Cuba: At least you aren't likely to contract botulism!

We truly are a ground-breakingly innovative city. I'm sure every city in Canada - nay, the world - will follow in our footsteps soon enough. St. John's has come up with an idea that's sure to revolutionize airports:

Public transit access!

Now, it's only a possibility right now. It'll require some studies and busses with experimental new infrastructure called "luggage racks". But the important thing is someone here had the spark that became this idea. It COULD happen.

2016. What a time to be alive.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/n...vice-1.3428427

This would be much better than Quebec City which only has very, very limited service to its airport: 3 buses per day!

Quebec City is retarded when it comes to public transit.

Québec les aime ses autoroutes.

C'est vrai pour le Québec en entier, malheureusement (merci le MTQ, aka le ministère de la voiture individuelle). Le dernier investissement notable en transport en commun à Montreal remonte à 10 ans (ligne Orange à Laval), qui a eu pour principal effet de saturer une infrastructure déjà sur-utilisée. Depuis, tout ce qu'on a eu ce sont des coupes de service d'autobus.

Pendant ce temps, les autres provinces utilisent le cash fédéral pour s'améliorer. Ici, on continue de l'"investir" dans les routes...

Autre exemple, puisqu'on en parle: le bus 747 pour YUL. A l'heure de pointe, qui se trouve etre l'heure où un grand nombre de personnes cherchent à rejoindre l'aéroport, il est systématiquement pris dans le traffic. Quand les conditions sur la 20 sont mauvaises, il passe par le centre de Lachine. Résultat: le trajet peut prendre 35 à 110 minutes, et la fréquence à récemment été réduite ce qui cause souvent de devoir attendre le deuxième autobus pour pouvoir embarquer. Pas idéal quand on a un vol à attraper.

We don't have transit service to the airport in Kingston. Granted, we barely have an airport. Only a handful of flights to Toronto per day all on little planes. Only about a quarter of air passengers originating in Kingston actually fly out of our airport (we mostly just drive or train to YYZ and sometimes YOW or YUL or SYR), too. If we ran buses there I bet most of them would be empty or have 1 or 2 passengers on board at most.

At the same time, YQB doesn't need much transit to the airport yet, it's not busy enough.

The only remaining airports who should be getting rail transit are YUL and YYC (not dedicated shuttles though).

I would think YEG Should be getting one too

Not busy enough yet. Unless the train is part of an actual transit line, but even then...

YEG is pretty far from an urban area no?

Nearly 31 kms from the city centre.

Edmonton doesn't have anywhere near the traffic of the big 4 airports. I would think such a connection is a long way off.

Calgary's Saddletowne LRT station probably needs less than 8km of track to be laid down to get to YYC and when the Green Line LRT gets built in the north end, it'll be around 7km to that line.

For now, the Calgary Transit bus service will have to do.

:haha: Totally assumed every other city had all their public transit options integrated into their airports. Surprised to see it's a mixed bag.

Actually, Transit to Airports often feels to be one of the last things a city seems to consider; I get the feeling they often don't want to deal with luggage on the transit buses, plus the taxi companies usually fight any such extensions since airport runs are their bread and butter. Toss in that many airports are on the outskirts of the city, often outside city lines (which in some areas may make extending transit to them impossible due to "Transit may only be in city boundaries" laws), and its understandable why that tends to be a hodgepodge affair.

It seems to me that when the airport (and associated city) are big enough to warrant a Public Transit connection; the airport and related industries will probably have enough workers in the area to keep the transit viable; Airline passengers using the service is just gravy.

Edmonton has the LRT and 747 bus connection, which I use almost exclusively, that goes from the south terminus (Century Park) to YEG.

I have a bus pass so it is $5 ($8.30 if no pass) to get from Downtown to the airport.

Door to door is 50-55mins.

Excellent option and is well used by workers and travellers alike.

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Route 747 Bus Service
Edmonton Transit System's (ETS) Route 747 is an express bus service that runs every half hour (during peak hours - see full schedule below) between EIA and the Century Park bus and LRT station, providing superb transit connections across the city. This bus service runs every day of the week starting at 4:10 am from Century Park and 4:34 am from EIA.

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http://flyeia.com/sites/default/file...timetable2.jpg
http://flyeia.com

YWG is served by two bus routes, but unlike most Canadian cities the terminal is so central that it's a pretty cheap taxi ride (around $15 from downtown and much of the city).

Between that and the fact that our terminal doesn't have large volumes of people coming and going I'd expect that transit service there won't expand much beyond that for quite a while... maybe Winnipeg Transit might add more service frequency if needed, but that's it.

Halifax Metro Transit runs between YHZ and downtown: $3.50 for the 37km trip. Buses run about every half hour. Not a route ‘747’…… but a ‘320’ which is quite representative of the numerousness ‘Airbuses’ here.

https://www.halifax.ca/transit/Sched...s/Route320.pdf

I would think O&D passengers would have the biggest impact on the use of transit to/from airport.

