An extra $34 on your int'l air ticket, courtesy of the federal government:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fed...2023-1.6792507

The news report is poorly written.

It says an extra 32.85%. That means the new charge is $34 instead of $29.51. So an extra $ 4.49. For overseas flights.

Domestic and trans-border tickets are cheaper. Here is the current rate structure.....

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-age...tsc-rates.html

For most of the month of May, AC have scheduled the 77L on YVR-YOW. YOW has never had 777 service before beyond one-off subs here and there.

YYC February 2023 stats:

Domestic: 788,360 +57.2% YTD: 1,601,582 +63.95%
Transborder: 226,197 +93.6% YTD: 448,939 +111.4%
International: 175,866 +118.2% YTD: 366,000 +124.1%
February total: 1,190,423 +70.3%

2023 YTD: 2,416,521 +78.7%

Compared to 2019, all three areas are down.

Porter is increasing Ottawa - Charlottetown to 11x weekly and up to 14x weekly in peak summer before the route even begins due to strong bookings.

Definitely helps that AC isn't resuming the seasonal route this summer.

Porter News Release

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230330-pdp3

Porter Airlines Canada Limited and Porter Airlines Inc.

What's that about? Different IATA codes, PD vs P3.

https://www.iata.org/en/publications...s/code-search/

Wonder if this is related to the lawsuit they faced? A lot of the Q400 flights seem to have switched to P3, based on that aeroroutes article.

I believe it was Dominion301 who caught this back in the YOW forum a few months ago that Porter's Q400 operation is under a different legal operating name/certificate than its E295 operation.

The website does not show YUL-YHZ which is operated by a Q400 though.

Written with a purpose - a hike of $4.49 would not be newsworthy.

Correct. From what I can tell the DH4 ops are a separate company like Encore is to WS.

Speaking of Encore, I caught a Q landing at YOW a few days ago. Might be the last time I see one in the east.

Pretty amazing to hear PD are doubling capacity before the route even starts and even more so with F8 also on the route.

Another YOW increase on top of the temporary 77L and restoration of YEG-YOW to year-round. AC are now showing with the start of the winter schedule YYC-YOW increasing back to 2x daily with both flights showing upgauged to 7M8s.

YEG

The 'cargo gateway to the north and beyond'

https://www.internationalairportrevi...ca-and-beyond/

Flair update summer schedule again, looks like they will be wetleasing an A320 and fleet reduction of 3 planes.

F8 642-645 (2x daily YYZ-YWG) will be operated by A320.

Whose 320 would this be? Jetlines?

A few other routes with timing and operation day adjustments, with no change in frequency (from my previous post about Flair) except:
YYZ-YWG 18->14
YYZ-YXE 3->4

Comparison of weekly departures for each major airport after the schedule reduction:
YYZ 126->106
YYC 108->95
YVR 106->93
YEG 100->79
YXX 52->36
YWG 50->44
YHZ 42->43
YKF 41->39
YOW 34->28

Comparison of S22 with S23:
YVR 79->93
YYZ 76->106
YEG 66->79
YYC 62->95
YKF 35->39
YXX 34->36
YHZ 31->43
YUL 29->22
YWG 27->44
YOW 23->28

(I had to go quite far down the list to include stats for the smallest base YOW)

So YYC becomes their second largest base?

Since the announcement of daily YYC-YXE, YYC/YVR are always within 2 weekly flights of each other.

But if "largest" is determined by how many planes... then no. YVR and YYZ tied for largest base, assuming the A320 is wet-leased. YVR actually gained a plane after the cut (at the expense of YXX).

If this isn't world-class iconic, I am not sure what is.

https://flyeia.com/corporate/media/n...verine-statue/

No doubt done in collaboration with WestJet. ;)

Some additional WS S23 changes:

YYC-YQM increased to 5x weekly, season extended to Oct. 26.
YYZ-LGA decreased to 6x weekly (no Saturday flight now).

Flair is all over the place, I am not sure why they think going up against Westjet in YYC is a good idea, I feel like that might me the nail in their coffin. Also Lynx is based there, so even more competition. I know AC cut a big amount of domestic flying from YYC, so there is spillover demand, but I feel like WS will force them out, they want to control the Alberta market. And really think about it, WS managed to bring Air Canada down in YYC after decades of trying. And AC is massive, and they held on for years even after it was clear WS was gaining more and more market share out of YYC. But finally AC kind of admitted defeat in the western regional war, and retrenched out east. If WS can do that to the likes of Air Canada, Flair is a cake walk, they are basically bringing themselves down already.

YVR is definitely struggling with international (specifically China), the loss of that market has been horrendous. There's been so many good gains (new routes, airlines, etc.) but they aren't huge traffic numbers, they are more almost trophy routes (ie. Fiji Airways). So despite new additions, it isn't enough to make up for the loss of flights to China. One day maybe, but the airport is noticeably less Chinese driven lately. The good news is that transborder is doing well, evidence I'd say of Air Canada's recent transborder additions and aircraft up gauges. The 737 Max has really been a good aircraft for YVR, especially from AC.

Came across this at the rents tonight. Would it be the inaugural tour of the 747 at YYZ for AC? My father was a weather-guy there.

https://cdn.skyrisecities.com/forum/...68-jpg.465908/

I don't think the YYC fight alone will be what kills them but what confuses me is that Flair attempted YYC-LAS prepandemic and it didn't work out for them at all... it was kind of a haphazard operation and they pulled out. Those were much more favorable conditions - now there's Lynx who by virtue of not trying to take over the world like Flair have built up a nice reputation locally with strong OTP. Further, WS in 2023 is obviously more aggressive in defence of transborder from YYC than they would have been prepandemic. WS is also #1 in transborder LF... while F8's transborder load factors mostly unopposed from YEG are garbage.

I'll see how this plays out but I'm not fully understanding the strategy.