Maybe in cabin but on the ground she was loud.

In the front rows, sure.

At the back, not so much.

More amusing was the ‘noise abatement’ procedure from the video where the DC-8 (with Conways) is flying out of Montreal.

WestJet news about the cuts coming for early 2022 was on CBC news. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6300717

It sounds like Flair Airlines is also planning some cuts too according to The Record news article due to Covid-19 pandemic causing them some problems still too https://www.therecord.com/business/2...dule-cuts.html

While Air Canada AC is making some cuts quietly that haven’t end up on the news yet!

Airlines ✈️ are cutting back on flights January- March as it’s not too busy months for travel (except for during Spring Break holiday period) & consolidating through its busiest hubs.

All Canada,US, Europe & Asia major airlines are doing it too!

Plus with the pandemic still on going, not too surprised by it.

WestJet now has 8 787’s & 2 more still to go to complete its 1st 10 firm orders of the Boeing 787 planes ✈️.

They received two more slots for India, valid until the end of IATA winter.

Initially it was 14 slots, then moved to 20, now 22 slots total.

WS only has 6 787s. The other two your thinking of are sitting in storage. They also have another 787 undergoing final assembly currently as well. Boeing still hasn't resumed 787 deliveries yet.

Eastern used to call them 'Whisperjets', lol. On the flight deck, sure. :D

A group of Quebec-based COVIDIOTS chartered a Sunwing 737 to CUN. Video shows multiple CARs violations let alone the unmasked stupidity. WG cancelled the return stranding them…karma. Transport Minister ordering staff to investigate no doubt to compile a long list of criminal offences.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/s...asks-1.5727460

Just saw that not even Transat will bring them back. I hope AC/WS also deny them boarding too, forcing them to take either a US carrier or the bus home.

Sunday, January 8 will be the final day of service for the Dash 8-300 in Jazz / Air Canada Express operations. A quick look online shows that former Dash 8-300 routes such as YYZ-YXU and YYZ-YAM will be operated by a mix of CRJ-100s, CRJ-200s, and Dash 8-400s.

This will also leave the Dash 8-400 as the sole turboprop aircraft covered under the Air Canada Capacity Purchase Agreement... end of an era!

Based on a scan of FlightRadar24, it appears that of the most recently active fleet, C-FACV, C-GHTA and C-GLTA have already been ferried to North Bay for storage with the remainder presumably to follow next week.

Dash 8-300s were the only plane we had for decades! I'll miss the rattly plastic overhead bins and whatever else was rattling.
So grateful to have the q400 flying to and from YCG.

Do you mean Sunday, January 9? Any word on what routes they’ll be flying tomorrow? I would not be surprised if a lot of them get picked up and converted to freighters…or a couple transferred to Voyageur given they’re heading to YYB. Most, if not all the remaining Dash 8 classics had been given the life extension programme so a lot of them have a good 15 years of life left in them.

I checked AC’s summer schedule out of YYZ for the ex-DH3 routes and:
-YYB, YTS & YQG are all CRJ
-YSB, YAM and YXU are all DH4

Out of YUL:
-YXU returns 1x on a DH4
-YUY & YZV are all CRJ
-YQB, YBG, ZBF, YSJ, YFC, YQM, YYG & YGR (big capacity boost) are all DH4

Out of YOW:
-YQB, YFC & YQM are all CRJ
-YYG is 1x DH4 - pre-pandemic it was 2x CRJ
-YUL is all DH4 - used to be a mixed bag of everything from a DH1 to a 320 - they have streamlined the flight numbers
-YOW-YXU is not returning…or at least not this year

The CASM on all these 1 hr or so CRJ flights must be significantly higher than on the DH3s. Still don't understand why they got rid of them, considering there was still plenty of life left in them.

Yes - Sunday, January 9.

Based on what I see on FlightRadar24, it looks like tomorrow's flights will be as follows:

• C-GKTA will operate between CYYZ and CYQG / CYXU / CYTS, with its final segment from CYTS to YYZ arriving at 2000
• C-GEWQ will operate between CYUL and CZBF, with its final segment from CZBF to CYUL arriving at 1016
• C-FTAK will operate between CYYZ and CYQG, with its final segment from CYGQ to CYYZ arriving at 1709
• C-FMDW will operate between CYUL and CYBG, with its final segment from CYBG to CYUL arriving at 1620
• C-FADF will operate between CYYZ and CYXU / CYTS, with its final segment from CYXU to CYYZ arriving at 1835

I'm glad someone posted on this, I was wondering what was happening since I looked at spring/summer scheds and noticed everything was DH8-400s from YVR (they didn't use the CR200s out here at all AFAIK, it was only DH3 or DH4, then of course the CRJ-900 for further flights). I too am surprised they got rid of them. I thought it served a good purpose for the 50-pax markets, that weren't busy enough to sustain the DH4. But I guess they did the math, and lower frequency on larger planes made more sense. On many of the markets that got upgauged from DH3 to DH4, there was a resulting decrease in frequency to compensate (ie. 3x daily to 2x daily).

