LUFTHANSA EXTENDS MUNICH – VANCOUVER TO YEAR-ROUND IN NW24
1 min
NW24Star Alliance
Written By Jim Liu
Published at 0200GMT 29MAY24

Lufthansa in last week's schedule update extended Munich – Vancouver service, as this route will once again sees year-round operation, during Northern winter 2024/25 season. From 27OCT24 to 29MAR25, this route is served 3 times weekly, with Airbus A350-900XWB aircraft.

Following schedule focuses on the period of 03NOV24 – 07MAR25.

LH476 MUC1220 – 1350YVR 359 257
LH477 YVR1855 – 1345+1MUC 359 257

I didn't remember YVR-MUC being being year round before, I always remember it being summer seasonal? The article definitely implies it was before... "this route will once again sees year-round operation". It definitely is possible/likely, Jim is usually very good about things, but it's also insane how much route data he goes through to publish that site, and doing all of the comparisons is even more nuts. He always has previous years/seasons to compare to, that would take so much time to compile. His database must be insanely organized to do what he does, I'd love to score a copy of his vast data files LOL. Anyways, I digressed majorly. Whatever the case, good to see LH keep MUC year-round, it's a nice link to take out of the summer only pile.

I noticed something, and just like above, I could be mistaken as I don't have records of past winter scheds. But when I was checking out MUC on the scheds, I started to check out how winter 2024/25 to Europe looked from airports like YVR, YEG, and YYC (YYZ and YUL are in a different league, not worth comparing as they are so vastly different).

YYC - WS already announced maintaining daily flights to LHR and CDG from YYC, plus AC daily to LHR, 4Y daily to FRA, and KL daily to AMS. Pretty standard, the big boost being CDG to daily year round
YVR - Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think AF used to be daily in winter before (year round)? My mind is kind of blurry with past comparisons, the Covid messed with my memory of some things pre-2020. I know the route started summer seasonal, and sub-daily, I just can't remember if it expanded to daily year round just before Covid? This article mentions the summer service increasing just this year?

AIR FRANCE 3Q24 VANCOUVER AIRCRAFT CHANGES
1 min
NS24Skyteam
Written By Jim Liu
Published at 0600GMT 08FEB24

Air France in the third quarter of 2024 plans additional capacity increase on Paris Charles de Gaulle – Vancouver route, as the Skyteam member schedules 369-seater Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on this route, from 02JUL24 to 16SEP24. AF previously planned to operate this service with 324-seater A350-900XWB during this period.

Planned frequency increase from 5 to 7 weekly remains unchanged.

Maybe it's just increasing compared to Covid-era schedules, maybe pre-2020 it was daily in summer, but I still don't think in winter.. The other funny thing about this is that AF and KL are obviously coordinating this closely. YVR-CDG is actually 5x weekly for a 6-week period between late Sep and most of Oct. But then AF goes back to daily, and KL goes from daily to 4x weekly. I remember KL dropping sub-daily in the winter, but I don't remember AF picking up the extra frequency, I thought they just both went sub-daily in winter? This apparent swap in importance surprised me, KLM and AMS have been huge not just for YVR, but also many Canadian cities esp. YEG and YYC. KL really provided some of the strongest links between western cities and Europe. Paris was nowhere to be found for years on western schedules, and airlines like BA never gave much to the region, esp. YYC/YEG. FRA was decent, but KL to AMS was really the strongest of the foreign tails. So seeing them appear to hand the dominant spot to AF is surprising (from YVR, that is). Even though they're essentially the same airline in many ways, it was always that some places were stronger KL and some stronger AF, and much of that has remained. KL will continue to be daily from YYC-AMS and 5x weekly from YEG-AMS over winter, so just YVR goes down and gets replaced by AF. I've heard KL is struggling with AMS and new restrictions to keep down # of flights. It's hard to believe airports actively trying to shoo away business lol, but that's just proof how huge airports like AMS and CDG are. Canadian airports will not be turning away business for a while I hope, unless there's some nut job policities somewhere here, but I sure hope not! Bring in the business, we are underserved!! Forget Madrid, Amsterdam and Venice, give us more lol!

