They also interline with Icelandic. If they wanted to they could reroute some of the passangers onto Islandic. However, from another post it sounds like they are sending to 737.

They appear to be having nothing but problems with this 767.

Two rescue flight were sent, oddly enough one of them returned to Calgary rather than both going to Edmonton. Maybe that implies a lot of connecting passengers? 258 people on board, not sure if that includes crew but regardless the load was pretty decent. 262 passengers is a full load.

http://avherald.com/h?article=49dd00dd&opt=0

They're a little late, seeing as Newleaf has been around for over a month.

Regarding PEK-YYC

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...as-of-13sep16/

If it's any consolation, the US is even worse. By far the worst customs experience I've had in recent years was on arrival from China at LAX, where the customs line took FOREVER to get through.

I'm unsure that Canada has sufficient population to support a ultra-low-cost carrier. Ryanair moves huge numbers of people at razor-thin margins. Also, Ryanair's destinations tend to be much closer together than many places in Canada.

Also, I'm not sure how much "slack" there is left in the Canadian market. Would dropping airfares 25-50% induce that much more demand for travel within Canada? I'm thinking not - travel is far more expensive than just the airline flight. At best, you'd get the irregular travelers headed for a couple more visits to family and whatnot and a few who would squeeze a bit more of Canadian vacationing in.

Westjet started out as a "low-cost" carrier, then moved upmarket. Perhaps they found the "low-cost" traveler was not as profitable an enterprise as expected? Or that the smallish Canadian travel market was saturated quickly?

I'd be glad to be wrong on this one, but I wouldn't bet my paycheck on it.

I've not flown either Spirit or Ryanair, but the ultra-low-cost shtick doesn't sound as great as it is made out to be. I've rode in a Greyhound, thanks. Sometimes the extra money is worth it, not to mention the security of knowing that your airline will still be in business when you actually travel.

I've flown Ryanair before. It was very cheap, but you get what you paid for.

I think trying the whole alternate airport strategy with ultra low cost might work. You have to really commit though, and just refuse to service places without an airport that has fees below a certain $ per pax, and a certain fixed cost.

I like this 'network' as a starter.
http://i.imgur.com/5J9Gyb6.png
Source: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=yxx-yqf...S=best&RC=navy

Red Deer is expanding its main runway to 7500 ft.

https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...88031813_o.jpg
Source: Red Deer Airport Facebook Page

I loved flying Ryanair and Easyjet all across Europe... I mean if you only pack one carry-on and aren't super needy, there is nothing wrong with it. I've flown from Milan, Italy to Paris for $17 and most of my round-trip flights across Europe were int he $40-$60 range.. The most I ever paid for was $90 round trip from Milan, Italy to Marrekesh, Morocco!

But I do agree, as much as I'd love to see this in Canada, I just don't see it happening. Our population is too low and spread across. Ryanair and Easyjet run on full capacity airplanes and move millions and millions of people around Europe. They also benefit from serving most major cities but from secondary airports (therefore saving on the higher fees and taxes), something that NewLeaf woudn't be able to do as most Canadian cities only have one major airport. So if the company is stuck paying the same fees and taxes as Air Canada and WestJet how is it going to compete by offering fares at 50% or more off? :(

Sure, but we are talking about a city with a population of 100,000. Even if the runway will soon be capable of handling Airbuses and Boeings, not sure YQF can sustain a daily flight to Toronto or Hamilton. Being stuck right in the middle of YEG and YYC is a two-edged sword. It might help, just like it might not.

Even Ryanair realises that the secondary airport strategy can only go so far. In the last few years, they started flying to the main airports across Europe. (BCN, FCO, AMS, MAD. etc)

When people want to go to Barcelona, they want to go to Barcelona, not Girona, located 100 km away. Of course, Ryanair serves both, but as OTSkyline pointed out, the population in Europe is huge. The market is there. You cannot replicate the same thing here in Canada. NewLeaf will soon realise this.

:tup:

About the same distance for Calgary and Edmonton as Frankfurt–Hahn to Frankfurt and Luxembourg. There needs to be a good sized cost advantage to make it work for sure.

On another note, Montreal is experiencing great tourism growth this year, in no small part to the low Canadian dollar vs the US.
That's always good news for YUL.

21% increase from United States.
13% increase from overseas.
17% increase From Germany.
7% increase from Great Britain.
4% increase from “French” Europe (France, Switzerland, Belgium).

Chinese tourism has risen a whopping 197% since last year.

http://www.mtlblog.com/2016/08/montr...ourist-season/

Not necessarily. In addition to the ones already mentioned, another feasible "alternate airport" is Gatineau Airport (YND) for the Ottawa region. At 6000 feet, I don't think its runway is long enough for jet service, but it wouldn't be that hard to expand it a bit to enable 737s to land there.

Between Abbotsford (Vancouver), Red Deer (Edmonton/Calgary), Gatineau (Ottawa), and Hamilton (Toronto), that's a reasonable collection of potential low cost secondary passenger airports for many of Canada's major air markets.

Montreal, Halifax, Winnipeg, and Quebec City, however, do not have viable alternate airport candidates to my knowledge. Although I suppose Montreal **could** be served by YND as well, although the distance means the fare difference would have to be pretty big for that to work.

Montreal has St-Hubert / YHU, on the South Shore, only 15km or so from downtown.

Cool! I had no idea that airport existed.. but it definitely works.

So there's five airports that could be low cost alternatives, that can serve all of Canada's six largest cities.

I have flown in and out of YHU on private aircraft to FBO. It is convenient if your heading to the south shore. There is a lot weird traffic at the airport. The military has operations there. Pratt also some 747 test aircraft based at that airport.

Out of all the "secondary" airports I think it is the most viable.

YUL and YYZ still haven't posted July traffic, ugh so slow!

Did Air Transat just pull the plug on all Western Canada-Europe flights for summer 2017?

http://www.stockhouse.com/news/press...flight-program

No they will still operate the same typical European routes like London, Paris, Frankfurt etc. from Western Canada. These are the more specialized niche routes that have only ever operated out of Montreal or Toronto (Prague, etc.). The connecting flights are so you can book from YVR to Athens, and fly Transat the entire way, connecting in YUL or YYZ