In regards to YYZ/YUL-FCO.
The route operates from both cites until the first week of January and will resume February 28th 2019. So it’s not really a change.
Only MXP goes seasonal.

Regarding FCO, that has always been the case iirc. This was the first year they tried MXP year round, evidently it wasn't overly successful. Not to mention next year will have air Italy on the route, it would have been a blood bath.

WS adding summer seasonal YXU-YUL Encore service.

WS3438 YXU 10:20 - 11:45 YUL Daily DH1 (Starting June 24)
WS3439 YUL 12:15 - 13:49 YXU Daily DH1 (Starting June 24)

http://westjet.mediaroom.com/2019-02...N-and-Montreal

Nice! I was thinking about a trip to NZ for next winter, so I'm quite glad that AC has decided to start the route. I prefer transiting via Canada over the US too.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7893/...9df1616b_m.jpg

Adding Saskatchewan's two letter abbreviation SK in front of Saskatoon's airport code YXE is annoying and desperate? ...most people that use Skyxe are more annoyed about the fact you can uber to the airport, but the airport doesn't allow uber pick up at airport to maintain taxi company's monoploy at Skyxe...

I'd hate to see how you'd feel then about airport branding for Phoenix's airport code PHX (Sky Harbour International) or Seattle-Tacoma's SEA ( Sea-Tac International). They use extra letter's as well for airport branding, PHX even uses the word Sky like Saskatoon does.

Saskatoon's airport is still called John G. Diefenbaker International but no one there ever says they are going to 'Diefenbaker' to catch a flight the same way that people say they are going to Pearson or Heathrow to fly. Probably because Diefenbaker is most usually referenced to city's biggest park, or the largest lake in Southern Saskatchewan. Also the fact Prime Minister Diefenbaker wasn't much for Canadian aviation, killing the Avro Arrow half century ago.

I do like the irony of the Star Phoenix newspaper satirist referenced, Phil Tank's twitter handle is after all @thinktankSK :rolleyes:

So something that I've been wondering about is why there seems to have been so little air traffic from London ON and southwest Ontario generally to date. Do most people go to either Pearson or the US, or travel by car/bus/train to their destinations? When I lived in KW, going to Pearson was a real pain given how unpredictable the 401 would be. Sometimes you were there in an hour, and sometimes it took 3 if there was an accident. I can only imagine how much worse it would be if you were starting out in London or somewhere further like that. Not to mention how expensive getting to Pearson was! (~$100 / trip using a private car back in 2009).

Given the population levels, it just seems surprising that the passenger levels are so low relative to other parts of the country.

Interested in peoples' thoughts.

There are 10 departures from London to Pearson on Dash 8-100s and Q400s daily on both Westjet and Air Canada.

I'm not sure how the price differential works out as compared to parking at Pearson, though. For a single traveller, flying from London and connecting at Pearson is probably the better deal. If you're taking a family, parking at Pearson is probably the cheaper option than buying tickets for 4.

Keep in mind that Windsorites can simply drive across the border to travel in the US via DTW airport and Londoners also can head to Hamilton for flights from there.

Westjet takes on Air Canada over London-to-Montreal route

Third announcement of new service this year for London International Airport

CBC News · Posted: Feb 26, 2019

WestJet will be offering direct flights between London and Montreal starting on June 24 of this year.

The airline will provide the seasonal service through its regional carrier, Encore until Oct. 15.

"We continue to see robust use of our service between Montreal and Toronto and are aware that many of these guests travel to and from London," said Brian Znotins, WestJet's vice-president network planning and alliances in a media release Tuesday.

WestJet will compete with Air Canada for the route. Air Canada began daily year-round flights between the two cities last summer.

...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/londo...real-1.5033883

I give it a year...

Now official.

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2019...Brazil-Flights

Truly amazing stuff happening at YUL.

AC is clearly counting on O&D and Canada/Europe connections to make this flight work. Unfortunately the arrival time back in YUL is too late to connect with the Asian departures, including NRT. But as I said, better this than to leave a plane sitting in GRU for 10+hours.

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2019...from-Vancouver

AC/NZ want to establish a joint venture. Considering they will be the only 2 carriers operating between the two countries (and will therefore have a monopoly), wonder if it will get approved.

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2019...o-from-Toronto

Also, YYZ-HNL converts to mainline, 3x weekly

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2019...o-and-Honolulu

WS knows exactly how many passengers on YUL-YYZ connect onto YXU. So one would think the route should work, as they should have done their homework on this.

