I wouldn't be surprised if Air Transat would react by relaunching their YQB-BOD and YQB-MRS direct flights that they use to fly around 2008 with their A310. Also, from what I recall, TS has codeshare with SNCF TGV train service to 18 cities in France.

It's not the first time TS has competition on this route. Corsair used to fly 3 weekly YQB-ORY with their 747-400 in 2008, the same year they also tried YQB-NTE with their A330.

Direct flights to 5 french airports from YQB might have been a bit too much back then in 2008 when it barely had 1M pax but now things have changed and the terminal has significantly grown 3 years ago. Let's see how YQB's 3 direct routes to Europe will play out.

Also, it hasn't been mentioned in this group but AA decided to accelerate the relaunch of YQB-ORD in may instead of June and TS announced a new flight to Puerto Vallarta, which will compete with Sunwing. As opposed to Cancun, PVR is not yet a popular resort destination in Mexico but I guess things will start to change.

Say what? Or do you mean not popular with people from Quebec City?

I was saying that if there are more Air Transat Vacations and Sunwing Vacations flights and all-inclusive plans available directly from Quebec city, the demand for Puerto Vallarta will probably be higher than if there are no direct flights options.

That makes sense. Previously it sounded like you were saying that PVR in general was an unpopular resort destination.

I do have to say it's quite surprising that there still hasn't been a return of Edmonton flights to Winnipeg or Ottawa. Everything to the east of Saskatchewan is either via Calgary or Toronto still, with a handful of Montreal flights.

Edmonton does have nonstop flights to Winnipeg currently nonstop on WestJet/Swoop & while Edmonton to Ottawa is currently mainly nonstop on Flair Airlines/Air Canada. Yes its still limited but Flair is starting Edmonton to Winnipeg in mid April 2022 & Swoop Edmonton to Ottawa in mid June 2022.

But Swoop/ Flair Airlines has done its job at YEG &
forcing Air Canada to focus more on its Domestic flight routes out of Calgary YYC & AC's 4th busiest hub where there's currently great competition going on between AC, WestJet, Flair & soon Calgary based Lynx Air starting up domestic flights within Canada sometime in 2022.

^ Oh really, when I've looked at YEG-YWG recently, nothing showed up on WJ/AC (maybe it's just Swoop right now?) so maybe it's recent.

I agree that Swoop and Flair have done YEG well, and Westjet has considerable share of YEG traffic. Air Canada truly could not give a shit about Edmonton, though.

Yep & currently it’s only Swoop Airlines operating the Edmonton- Winnipeg route 2x weekly flights ✈️,but Swoop is part of the WestJet Airlines group & I’m not too surprised WS cut YEG - YWG until March 2022.

As it will free up a WestJet Boeing 737 to operate at its 3 busiest Hubs in Calgary, Toronto & Vancouver.

With that the Canada - Paris CDG France flights✈️ this upcoming Spring/Summer 2022.

From Eastern Canada:
Air Canada, Air France & Air Transat doing Toronto & Montreal- Paris
Air Transat / Air France doing Quebec City YQB- Paris

From Western Canada:
Air France Vancouver- Paris & WestJet Calgary-Paris.

There’s also YHZ-CDG on WS scheduled too.

This is the evolution of the number of seats for the YQB-CDG/ORY direct route
https://simpleflying.com/wp-content/...2-1000x619.png

Yep 👍!

WestJet today announced a 20% reduction to its schedule flights ✈️ in February 2022 https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/westjet-c...tage-1.5744383

Both WS and AC cancelling flights. Understandable, I had a friend come back from Portland with just 9 passengers on a Q400.

Canada’s two biggest airlines are cutting thousands of flights as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge.

WestJet Airlines Inc. said Tuesday it will cancel 20 per cent of its February flights, less than three weeks after announcing flight reductions of 15 per cent for January.

The move marks a response to “government barriers” amid the Omicron variant, which has also affected staffing levels, the Calgary-based airline said.

“We continue to advocate for the elimination of cumbersome travel rules that are unnecessarily impacting Canadians and prolonging the recovery of the travel and tourism sector,” chief executive Harry Taylor said in a release.

While Air Canada has not announced major flight consolidations, it has cancelled 15 per cent of its flights in March and 11 per cent in February – 6,805 flights in total – within the last two weeks alone....

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...cron-covid-19/

We’re really working overtime to become absolute shit :haha: From a national capital to this…

https://i.postimg.cc/nhfhMFBk/512-C1...-A2018-D98.jpg

Yep & also Edmonton Based Flair Airlines ✈️ has made some cuts too.
https://www.therecord.com/business/2...e-cuts.html?rf

Lynx Air announces YVR, YYC, YLW, YWG, and YYZ as initial destinations.

Great! Calgary YYC, Vancouver YVR, Toronto YYZ , Winnipeg YWG & Kelowna YLW are pretty safe choices to start up Domestic flights within Canada!