Is there a source that counts just O&D passengers for each airport and excludes the connecting passengers - who will not use transit.

I just suspect that YEG and YYC are a lot closer in O&D numbers than most would think.




In other news, YVR finished 2015 with 20,315,978 passengers (enplaned and deplaned).
That is a growth rate of 4.9% yoy or +957,775 passengers! The largest areas of growth were in Transborder (+8.0%) and Asia Pacific (+7.4%).

Almost every mainland city does have transit to the airport, it's just in most cities, it's only bus routes. Only Toronto and Vancouver have rail links. Ottawa has a rail link to the airport approved & shovel ready, but not funded.

It's about 20km from the southern terminus of Edmonton's LRT system to the terminal. That's a ways, but not insurmountable, especially with low-cost at-grade LRT paralleling Hwy 2.

From what I understand, the number of airport employees is a much bigger factor than the O&D through the airport.

It would be interesting to see if they have any Ridership data for the Canada Line to YVR. It would save on staff parking!

I always just assume people that want rapid transit to and from airport envision visitors landing and jumping on train to be whisked dowtown to offices and hotels, or locals using it to catch their flights instead of driving or taking taxi.

Average daily usage for the Airport stations in 2011:

YVR-Airport - 13460
Templeton - 4427
Sea Island Centre - 1173

Air Canada announces Hamilton to Montreal direct flights
Airline plans twice-daily flights between 'Ontario's Golden Horseshoe' and Montreal

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilt...ghts-1.3431829

Air Canada announced Wednesday it'll launch new flights direct between Hamilton and Montreal beginning in May.

The flights are scheduled to leave each airport twice daily except Saturday, which will have one flight each way.

The airline says it timed the flights so passengers could connect with flights to Atlantic Canada and Europe.

Air Canada's passenger airlines president, Benjamin Smith, cited the population of Ontario's Golden Horseshoe as a factor in deciding to launch the service in Hamilton.

"Hamilton is a convenient departure and arrival point for the business community as well as tourists, visiting friends and relatives," Smith said in a press release.

Montreal is a destination that Hamilton airport passengers have requested often, said Frank Scremin, president and CEO of the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport — both for business and for getaways.

The service is scheduled to begin on May 24. The airline says the flights will be on Jazz Aviation LP 50-seat Bombardier CRJ jets.
Schedule:

Sunday to Friday flights:

Montreal to Hamilton: Depart YUL at 6:30 a.m., arrive YHM at 7:40 a.m.
Hamilton to Montreal: Depart YHM at 8:10 a.m., arrive YUL at 9:21 a.m.

Daily flights:

Montreal to Hamilton: Depart YUL at 4:55 p.m., arrive YHM at 6:07 p.m.
Hamilton to Montreal: Depart YHM at 6:40 p.m., arrive YUL at 7:50 p.m.

^this is good for you guys. You get access to French destinations without having to drive to YYZ.

Looks like 2016 will be a good year for YHM with increase in passenger numbers.

Rumour of the day.

PEK-YEG-JFK

That is very interesting. From where were those stats taken? May I have the link?

13,460 daily boardings at YVR-Airport would put airport terminal usage at about 10% of overall line usage. That certainly helps put to rest the old original assertion that the line is "just" for people going to and from the airport and that airport ridership would not justify the project.

Those numbers are likely from Wikipedia, and are 2011 numbers. I did find this quote, but it is also dated:

source - http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...9-ffab044488f4

I did read a report yesterday which had a table that showed 23% of the Canada line passengers were using it to get to/from YVR. However it didn't break down whether they were going to YVR as a passenger or worker. The same table had a separate line that showed ~30% of the total Canada Line passengers were using it to commute to/from work.

I'll try to find the report - I think it was 2013.

Agreed, though I do expect both "destinations" to go through. Either way none are daily and on the smaller side of the planes YVR sees. Not changing the underlying point much.

I do wonder if Tanjin will take Tanjin and Hainan will serve Vancouver through Xi'an. It's not the prize that Tanjin(Beijing) is but its a top 10 airport in China not currently served at YVR which Hainan uses as a hub.

YYZ 2015 Full Year Stats
 

http://www.torontopearson.com/en/gtaa/statistics/##

To cap off an incredible year, December had a 4.8% increase over Dec 2014.

YYZ grew 6.4% in 2015. This is an increase of almost 2.5 million passengers compared to 2014.

Not only did YYZ pass 40 million it exceeded 41 million with a final total of 41,036,847.

Domestic was up 4.4% YOY, Transborder up 6.2% and International up 8.9%.

41M - wow.

Final results for the top 5 airports in Canada:

YYZ: 41,036,847 (6.4%)
YVR: 20,315,978 (4.9%)
YUL: 14,303,963 (4.6%)*stats up to November
YYC: 15,475,759 (1.4%)
YEG: 7,280,920 (-0.7%)

#6 YOW had another mediocre year: 4,656,360 (+0.9%) - still 30,000 pax below 2012's record.