YYC
7x AC to LHR
7x WS to LHR
7x WS to CDG
7x KL to AMS
7x 4Y to FRA

YVR
7x BA to LHR
7x AC to LHR
7x AF to CDG
7x LH to FRA
4x KL to AMS
4x FI to KEF
3x LH to MUC

YEG
5x KL to AMS

YVR and YYC very even on Europe, which has been normal for many years in winter. Just the airline makeup has shifted a bit.

During the pandemic, LH split service between FRA and MUC during the winter. I remember it was 4x FRA, 3x MUC. Last winter, MUC was removed in favor of daily FRA, but the route was temporary transferred to 4Y.

AF was never daily at YVR pre-pandemic, both Summer and Winter. In 2019, AF operates 3x weekly throughout the year except for July/Aug, which it operated 5x weekly. There were more summer service at YVR pre-pandemic though, when AC operates 4x weekly and TS 3x weekly. But I don't remember CDG was ever daily during the winter, since both AC and AF were seasonal.

OK that is what I thought, I knew frequency changed by season and by year, so this is nice to see them increase to daily in winter. I wonder if the KLM reduction (or maybe they have been under daily for years now in winter, I wish I tracked it) is due to new restrictions at AMS or just passing capacity to AF.

I actually now prefer AC's winter schedule from YVR than their summer one, international and transborder. For international, in the winter we lose FRA (but LH stays at daily), DUB (no replacement, 4x summer), and KIX (no replacement, 6x weekly summer). But we keep or gain:

-NRT and ICN frequencies stay at daily
-PVG 4x weekly stay
-HKG 10x weekly stay
-BKK 5x weekly added
-DXB 4x weekly added
-AKL 4x weekly added
-SIN gain 1x more weekly for a total of 5x weekly (4x weekly in summer)
-SYD gain 3x more weekly for a total of 10x weekly (7x weekly in summer)
-BNE gain 1x more weekly for a total of daily (6x weekly in summer)

Not to mention the increase in frequencies or equipment on many transborder and southern destinations (which I think most airports experience in winter), and I like the mix better. Of course domestic is way smaller in winter, but international is a funner variety (esp. to Asia Pacific, having 21x weekly flights to Australia/New Zealand is a nice number, plus 42x weekly to the rest of Asia). We still have AC steady on LHR, I would love more Euro service in winter but it's never been a strong market in the off season, especially when YYZ and YUL can fill most connections.

PD start YYC-YUL today: https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...40529609874/en

https://www.waterlooairport.ca/Modul...8-a6a3aac745ad
Stockyards at YKF now open at the Region of Waterloo International Airport (YKF)
YKF Airport Information News Releases May 29, 2024
https://twitter.com/Redman4Region/st...40974280876247
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOwb1-aW...pg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOwb1-fX...pg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GOwb1-YW...pg&name=medium

Even better, LH seems to be using A350s with the new Allegris interiors on this route, at least for launch.

• Video Link

Who's the guy in the pink shirt? He's got a classic Waterloo County build (bring on the schmecky!)!

TATL demand must continue to be very strong then, even with the supposed post pandemic rush. This winter sees a fairly sizeable increase from all of YEG/YYC/YVR. I don't think KL has ever been 5x weekly in the winter from YEG.

AC now actually fly more long-haul out of YVR in winter compared to summer. In fact, Jan/Feb is dead winter for the TATL market, but is actually busy season in Asia due to CNY and other similar holidays.

I remember last winter AC originally had just 1 more plane at YVR planned for the winter season. Then one extra plane was reallocated from TATL in late-Nov to increase HKG, then another one by Feb to increase BKK. Then by summer, 2 of the 3 planes were sent back to TATL and YVR kept one (for HKG/SIN after the loss of ZRH).

The upcoming winter, YVR will begin the season with 3 extra widebodies. Maybe we'll get more if there's any late season adjustments like last year.