Most of Lynx flights will centre around YYC its main hub where their 1st 3 new Boeing 737Max8 planes ✈️ will be based.

YYC - YVR 7x weekly from April 7 & 14x weekly from May 20
YYC - YYZ 4x weekly from April 11 & 7x weekly from April 18
YYC - YLW 2x weekly from April 15
YYC - YWG 2x weekly from April 19 & 4x weekly from May 5

YVR - YYC from April 7 7x weekly & 14x weekly from May 20
YVR - YLW from April 15 2x weekly
YVR - YWG from April 19 2x weekly
YVR - YYZ from April 28 7x weekly

YYZ - YYC 4x weekly April 11 & 7x weekly from April 18
YYZ - YVR 7x weekly from April 28

YWG- YYC 2x weekly from April 19 & 4x weekly May 5
YWG- YVR 2x weekly from April 19

YLW- YYC 2x weekly from April 15
YLW- YVR 2x weekly from April 15

That’s what Lynx flights schedule for Canada looks like currently, but *changes* to it are possible & were still in a pandemic.


https://www.globenewswire.com/news-r...tinations.html

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/calgar...46140.amp.html

Wow. That's pretty bad. The majority of the fire hall staff have COVID I'm guessing.

It's not really the fault of the airport authority though. It just sucks that it has such a huge repercussion for commercial flights.

So 2 planes based in YYC, 1 based in YVR.

One plane each doing mostly the YYC/YVR-YYZ run, and the third plane (based in YYC) doing everything else. The 2x daily YYC-YVR flight will always be the first and last trip of the day.

If only. Toxic work environment, most of the firefighters are on stress leave and the rest refuse to work. They’ve found some sort of temporary solution and the Feds are embarrassingly heavily involved in telling airport management to get their fucking shit together. The number of people who have to be shit at their job for it to get to this point is truly insane. I can’t even imagine it happening anywhere else. There are people there who, as long as they can get a $1,900 PAL fight to Deer Lake for a weekend at their cabin every year, think they’re the best little airport managers the world ever did see.

This happens here far too often, in everything. The City just finished kicking out its anchor hockey tenant, and leasing the building out from under its biggest-league basketball team in favour of one that plays in a league no one had even heard of. It’s just relentless nepotism, bay politics, on and on. Absolutely exhausting. The CEO of the City’s sports and entertainment corp resigned so hopefully that removes most of the issue.

Yep👍& that’s what the Lynx Air schedules for its 3 new Boeing 737Max 8 planes ✈️ will be doing, when they start up April 2022.

Only F8 is currently flying YEG-YOW and twice weekly at that.

YEG-YOW on AC was supposed to return sometime in March. WS' flight doesn't come back until May 1st. Then there's also W0 starting YEG-YOW on April 25th.

Regarding Canada-Europe, I'll be shocked if everything that's loaded for summer 2022 will actually operate.

Yeah. I just read the CBC article. What a clusterfuck.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfo...sume-1.6320017

Well colour me decieved with that skating rink reference. I thought YOW was in the bag. Swap YEG for YYZ and you pretty much have the early days of WestJet all over again. Not a big deal. They'll be at YOW eventually and better to have less competition at YOW for when Porter announce their jets network where YOW will feature prominently.

Yeah what was the ice skating rink in reference to??

Today at YEG

https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/ima...aIxGGm6IfDUXBY
https://www.linkedin.com/company/edm...2FA30MZQ%3D%3D

Don't know if anybody has been following the chaos over 5G wireless launch in the USA and its effect on airline schedules. Canadian airlines say they won't be effected:


MONTREAL -- Canadian airlines say flights to the U.S. remain unaffected by the rollout of new 5G wireless technology that has sparked blowback from many large carriers.

Several international airlines cancelled flights to the United States this week over concerns that 5G mobile phone service could interfere with aircraft technology.

On Tuesday, telecommunications giants Verizon and AT&T announced last-minute delays to Wednesday's service launch near key U.S. airports -- the third postponement since early December -- after U.S. carriers warned that the wireless frequency could cause widespread flight disruptions.

Critics say the new C-band 5G service operates in a frequency range that could interfere with radio altimeters, which measure an aircraft's height above the ground and help pilots land in low visibility.

Air Canada, WestJet Airlines Inc. and Transat A.T. say no flights to the U.S. have been cancelled due to the issue...

....Emirates president Tim Clark pulled no punches when discussing the issue. He told CNN it was "one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible" situations he'd ever seen as it involved a failure by government, science and industry.

Of particular concern appears to be older Boeing 777 wide-body jetliners. Emirates only flies that model and the Airbus A380 jumbo jet -- and it was among one of the most affected airlines.

Japan's All Nippon Airways cancelled 20 flights to cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration "indicated that radio waves from the 5G wireless service may interfere with aircraft altimeters," the carrier said. Along with Japan Airlines, it said Boeing announced restrictions on airlines flying its 777s....