I've been on them quite a few times from YTS to YYZ. The Dash 8s did have an advantage according to someone I know who worked her career at Air Canada until fairly recently. She told me that the Dash 8 flights were less likely to be cancelled during Winter due to bad weather. She would tell me to avoid the "Q" when heading to YYZ to connect to a vacation destination flight. Never had an issue and took off from Timmins in a couple of snowstorms.

Ya dud several Vancouver and Calgary runs on them. Only 1 hour flights tho so did the job.

I suspect this has more to do with the fact that COVID caused Air Canada to reword the schedule and network from the ground up. They went to a minimum network at the peek of the COVID downturn and over the past year have been rebuilding it back up. As they did that they built up the hub schedules and figured out how to serve the market they wanted with fewer flights.

What is going to be interesting is WestJet is now the airline with the better fleet mix for servicing smaller centers in Canada using the Saab regional flights.

American regional airlines have been retiring 50-seat regional jets en masse because their economics are not great for the number of passengers they carry. They were designed in the 1990s when fuel was exceptionally cheap. I think the Q400 - even at lower loads - is more efficient than a fully loaded CRJ200.

Given that the DH3 fleet has life left in it, they share a common type rating with the Q400 (same pilot pool), they’re reliable under hard conditions, and the CRJ200 offers worse economics, I am not sure what AC is thinking.

I was under the impression that the CRJ200 was mostly kept around for secondary US destinations due to the antipathy for props there.

Not sure about this part. The Classic and Q are quite different and are seperate. I know a few ex-classic dash pilots for Jazz and they never flew the Q.

I stand corrected.

It sounds like Lynx Air will be announcing its 1st Domestic destinations within Canada Soon,where they plan to fly ✈️ to when it starts up sometime 2022. According to their social media post Monday January 10. https://twitter.com/lynx_air/status/...607035396?s=21

With Lynx 1st 3 New Boeing 737Max8 planes based at Calgary Airport & YYC is very likely 1st of the Lynx Domestic destinations of course!

Now we just wait to find out their other few new destinations in Canada.

Sounds like their first destinations will be YYC, YOW, YYZ & YVR. Will be interesting to see if they go point-to-point or hub & spoke. My guess is the latter.

Interesting. Is this your twitter handle by the way (just curious haha!) https://twitter.com/fan_vancouver.

Haha must be ^^^

Yep it is.

Interesting article about the waste of slot squatting in Europe in Canada's Skies Magazine: https://www.wingsmagazine.com/near-e...landing-slots/

^ In a world where we are routinely badgered by e-mail signatures that say "Think Twice Before Printing", that is absolutely nuts. It sort of makes me wonder why I bother hauling out the recycling when you have empty planes flying for no other reason than to keep an airport slot.

Some recycling pollutes more than just throwing it away. Green washing is a thing. But flying planes empty is scandalous.

Air Canada currently has 29 Boeing 787-9 planes✈️ and it looks they have Exercised 3 option orders for 3 new 787-9 planes- 1 to be delivered sometime in 2022 & 2 to be delivered sometime in 2023 according to Wikipedia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_fleet

WG and TS have pulled the plug on all winter 2022 flying out of YXU.

https://lfpress.com/business/local-b...ublic-and-cuba

Old news

Looks like Lynx will be announcing routes tomorrow!

https://twitter.com/Lynx_Air/status/1481749584162426883

YVR, YYC, YYZ, YOW

I was expecting 4 or maybe even 5 routes in total for good utilization of the first three planes. YVR-YYC and YYC-YYZ would have good utilization but I don't see them flying to YOW daily, which isn't really much use of three planes (unless they fly say 2x daily YYC-YVR/YYZ and daily or sub daily YYC-YOW)

If they hub at YYC, they can easily fly YYZ/YVR-YYC 2x daily and YOW-YYC daily and still have slack with 3 aircraft. The 2nd YYC-YYZ could be a red-eye, whereas YOW could be a RON.

We'll find out within the next few hours though the exact details.