Also, last year the 4x weekly PVG began with the pattern YYZ-YVR-PVG-YVR-YYZ. I believe at one point late season, AC gave up the YVR-YYZ part and just leave the plane at YVR doing nothing 3 days a week. Not sure this year if AC going to do the same pattern from YYZ, or they are going to find some other work from YVR the other 3 days if PVG cannot be increase to daily.

KLM celebrating 75 years of service to Canada this week.

2 out of the 3 pilots operating that inaugural flight to YUL were Canadians. In fact, they had a good number of Canadian pilots back then. Interesting read.

https://canadianaviationnews.ca/klm-...-for-75-years/

Here's an interesting table of YQB direct flights from 2005 to 2017 but I don't remember if it's from this forum that it was downloaded back then but anyway it brings back good memories from a time we had more flights to Europe.

https://i.postimg.cc/HkqCdHh0/image.png

^ where is TS YQB-CDG? They’ve been serving that for the longest time no?

April stats for Canada's busiest:

YYZ - N/A
YVR - N/A
YUL - 1,679,148 +6.2% YTD: +9.9%
YYC - 1,383,573 -0.2% YTD: +4.9%
YEG - 601,586 +1.3% YTD: +1.1%
YOW - 352,789 +12.6% YTD: +13.6%
YWG - N/A

Here's YHZ for April (I found out not that long ago if you email the YHZ Airport Authority and request pax stats, they'll add you to their monthly pax stats distribution list - still have no idea why they don't just publish on their website):

Sector / 2019 TTL / 2023 TTL / 2024 TTL / % Chg vs 2023 / % Chg vs 2019
Domestic / 263,569 / 224,438 / 230,821 / +2.8% / (12.4%)
Transborder / 40,059 / 23,165 / 24,797 / +7.0% / (38.1%)
International / 46,140 / 49,226 / 54,615 / +10.9% / +18.4%
Total April / 349,768 / 296,829 / 310,233 / +4.5% / (11.3%)

YHZ YTD:

Sector / 2019 TTL / 2023 TTL / 2024 TTL / % Chg vs 2023 / % Chg vs 2019
Domestic / 914,063 / 772,542 / 772,228 / (0.0%) / (15.5%)
Transborder / 124,751 / 73,313 / 83,846 / +14.4% / (32.8%)
International / 139,353 / 151,298 / 181,463 / +19.9% / +30.2%
Total YTD / 1,178,167 / 997,153 / 1,037,537 / +4.0% / (11.9%)

Right, it should be included for all the year range of the table. Back in early 2010s it was served 5x weekly with a mix of A330 and A310.

As far as I can remember, here were the frequency for France at their peak in 2010 or so

Corsair YQB-ORY 3X weekly 747
Corsair YQB-NTE 2X weekly A330
Air Transat YQB-CDG 5x weekly A330 A310
Air Transat YQB-BOD 1X weekly A310
Air Transat YQB-MRS 1X weekly A310

By comparison, here's the frequency for Europe in 2024
Air France YQB-CDG 3x weekly 777-300HD
Air Transat YQB-CDG 4X weekly A321neo
Air Transat YQB-LGW 1X weekly A321neo

WestJet's YWG-YUL resumes today after a five(ish) year hiatus.

Something interesting I noticed. Air Canada flying non-stop between Winnipeg and Regina today on an Airbus, flight AC2071, and it's currently advertised for sale on the AC app and showing up as flights in both YWG and YQR airport websites.

I wonder if this is a trial run for gradually re-introducing flights between Western Canadian cities?

https://media.aircanada.com/2024-06-...twork-Strength

AC announces India expansion including non-stop BOM and new seasonal YYC-DEL (via LHR).

A YYZ-YWG diverted to YQR last night. If there's empty seats, may as well and try and sell something. Odds are with just a few hours window nothing will sell given it's a route AC hasn't flown in years.

With YYZ regaining BOM nonstop, AC have moved the 5th freedom flight to YYC. Reminds me of way back when, when the old AC866/867 in the 90s a couple of days a week would fly YOW-YMX-LHR-DEL.