Westjet indicated they were retrenching from eastern Canada, so this is not hugely surprising. Europe was always a seasonal side-show, not the main act. I suppose even with only using a MAX 8, the business case wasn't there with AC competing.

Fighting the battle is harder at airports with high competition like YYZ. It's why airlines love their fortress hubs - they can keep fares higher because people will just pay the extra to avoid connecting. Somewhere like LAX with its huge level of competition serves to deflate fares and thin profit margins.

A shame for me, I suppose. I was keeping an eye on Edinburgh for a trip one day.

Westjet should rename to Calgaryjet.

Onex and Westjet can go pound sand :tup:

If it wasn't for Air Canada there would be no reliable service in Atlantic Canada.

Did you take offence to something I said? That's fine for Atlantic Canada, but AC has become increasingly useless to most of Western Canada, outside of Vancouver and perhaps Calgary. And TBH, WestJet is only really beneficial for BC and Alberta, while limiting non-stop routes to the rest of the west by forcing us through Calgary to get to most places. Yay. This is precisely why I am rooting for ULCC airlines to become successful and offer the rest of us supposed peasants more options in non-stop routes.

So yes, both WestJet and AC (and their hub-and-spoke models) can go pound sand.

I want thewave46jet.

It caters exactly to my desires, even though I rarely fly and when I do, I fly economy.

So when I come up with lunacy, I can have someone else burn a wad of cash doing something that no rational company would do so that I feel good about my airport.

You're right.

Canada is such a small country so outside of YYC/YUL/YVR/YYZ, there really isn't going to be that much service. There's nothing wrong with ULCCs adding some point to point service, but WS/AC aren't evil spawns of Satan trying to make smaller airports shut down while Flair and Lynx are angels from heaven doing everything in their power to save smaller airports and return them to their former glory or something. It's not a charity it's a business where they need to make money and pay thousands of people (and contractors) their wages and fees.

Both Air Canada and WestJet love Vancouver.
What's the opposite of pounding sand?

Sucking.... popsicles?

No offence taken.

Air Canada has been around for 85 years. Nobody should be praising any airline, but I'll take AC over anything else offered in this country.

Porter might be the next best option after ONEX gutted Westjet service to the most populated part of the country. (everything east of Manitoba).

Au contraire, the most populated part of the country is everything west of Sackville :P

Sackville NS or Sackville NB???

Correct most densely populated provinces are P.E.I. and Nova Scotia.

:youmad:

Only because those two provinces lack subarctic hinterlands

Brilliantly stupid. Meanwhile down the road at YOW, there's currently 0 weekly YOW-LAS.

I was thinking Sackville NS, because more of Canada's population is west of that point than Sackville NB.

Just pointing out your transparency in arbitrarily and unnecessarily packing regions together to make your point. That said, I agree with your underlying point about air service.

Oh, YOW. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

And yet, somehow Flair thinks London, ON to Tuscon will work.

Such a bizarre airline.

And YQL (Lethbridge) to TUS as well! That’s even more bizarre!

Flair is getting mega incentives from Tuscon to operate these routes. I think the Tuscon routes from S. Ontario will actually do pretty well for Flair. Now those routes from the micro cities of Alberta on the other hand... Not sure why Flair would go for Prince George, Ft. Mac and Lethbridge when they could've gone for larger populations like YVR, YYC, YWG, and YYZ.

Maybe that's part of the deal with TUS to get the subsidy - not to start route that actually make sense and prevent other airlines from starting them.

Do you know the plane that used to run the TUS routes is partially based at YVR? So they went out of the way to fly the plane to YEG in the early morning and fly back to YVR late night in order to do the TUS runs.

And there is still nothing bookable from YHZ to Europe next summer, as far as WS is concerned. That WS tweet from a few weeks ago saying they will return next summer on some YHZ-Europe runs is kind of odd. Why remove all bookings then?

And BA is AirLondon, AF AirParis, SU AirMoscow.....

hub and spoke is the name of the game, and the game isn't changing anytime soon. Better get used to it.

WS tried it different. To be everything to everyone. It didn't work.