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/canadian...unch-1.1709997

Wonder if Tim Morgan has had anything to do with the initial route roll out! Would be deja vu for him!

So 18 flights for Vancouver and 15 flights for Calgary initially.

I would not be surprised if WestJet cuts back on Edmonton YEG - Ottawa YOW flight ✈️route this upcoming spring/summer 2022 & let their subsidiary Swoop fly it & this is already happening on Edmonton to Winnipeg YWG routing is currently on Swoop and WestJet cutting back on it until March.

As it will free up a WestJet Boeing 737 to use & operate at its 3 busiest Hubs in Calgary ,Toronto & Vancouver!!

In the case of AC I wonder if this is not an issue for them because the instrumentation on their older aircraft have been upgraded or they simply switch all the US flights to the max and 220s

^ It’s not an issue for AC because they rarely use their 777s on flights to the US. Overflying the US is not an issue.

It seems 18 and 18 for both to me (YYZ ramps up to daily from YYC less than a week later)

It was this on their Twitter feed a couple of weeks ago: "While the weather outside is frightful, we look forward to lacing up our skates to hit one of the world’s largest natural outdoor rinks when we fly to our next destination.
This is our last destination teaser before our BIG announcement soon!"

I guess the canal isn't considered 'natural', while Winnipeg's skate pathway is.

I disagree as it would greatly reduce connectivity to the WS network. Out of YOW, you'll only be able to get to YEG and YXX on Swoop. Also, AC will only fly YEG-YOW once daily this summer instead of the typical pre-pandemic summer seasonal 2x.

Crazy to think that five carriers (well 4 1/2 as W0's essentially a flanker brand) could be on YOW-YEG seasonally by the end of 2022 if Porter announce YOW-YEG on the E95.

https://scontent.fymy1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...yg&oe=6210E44B

https://scontent.fymy1-2.fna.fbcdn.n...gQ&oe=620DFCDC
https://www.facebook.com/Stephane.Gr...grapher/photos

I though the problem applied to avionics on a number of older aircraft. Is it just the 777?

AC has some fairly old A320 series aircraft.

Latest FAA update says pretty much all Boeing and Airbus models are ok.

https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-statements-5g

Doomsday scenario is pretty much done.

The A321 isn't listed in that release, but the following FAA website specifically mentions it, so basically all Boeing and Airbus models are in the clear.

https://www.faa.gov/5g

Nice pics ! YQB has come along way from 15 or so years ago.

Perhaps I am reading this incorrectly. My read of it is there are 13 models of altimerter instruments that have been cleared. The cleared models happen to be installed on all those aircraft. That does not mean all aircraft in each time are clear. I.e. Some 777 with one of these 13 instruments are clear.

The real issue here is all of these reviews and assessments should have happened before the 5G equipment was allowed to be installed not after. The US Government screwed up. That is an ongoing theme these days.

That makes sense, thank you :)

The fact they mention 78% of all the US commercial fleet seems to suggest it's all Boeings and Airbuses.

The balance is probably the CRJs, the E145s, the remaining E170/E190s and everything smaller that might have a rad altimeter.

I didn’t see the A220 cleared by the FAA.

Faro has had regular service in the winter. However this looks to be the first regular service in the summer.

Faro is basically the Algarve region of Portugal. The airport is over run with discount and vacation airlines. It is a major European tourist destination.

https://www.theportugalnews.com/news...d-canada/64700

This should ideally be in the range of the MAX and A321. Wonder if we will also see AC and WS enter the market with smaller aircraft.

:tup:

Always thought they served Faro in the summertime.

Speaking of narrowbody flights from Canada to Europe, Icelandair will resume YUL next summer.

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29...ee-new-routes/

Still no word on YEG though. I'm confident that route will return as well, eventually.
FI has been pushing their Max 8 and 9s all the way to SEA and MCO, and they are extremely happy with the performance of those aircraft.

I don't consider the CSeries an Airbus product....;)

Apparently All CRJ's and A220s got FAA approval last thursday, from my internal BBD source. The FAA press releases don't seem to be too detail oriented....

I didn’t think the MAX had the legs for SEA from Iceland.

Rumors were swirling that they were hunting for A320neos and the XLR as a 757 replacement. Maybe Boeing can come up with a screaming deal and they’ll stay 737. Lord knows the 737 could use the good news.

I am curious if more big mainstream airlines keep with the 737. KLM has gone A320, Air Canada seems to be waffling on committing further to the 737. Otherwise, it seems like a US and discount airline special these days.

^

https://www.visir.is/g/20222211429d/...raegari-thotum

Used google translate.

I saw on airliners.net that YVR-TYO on NH is being transferred back to NRT.

Makes sense I guess. More international connections through NRT, meaning greater transit traffic opportunities.

Was it Haneda till now?