Originally Posted by thewave46 (Post 9489278)

You could make a list of each airport's hits and misses (add to my list if you want):

YYT:
Pros: Closest to Europe, can easily be done on a narrowbody. Main airport for most of Newfoundland. No other hubs nearby.
Cons: At its most generous, it serves ~500,000 people (likely closer to 350,000 realistically). There's not tons of business traffic, so heavy leisure orientation.

YHZ:
Pros: Close to Europe, can be done on a narrowbody. A larger city (~400,000) plus a catchment area of hundreds of thousands more within a reasonable distance (~4hrs by car). Largest airport in Atlantic Canada, so things tend to be centralized there.
Cons: There's not many, but the dispersed nature of the larger region doesn't help compared to YOW/YWG/YEG.

YOW:
Pros: Doable to Europe on a specialized narrowbody now (A321LR/XLR). Large population centre (1.5-2m in region). National Capital means large numbers of international flyers with various embassies/staff.
Cons: Close to Montreal, quick hop to Toronto, both much larger hubs. Relative parsimony/small nature of Canadian government on world stage means that government traffic generally goes to a couple of places in Europe (London/connect in Frankfurt), so those holding their breath for a huge numbers of overseas destinations will probably be disappointed.

YWG:
Pros: The only game in town, unless you want to drive to Minneapolis six hours away. Most of the travel to/from Winnipeg is probably air travel, as it is one of the more isolated cities in North America for its size. Reasonably large regional population (~1m)
Cons: Not a huge tourist/business destination. Need to use a widebody aircraft for reliable service, which means you need to fill it with more passengers.

YEG:
Pros: It's a region with a large population (~2m). It does have some significant business connections. Some tourism potential.
Cons: Calgary, which hits the tourism and business angle better, whereas Edmonton is more government focused. You need to fill a widebody to go intercontinental and that's easier to do by connecting passengers in Calgary. The other airline in this country uses Calgary as its main hub. Did I mention Calgary? Vancouver provides better trans-Pacific connections.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker (Post 9487902)

That one was always too expensive anyway - I assume mostly used for business rather than tourism. The Dublin direct was the only accessible option for most of us, with easy connections - you could take RyanAir almost anywhere in Europe for pocket change once you got there. We just need some fresh blood and vision on the airport authority, people with more on their minds than parking. We know we can support one affordable connection - that flight was doing fine - we just didn’t compete at all against YHZ’s lobbying/incentives. I don’t think people here considered them competition - there was a taking for granted because Toronto and Montreal already had every sort of flight, so there’s nowhere for ours to go.

I think something will come back. People got attached fast. Politicians and boards of trade haven’t shut up about the impact of losing it here, and there’s a lot of pressure on YYT to wake up.

And the boys have arrived safely in Malaga. They did Air Canada St. John’s - Toronto - London Heathrow. And Easyjet London Gatwick - Malaga. I suspect Malaga would’ve been a three-leg trip even if they could’ve made it in half the time with a St. John’s - Anywhere East option.

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly (Post 9490101)

The Dublin flight was good at its inception, but before it god the axe it was no longer cheap like it once was. At that point there weren't many more advantages over flying direct into Heathrow unless you were specifically looking to stay in Dublin. When the route first launched it was an insanely good price, probably too good to keep up.

YYT needs fresh blood and a new vision. They've done a good job of renovating and expanding the airport, it actually feels like an airport now. Before the expansion YYT was basically a cube where flights came and went, heaven forbid if you want to get food or a drink while you were there. But it's all for nothing if it's just an airport for flights to and from Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax.

I'm not sure how heavily the airport authority, or the provincial government, would have to subsidize new international flight routes to places like London, New York/New Jersey, or Boston. Air Canada or West Jet won't do it on their own, spokes like YYT aren't worth it for them.

Originally Posted by thewave46 (Post 9490133)

Cheap overseas flights to leisure destinations aren’t necessarily sustainable, even though they may be popular initially. If passengers flee (or are willing to put up with much longer flights through a bigger hub in exchange for cheaper tickets) as soon as the price creeps up, it is a dead duck. Losing money on each passenger with the mythical hope to make it up on volume didn’t work for Norwegian Long Haul.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker (Post 9490144)

It did get more expensive, but it was still affordable to me (IIRC, last time I checked years ago to see if I could swing a long weekend in Europe on shorter notice, it would’ve been a little over $900 on WJ and over $2K on AC to LHR) - and I do want to note WestJet said it was their most successful route launch ever, and that passenger numbers continued to increase up until it was moved out of YYT.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker (Post 9490177)

Yeah westbound connections aren’t as irritating. It’s all the same general direction. I wouldn’t hesitate to, say, book a cheaper flight to TBay through WPG over a more direct one through TO. Now half a continent would be a bit much. I wouldn’t fly into Vancouver to connect to Saskatoon whatever the cost haha.

Originally Posted by esquire (Post 9490194)

I don't mind the doubling back connections where the travel times and costs make it more appealing than a more direct route. I've connected in Toronto on Asia/Australia flights and in Vancouver on Europe flights. If I were a business traveler I wouldn't do it but on a leisure trip I can handle it if it saves me enough money.

However, I can see why it's extra painful for someone in St. John's given that it basically doubles the trip length on a flight to Europe.

Originally Posted by thewave46 (Post 9490204)

For a couple of hours difference I can see the argument. My guess is that Westjet figured they were not making enough on YYT to Dublin and decided to funnel everybody via Halifax. It sucks, but it is not backtracking to Pearson awful.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker (Post 9490208)

I’m getting déjà vu with that suggestion and for some reason in my mind I recall AL hinting they wanted to expand in North America (obviously not specifically thinking about us, if at all) IIRC there was some convo either IRL or here about the exorbitant public funding they wanted (far beyond our ability).

Originally Posted by thewave46 (Post 9490239)

Well my friend, it sounds like you are up a certain kind of creek that you don’t want to try swimming back to shore in.

Originally Posted by thewave46 (Post 9489278)

YHZ:
Pros: Close to Europe, can be done on a narrowbody. A larger city (~400,000) plus a catchment area of hundreds of thousands more within a reasonable distance (~4hrs by car). Largest airport in Atlantic Canada, so things tend to be centralized there.

Originally Posted by JakeLRS (Post 9489980)

Unfortunately, they'll be flying from YYZ and offering sun routes, probably florida (like sunwing).

Originally Posted by casper (Post 9490007)

I don't think that is where the Ottawa slot was allocated.

Historically Air Canada has had three slots that work from a timing perspective for Western Canada. Calgary and Vancouver each with one daily. The third slot has been used for a second daily to Vancouver some years. In the past it was put on Edmonton. Some years it has been split between the three. Way back in the 90s I think it was used on Winnipeg for a few days a year.

Was the Ottawa slot not re-allocated to Montreal?