That should get surpassed finally in 2016 given this year's abysmal transborder numbers likely won't be nearly as bad in 2016 as a whole and WS' upcoming expanded YHZ and YYZ schedules on the way (they're quietly dropping YOW-YQM at the same time as the YOW-YHZ growth and given 10/12 YOW-YYZ departures will be Q400 [vs current 2/10], also the increased departures should greatly improve their loads with less seats on average per flight to fill up.)

Current YOW-YYZ one-way seats per day vs. expanded schedule: 904 vs. 1035
Current YOW-YHZ/YQM one-way seats per day vs. expanded schedule: 156 vs. 234 (YQM dropped)
Total seats current vs. expanded: 1060 vs 1269
WS YOW Capacity increase on the listed routes: 19.7% (this assumes that WS224/225 YHZ-YOW-YEG remains on the schedule as-is for summer 2016), which so far it is.

Domestic might increase, but there is absolutely no indication that Transborder figures will be better in 2016 than 2015. Quite the contrary actually. The dollar has no sign of going back up and is at its lowest point in years. I would expect YOW to remain stagnant for the foreseeable future, with 1-2% increase/decreases per year, nothing else.

Fantastic growth at Yyz. It pays being a fortress hub, and unlike what you'd think, these hubs attract even more foreign tails.

I actually think transborder when all is said and done for 2016 will be rather stable vs. 2015 at YOW given how outside of Q1 2015, YOW already went through 9 months of big transborder declines. I think YOW can muster 2-3% growth in 2016 for the first time in years with the new domestic capacity and AC using a 333 to FRA for +3 months. 2017 should be a decent year with Canada 150 celebrations centered around the Capital. 2017 will be more than your typical Canada Day weekend rush with events throughout the year including the 100th anniversary outdoor NHL game in December and the Grey Cup in November. If YOW can land Icelandair, WoW, etc. or get FRA back to year-round within the next 2-3 years, international would be pushed up a lot.

YUL *should* pass YYC based on current growth rates. Not by a lot, but enough. Looks like they'll be just over 15.5M (in their rightful 3rd place, if you ask me...).

Considering the size of the two metropolitan areas, one would certainly expect so. I am always amazed that YYC is even close to YUL in numbers.

Compare the US (or Canadian) cities within a day drive of both airports and you will get your answer.
Not to take anything away from Calgary tough, YYC has had incredible growth.

It's also to do with Calgary being the hub for the prairies in terms of air travel. Air Canada and Westjet putting flights there has really helped them (I'm perfectly fine with that, btw). Oh, and Calgary's enormous wealth. I'm sure that helped.

That's exactly it or why Ottawa, which is virtually the same size as Calgary, is at 4.6 million vs. YYC's 15 million. Ottawa's within a day's drive of approx. 100 million people and has the 3rd busiest train station in the country (actually there's two stations within the city), whereas Calgary's in the middle of nowhere and with no rail service, hence, apart from Edmonton, has the need to fly to get just about anywhere of any significance.

Apart from CUN, Calgary's air service is the envy of all cities under 2 million population in North America...or just about anywhere for that matter. It's in the perfect geographic location to be a major regional hub. It's also why YHZ's at 3.7 million - it's been a regional hub for decades and is relatively isolated, despite the city's population being a mere 450k it's pax count is on par with Winnipeg, a city almost double the size and is only about a million pax behind YOW.

<sigh> You guys took the bait. We're all well aware of why their passenger stats are what they are. It's not meant as a slight against YUL, and it's not because Calgary is as economically important (and its citizens 3x more weather than Montrealers) as Montreal that their numbers are virtually equal. But I must say, a little part of me dies every time this same old argument is rolled out.

Just.....let......it......be...... Pretty please?

Hainan Airlines officially announces YYC-PEK, starting June 30th 3x weekly (will increase to 4x weekly come October). Flights to be operated by the 787-8.

http://calgaryherald.com/business/lo...medium=twitter

Edit: I second what cyeg66 posted above. I tire of this argument coming around every now and then. As a YYC spotter I am more jealous of all the different tails YUL gets, so I'm quite happy that we are getting a new one with Hainan.

And quite a nice one with that!

Obviously not everyone
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As long as people ask why, others will answer. As simple as that.

It's not an argument. It's a fact.

Yes there are facts about it all, but people want to make it an argument. I just wanna look at new liveries in my home town. :)

Technically, the poster didn't raise a question but rather made a statement.

Sure.

Point is, he needs to understand that city population has no direct or linear relationship with its airport passenger volume.

it's different for virtually every city/airport pair, from YYC, to YUL, to ATL, to YHZ etc...Due to several factors. So as long as someone doesn't know why that is and is amazed by it, others more in the know will fill them in. And that is the whole point of forums such as these.

Thenoflyzone

Understandably, people on the defensive feel the need to respond. My bad.