Then again, they canceled YUL-YQB and YUL-BOS, and one would have thought they did their homework on those routes as well. So at this point, who knows if the route will last....

So...

last month, according to the following article, AC let it slip about future flights to New Zealand and South America, which have now materialized.

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29...ts-challenges/

As I highlighted, they also mention sub-saharan Africa in there as well.

Obviously there is now a lack of long haul frames, even in winter, but the speculation is nonetheless interesting.

YYZ-JNB/LOS/ACC & YUL-DSS (Dakar) are all plausible, and were identified in their 2015 investor day presentation as potential routes. (p. 37)

https://www.aircanada.com/content/da...r_day_2015.pdf

Of note, YVR-AKL was identified on there as well. So the map is still very relevant.

Air Canada flight to India turns back after Pakistan closes airspace

Airline has temporarily suspended service to India
CBC News · Posted: Feb 27, 2019

https://i.cbc.ca/1.5035653.155128794...urned-back.jpg
Air Canada's flight to Delhi made it across the Atlantic Ocean, before turning back to Toronto on Wednesday. (CBC)

An Air Canada flight from Toronto to Delhi turned back over Europe today when the Pakistani government decided to close its airspace amid heightened tensions with India.

The flight departed from Toronto at 9:39 p.m. ET Tuesday and has been in the air for more than 12 hours. It had already crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was flying over Europe when it turned around.

Air Canada also cancelled a Delhi-bound flight from Vancouver and has temporarily suspended service to India, a spokesperson said in an email.

The airline said it is monitoring the situation and will resume service "once the situation normalizes and we determine it is safe to do so."

...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...NGoLlTHlzVWsx8

I removed them from the list and whitelisted that change. Thanks!

It seems harder to look for winter changes compare to summer, as it seems like the service fluctuates throughout the season...

Did some number crunching, and in percentage terms, YXU's growth will be huge this summer, especially considering, AC and WS are limiting their domestic capacity.

http://westernaviationnews.com/2019/...rport-in-2019/

Sounds like YEG is getting a direct ORD back... very, very good news if true.

AC adding AKL seems like kind of a waste of a frame, not sure why they are doing it. Air NZ already flies daily in the winter with AC codeshared, so I feel like they will reduce their flying because of this, which is a big negative. Maybe not, but still the announcement isn't groundbreaking when they already-codeshare on a daily flight. This basically goes from 7 to 11 weekly, so not anything news-worthy IMO.

Sadly I also feel like this announcement shows AC isn't going to pursue any new or exciting routes from YVR, it's going to be more piggybacking on routes already operated by existing *Alliance carriers (Taipei, Auckland, Frankfurt, Zurich) or routes already operated by other airlines (Paris). The Australian cities are basically covered now (except for Perth which I'm not sure is even considered), as is Europe (maybe Amsterdam as an addition, but even then it is already operated by KLM).

The economics of flights to South America and SE Asia must be horrendous, AC couldn't make RIO work, and has waffled with the SCL and EZE pairing quite a bit (it is the only 3 city international pairing in their network AFAIK, after they tried non-stop to both). Even using Rouge for Peru flights after all this time shows so sketchiness.

And for SE Asia, I still don't understand how there isn't a single non-stop route to BKK, it boggles the mind, as it is one of the biggest destinations in the world. I know travel there isn't as much from NA as it is from Europe, but still, not one flight? And it's not like it's close for Europeans either, it is an 11.5 hour flight from London, so pretty long haul, and heavily leisure too. So to have no links from NA whatsoever is bizarre, tourist-oriented or not...

Since the AC YVR-AKL flight is winter seasonal, AC might be getting some use out of a 787 that would be used less during the low season anyway. Since it's only 3/wk, they only need one frame.

Air New Zealand is having some problems with the Rolls-Royce engines on their 787s, so they get a bit of breathing room for their long-haul fleet during peak season for them.

I'm not sure the joint venture thing will be approved though - AC and NZ have a monopoly on the route.

It said 4 times a week, not 3, but still. I wonder if the acceptance of the JV will dictate if the route stays, or if NZ will withdraw from service and just let AC have it? And if the JV doesn't go through, will the AC added capacity cause NZ to draw back. That would be sad to lose them as a carrier, just to get another AC dreamliner on it.

And I wonder how many US bound pax would use it and why, it is out of the way for literally any US city except Anchorage to fly thru YVR. Same with the Australia flights, they brand it as a NYC option all over the place, but that routing makes no sense at all from a distance or time standpoint when they can go thru LAX or SFO?

That's the key. Why go through LAX when you got other choices?