YYC finally released October and November stats:

October 2021:
Domestic: 652,359 (+111.8%)
Transborder: 98,179 (+615.7%)
International: 53,853 (568.1%)
October Total: 804,391 (+143.9%)

November 2021:
Domestic: 588,663 (+133.8%) YTD: 1,241,022 (+121.7%)
Transborder: 117,169 (+490.2%) YTD: 454,475 (-42.24%)
International: 79,687 (+585.4%) YTD: 260,917 (-47.43%)
November Total: 785,519 (+159.3%)

2021 Year-to-Date: 5,392,039 (+0.06%)

The Friday January 14 1 -is just a contest to win prizes from them but have to sign up for it by “clicking enter to win” on its website & with 5 days left & Lynx Air announced tickets sales will go on sale on Wednesday January 19,where they’ll officially unveil their 1st Domestic flight routes within Canada.

https://www.flylynx.com/

Great 👍!

Calgary CTV about Lynx Air announcement next week for them.

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/calgar...40621.amp.html

Months ago, I said the most important stats for this year (to tell how the recovery is going) would be to see 2021 passenger numbers over 2020.

Congrats Calgary.:tup:

Super. I entered the contest. :tup:

YTD Domestic is 4,676,647 (+13.9%). 1.2 million is the quarterly tally.

Impressive stuff by YYC, I must say.

Man, WS really needs to get those additional 787s in house to boost those international numbers a bit. YUL handled more international passengers in November (272,000) than YYC did all year until that point.

Yes. Pretty impressive stuff by YYC. They will finish the year well ahead of YUL in terms of overall passenger count. Neither YVR nor YUL will beat their 2020 numbers. By my estimates....

YVR should finish the year with anywhere from 6.7 to 7 million passengers.
YYC around 6 million.
YUL around 5 million.

YYC's domestic powerhouse status is pretty evident in these numbers, and so is the lack thereof for YUL. YTD International numbers - even with suppressed demand- tells a story as well. Somewhat different though.

Intl+transborder

YUL 2,194,637 (until October)
YVR 1,142,081 (until October)
YYC 715,392 (until November)

Intl only

YUL 1,515,022 (until October)
YVR 605,933 (until October)
YYC 260,917 (until November)

China and most of Asia essentially being closed off is really hurting YVR's numbers.

Interesting that YHZ has only a single windebody flight each day (the Eurowings or Condor flights alternate each day except Sunday, when there are no widebody flights out of YHZ). AC used to run widebodies on some YYZ flights, but now it is all 737 Max. The 737 has really been good for YHZ, they are perfect for its use on Transatlantic routes, and allows more destinations than would have been possible when long distances could really only be done on widebodies).

Transborder sevice is still quite limited there though. On July 10th (just chose a Sunday because they tend to get more flights) for example, YHZ had 4 international flights (WS to DUB, LGW, and CDG), as well as AC to LHR. All four of these are on 737 Max.

For transborder, there are two AC flights (to Boston on DH4s), one WS flight to Orlando), and an AA flight to Philadelphia. So four flights total. Was pre-pandemic service more extensive, or is this fairly common? Domestic service seems to be great and improving, but transborder seems lacklustre

Air France just announced a new direct flight between YQB-CDG operated 3x weekly with their A330-200. Very good news after years of rumours. AF won't be alone on that route with Air Transat 3x weekly.

https://corporate.airfrance.com/en/n...ination-canada

Excellent news, and long overdue, in my opinion. Seems to be summer seasonal. Hopefully this service will stick around for a long time to come. And who knows, with Club Med now open at Le Massif, could maybe even go year round, as Quebec City and the surrounding areas have what it takes to be a year round attraction, especially to people from France. This will open up a plethora of one stop options for Quebecers as well.

I'm surprised this hasn't been a constant flight since the invention of the airplane. An Air France flight from France to the most French part of New France.

That's because Dorval airport is taking all the place in this province.

Oh I see.

YYZ-YHZ used to regularly see B763s on AC. With those frames gone, the Max seems a natural fit. The A330s/B787s would be too big on a regular basis. I know AC ran A330s on YUL-YHZ briefly before the pandemic for the lobster, but that didn't last long.

It's the same everywhere. Hub and spoke is the name of the game.

YUL is a hub, YQB is a spoke.
YYC...............YEG
YYZ................YOW

Still, it's nice to see AF go off the beaten path with this route. They ran a bus service between YUL and YQB, so they know very well how many people want to go to YQB. It should be an easy winner. 3x weekly A332 isn't a ton of capacity. Will be interesting to see how TS reacts to this announcement.