022 / +45.5%
Int'l: 206,682 / +24.5%
TTL: 4,329,102 / +42.8%

February

Sector / Feb-24 / Feb-25 / % Change
Dom: 231,942 / 252,732 / +9.0%
TB: 39,038 / 42,887 / +9.9%
Int'l: 43,573 / 45,480 / +4.4%
TTL: 314,553 / 341,099 / +8.4%

Sector / YTD 2024 / YTD 2025 / % Change
Dom: 467,799 / 510,497 / +9.1%
TB: 73,638 / 84,800 / +15.2%
Int'l: 87,435 / 91,745 / +4.9%
TTL: 628,872 / 687,042 / +9.2%

February % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / February / YTD % recovered
Dom: 94.1% / 93.2%
TB: 90.2% / 92.0%
Int'l: 96.3% / 97.3%
TTL: 93.9% / 93.6%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2023
Dom: 3,676,188 / +1.9%
TB: 470,871 / +46.7%
Int'l: 208,589 / +25.7%
TTL: 4,355,648 / +43.7%

March

Sector / Mar-24 / Mar-25 / % Change
Dom: 244,929 / 269,313 / +10.0%
TB: 47,630 / 43,662 / -8.3%
Int'l: 44,186 / 44,874 / +1.6%
TTL: 336,745 / 357,849 / +6.3%

Sector / YTD 2024 / YTD 2025 / % Change
Dom: 712,728 / 779,810 / +9.4%
TB: 121,268 / 128,462 / +5.9%
Int'l: 131,621 / 136,619 / +3.8%
TTL: 965,617 / 1,044,891 / +8.2%

March % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / March / YTD % recovered
Dom: 90.1% / 92.1%
TB: 83.9% / 89.1%
Int'l: 93.5% / 96.0%
TTL: 89.7% / 92.2%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2023
Dom: 3,700,572 / +2.6%
TB: 466,903 / +45.5%
Int'l: 209,277 / +26.1%
TTL: 4,376,752 / +44.4%

Quite a significant drop in TB passengers at YWG as well from January to March: +21%, +10%, -8%.

Indeed but not surprising. YEG and YOW so far are bucking the trend...YHZ will too.

I suspect YOW will get into negative territory come May and I'd predict will probably only be around +5% in April. Even the 90K for March is showing signs of slowing down as I figured YOW at the start of the year would come in at around 95K for March.

Are airports in the rest of Canada having this issue, or is Vancouver just "lucky"?

Flight delays for a third day at Vancouver International Airport
By Mina Kerr-Lazenby
Published: April 16, 2025

Delays that have plagued the Vancouver International Airport for the previous two days are set to continue into Wednesday, with no end in sight.

Shortages of NAV Canada resources, including flight controllers, have disrupted both incoming and outgoing flights at the city’s airport since 3 p.m. Monday afternoon.

“NAV Canada has indicated that air travel across the region, including at YVR, will continue to be impacted by staffing resource constraints at NAV Canada, the country’s air navigation service provider,” a spokesperson from YVR said at 11 a.m. Wednesday morning.

“NAV Canada has not provided a timeframe in which the staffing resource constraints will be addressed.”

In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson from Nav Canada confirmed a temporary Traffic Management Initiative has been put in place due to “personnel resource constraints.”...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/art...ional-airport/

Kind of ironic that we have private ATC that we pay for everytime we buy a ticket and yet they aren't providing the service. Breach of contract?

We have the Federal Liberals to thank for NavCan and its charges. :tup:

100% It was a Chretien/Martin move as they downloaded a ton of stuff from "government service" to "pay as you go"

Yep. I’m a bit surprised they’re so short of people. I know it is a high stress job but the pay isn’t bad. Although starting is listed at a low $57k, the positions open list $101k going up to $201k with just a high school diploma required.

https://navcanada.wd10.myworkdayjobs...tional_JR-6875

Beyond the stress, it also probably doesn't help that you're required to move anywhere Nav Canada tells you to go. It's also probably a case of them not getting enough qualified applicants.

YVR ATC has been an embarrassment for many years now, NAV Canada has proven them selves to be incompetent and clearly unable to fix the problem.

The rumor is that it's a very toxic training environment with high wash out to keep the overtime plentiful, I have no idea if thats true. But there has to be something going on? This is just a week in mid April, any long weekend its a total joke at YVR. Seems like a major overhaul is in order, airlines need to stop paying NAV Can anytime non weather flow is happening.

Where is Transport? The regulator needs to be involved and possibly take over if the service provider constantly cant provide the service required.

At least they are not sending YYC- lower mainland / Island flights through Seattle center these days.. So thats a service win I guess?

YZF had 604,000 passengers in 2024, an 18% growth.

https://www.gov.nt.ca/en/newsroom/yz...senger-traffic

It’s a mighty little airport that has to serve an extremely large region, so this news is very positive and encouraging!

WS in a recent update has delayed the launch of YVR-AUS to May 17, and all flights afterward are only bookable in full fare W / Y class. Looks like it will be the next casualty.

Looks like it.

Another transborder reduction: PD are reducing both YOW-MCO & YOW-FLL from daily to 4x weekly for the month of June. I suspect further cuts throughout the summer schedule will follow.

WS announced a few new domestic routes:

YVR-YHZ - 4x weekly (technically a resumption)
YXE-YHZ - 1x weekly
YQR-YHZ - 1x weekly
YWG-YYT - 2x weekly

They also increased frequency on:
YYC-YDF
YYC-CUN
YYZ-YHZ
YYZ-LIR
YYZ-CUN
YEG-YHZ
YVR-CUN
YWG-YHZ

Just curious, how much did they increase YYZ-YHZ by?

6x weekly, but on second look its only on an outbound leg (probably why its not mentioned in the press release).

WS248 YYZ 14:30 - 17:40 YHZ 737 X3

For peak summer, its all on a 7M8 so its probably mostly to move a MAX to YHZ for the Europe service.

All the other increases were +1 weekly.