Yeah, you clearly said "metro".

I had to look up where most of those airports are. The only one that makes sense is YVR, and maybe YEG. Why is Canada so weird with our airport codes? In europe even small airports are easy (eg: Ostersund, SWE is OSD)

YEG-YYJ, YEG-YLW

Great to see these guys for both business and pleasure.

And once again, YWG is left out of any enhancement/expansion plans.

Good. That’s how you learn.

For obvious reasons that have been discussed extensively on SSP. No different than what is happening at YOW, YQB or YHZ.

the Hello Kitty/Sanrio EVA AIR, plane came to YVR

• Video Link

OK. Gatineau included with Ottawa. Must be from this table? 353K out of 1.3M report using French as the language spoken most often at home.

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-re...NAMEE=&VNAMEF=

YVR posted May stats. Traffic up 7.9% led by double digit increases in Asia Pacific, Europe, and our favourite "Misc." Five months in and YTD traffic up 8.8%. YUL is up 6.2% and YYC up 5.9%. For categories, YVR is highest for domestic (+7%), international non-US (+14%), international including US (+10.6%), and overall. YUL highest for transborder (+8.8%). Great rersults for all airports, heading into the summer season strong results for the first 5 months for sure.

Speaking of busy, some bad publicity for YVR in the news:

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanco...ay-2018-crowds

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come but I'm thinking it might be. YVR had a very benign response to the obvious issue, just saying it was working with partners to help the crowding blah blah blah... All of the international expansion and the customs hall is the same size. The self serve machines were supposed to help speed things up but if this scene is anything to judge by (HOPEFULLY NOT), they have work to do... The security and CBSA issues are the #1 complaint for almost all major Canadian airports. All other aspects are decent or really good, but the f&^*(&** border and security staff and processes are terrible and our biggest black eye for sure!!

Reminds me of this at YUL two years ago. The guy who took the pic is waiting in line, as it continues upstairs as well.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.3755434.147344536...au-airport.JPG

How many Primary inspection Kiosks (PIK) does YVR have at customs?

As mentioned, YUL had similar issues two years ago, but ADM invested $14.2 million to improve the situation, including reorganizing the customs area, the purchase of more PIKs (around 100 now in use), the addition of a connections centre (which is being expanded this year) and the addition of a team dedicated to facilitating passenger flow.

Seems YVR should look into similar solutions. More PIKs should be easy enough. They designed the damn thing !

http://montrealgazette.com/business/...rudeau-airport

http://montrealgazette.com/business/...nal-travellers

P.S YUL's customs hall looks more spacious and inviting that YVR's. The low ceilings dont help. Just sayin'. As for the lineup for a taxi, YUL has the same issue. You can end up waiting for 30-45 mins for a taxi. The design needs to improve here as well.

Indeed. You've lived in this region before (based on your posts), so surely you're not surprised that close to a third of its population is francophone? I mean, decent-sized swathes of the metro are almost entirely francophone. :yes:

I don't see any PIKS in that photo. Is that pre-kiosk?

YVR had issues last canada day even with the PIKs.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DhH5xC5UYAAjOLy.jpg

chris wren on twitter


For those, not familiar with YVR, there are separate lines for foreigners and canadians running thru the centre. I normally take the nexus line, far left area with the low celings. Nexus seems to be getting slammed, although the set up is awkward to begin with and when i go thru, half the kiosks are out of service..

Lol, this is where someone needs to post a YYC customs hall pic showing 5-10 people in line and a red-and-white Stetson wearing octogenarian.:haha:

I'm not sure how many PIK's YVR has, but there should be a lot. Maybe it's just the amount of foreign passports? And the US-transfer passengers aren't even in this crowd, they bypass this whole thing. They cannot have this repeat often, it is the #1 complain people will have. If anyone ever checks out Skytrax reviews (which I don't do much because it is almost entirely just people venting and complaining), but the complaints about almost all airports is the long lines at customs and security (and rude staff)

There's probably at least 100, if not 200 of them... When I was there a couple of months ago, the main issue was there's only one line leading to the kiosks... so there are pretty much always some empty ones available but people can't walk fast enough to fill them from that single line. And also the line after the kiosk got backed up into the kiosk area as the custom (mostly for foreign passports) cannot clear them fast enough.

WestJet pulling out of Sudbury (again)

https://www.northernontariobusiness....october-975207

If that's the case, then a simple reorganization of the customs area and some more staff to guide the passengers and keep them moving is all that is needed.

It sucks, but Westjet was the most likely to be squeezed out, given the small market and 3 competitors.

Porter (usually) has lower prices due to being a smaller airline and smaller footprint covering eastern Canada and the northeastern US.

Air Canada can connect one basically anywhere in the world, which is advantageous to business travelers.

Westjet is caught in the middle - good coverage of Canada, the US and sun destinations, but limited beyond.

The other factor may be that Westjet wants to use the gates in Toronto for something else. I'm not sure if Terminal 3 @ YYZ has a dedicated area for regional flights though.

WestJet had applied for international service through codeshare to the following country:

Chile
Brazil
Australia
Vietnam
Tunisia
Thailand
Peru
Morocco
Israel
India
Egypt
Colombia
Algeria

Maybe this gives a clue of potential 787 destinations?


https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/decisions

The only time I ever had to go through customs at YVR was quite a few years ago on Remembrance day. I got to the customs area, went to get my luggage and it just hit 11 am and they turned the luggage thing off for a minute of silence, they stopped doing everything for that minute which was fine. Then they never turned the baggage thing back on for a good 10-15 minutes. People were starting to get angry and finally, someone realized they forgot to turn it back on and still had to wait a bit but was kind of a bad impression.

What YVR needs to do in set something up on the overhead walkway for international to domestic transfer passengers. Automatically transfer the bags and pull those passengers out of the queue down below. Do what happens in Toronto Terminal 1 today. I think Montreal is also doing the same thing.

The other thing that is interesting is Cage mentioned that the old customs hall is still physically existing but is not being used. They need to look at forcing Canadian boarder control to look at reactivating that hall. If they are able to do that that would lest WestJet handle some of their international passengers in a separate hall and improve how the use swing gates.