Indeed, when we flew into IAH just a few days ago, there were 2-3 service agents that got on board with cleaning materials, notably after business class had already gotten off. They didn’t hinder the rest of the cabin too much but they were definitely being as expeditious as possible to turn the plane around.

Cleaning while pax are still on board is bad customer service, I'm no snob and don't expect lots of perks when flying, but walking through the aisle while areas are being vacuumed or whatever is not good. Especially for "legacy" carriers who are supposed to be trying to elevate their experience and sell something different than their "low cost" competitors. I've heard United is a pretty bad airline for reputation, generally considered the worst of the big US carriers for sure. I feel like AC is trying to really shed its old reputation and wouldn't do something like clean while customers are deplaning. But you never know

Icelandair plane makes emergency landing in Bagotville due to cracked window

The flight took off in Orlando and was heading to Reykjavik
Verity Stevenson · CBC News ·

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4871543.154004248...bagotville.jpg
An Icelandair plane left Orlando and had to make an emergency landing in Quebec on Friday night, the airline's official said. (Courtesy/Harrison Hove/WUFT News/Radio-Canada)

Harrison Hove watched as the altitude dropped on the live map in the seat in front of him during his flight to Reykjavik Friday evening.

Moments earlier, a ding rang in the airplane and two flight attendants darted to the front. The destination on the map had changed, too, but Hove said no one knew why.

That's when the pilot announced there would be an emergency landing.

"Your mind goes in a billion different directions, like is this a medical emergency? Could we be hijacked? What is going on?" Hove, 34, said over the phone from his hotel room in Saguenay, a city about 200 km north of Quebec City.

...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...Kn0RkXtub_f5K0

YUL September stats are out.

1,727,490 +8.5%

Domestic: 653,251 +3.6%
Transborder: 358,531 +11.0%
International: 715,708 +12.2%

Total international, including transborder: 1,074,239 +11.8%

YTD total: 15,001,245 +6.9% (almost 1 million more than Jan-Sept 2017)

https://www.admtl.com/sites/default/...et_2018_EN.pdf

Rumors AC wants to increase YUL-LIM to daily.

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showp...ostcount=10846

Daily YYZ-LIM-YUL
Daily YUL-LIM-YYZ

With YUL-ALG going mainline, those Rouge 767s need to fly somewhere.

YVR adds it's 25th international carrier WOW.

I wonde if WOW will survive. Their fares are outrageously cheap and they already ditched 5 US routes in the last week. Interesting this is one of the comments they made about the route:

WOW’s expansion to Vancouver also follows that airline’s confirmation that it will end service to three cities in the U.S. Midwest. Flights to Cincinnati and Cleveland will end this month while service from St. Louis will be discontinued in early January.

There also has been speculation that WOW might end its service from two more U.S. airports – Dallas/Fort Worth and New York JFK. WOW is halting service from both cities for its winter schedule, but WOW spokeswoman María Margrét Jóhannsdóttir tells Today in the Sky that the airline has not yet determined whether they’ll return in the spring of 2019.

For now, she points to the Vancouver addition as evidence that WOW intends to keep growing its North American footprint.

“It shows we are not slowing down, although we cancel routes that are not delivering,” Jóhannsdóttir says.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...ia/1684201002/

And also:

Icelandic budget carrier WOW Air announced it will end service to three U.S. cities -- Cincinnati, Cleveland and St. Louis -- by early January. But WOW founder and CEO Skúli Mogensen said it's not a sign of retrenchment for the carrier here. In fact, he said a new North American destination would be announced later this month and that increased frequencies would be added at its bigger U.S. and Canadian markets.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...ia/1684201002/

I think those Icelandic airlines are a bit sketchy, I feel like it could be Primera Air 2.0 I hope that's not the case, having an airline ditch those US destinations and then explicity plug it shows definite optimism. They are also unashemdly calling service such YVR-DUB (via Reykjavik). It's like they aren't even pretending that Iceland is the ultimate destination.

Seems like AC46/47 YYZ-BOM was removed in S19 schedule in tonight's update...

Are you sure? GDS is still showing the flight well into August? Can't see them pulling out of BOM 2 years into the service when expansion into India has been a high priority for AC.

It's no longer listed in AC timetable after Mar 29.

I thought these flights did not deliver for AC? In that case, I wouldn't be surprised if they pull out of BOM.

I'd differentiate between WOW and Icelandair.

The latter has been around since the 1930s and has weathered multiple recessions. It is more a 'full-service' airline than WOW, which is a ULCC. Full-service airlines tend to do better during times when fuel prices are high because they have a higher-yielding customer base to draw from.

WOW has only been around since 2012. They've had a huge growth spurt, but when they looked for investors recently, they revealed they were losing money. The ULCC long-haul model is very sensitive to fuel prices as fuel makes up close to 50% of operating costs and they serve a clientele that is price-sensitive.

I suspect each airline will certainly be pausing their growth for multiple reasons - fuel prices, congestion at Keflavik airport and the USD: Icelandic krona exchange.

FI is also a really decent airline to fly on. All of my flights were enjoyable and on par with many more expensive carriers.

It's definitely cheap for a reason.

This summer I was boarding an Icelandair flight at Reykjavik and the terminal next to mine was a WOW flight headed to San Francisco. Both flights were using similarly-sized Boeings but the biggest difference was that we had roughly five Icelandair staff to check in our flight and WOW had one staffer manning the check-in gate. They started a good thirty minutes before our boarding and ended sometime after. You get what you pay for.

Icelandair is one of the better carriers i've ever flown with, IMO. Flawless from start to finish. Similar to what wave said they're not even in the same league and would be best to be separated from being in the same category.

Wow never thought Toronto would lose a major international flight between two big cities.

Sorry I shouldn't have lumped them together, I really meant just WOW. Even though both rely on lots of connecting pax, WOW seems to really really be pushing the advertising around it's other destinations rather than Iceland at all. I hope they stick around but will be interesting to see if they do.

The BOM removal seems very odd, they just promoted the destination on their (AC's) Instagram story and other places. I wonder if they are just switching times/aircraft?

AC is adding YUL-RDU next summer


Could still be winter-seasonal.

Great add ! 151st non stop destination from YUL ! Was one of the largest unserved markets from YUL to the US, along with SEA, MSY and Hawaii. MSY should be next.

This flight is timed perfectly to connect with the European flights out of YUL.

On a side note, YYZ-RDU/CLT are getting upgauged from CRJ2 to E175.

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/inde...03&item=138462

I wonder if Air India might be taking over the BOM route? They are *Alliance as well, maybe that is why AC removed it? Would also free up an extra plane. Who knows though, ah this forum needs an airline executive to spill the tea!

I've seen this a few times in the last couple months but on the larger planes (737)...not the regional ones