I was thinking "easier" in terms of making the economics work... but yeah, if the demand is high enough then it could work even if it isn't a cheap airport to fly in and out of.

YVR for May

2,186,452 +1.8%

YTD 10,291,198 +2.8%

Ahh thoughts? I’m curious to see YUL for May..

TS last A310 flight is tentatively sheduled for 27 April 2020. By the time this deal is approved and AC comes in, the A310s will already be gone.

It will most likely be "date of hire", same as with AC/CP merger.

You should see the lovely rhetoric already posted on avcanada by AC/TS pilots. I'm preparing the popcorn. :deal:

So pretty much the retirement of all DH8-100 and DH8-300's? I see a lot of Q400's in this list.

Yes thats what i was thinking. Everyone except Castlegar is on that list so any Dash 8-300 fan can come here and get their spotting on lol!

They haven’t been retired yet, but all the DH1s fly exclusively out of YYZ now and all but about 3 DH3s are in the east as well.

Travellers slam Swoop after nearly 2 dozen delayed or cancelled flights


'It would be great if they were reliable and had some customer support, but no'
Dan Taekema · CBC News · July 8, 2019

Passengers planning to take Swoop flights from airports across Canada and Florida have been left scrambling after the low-cost airline delayed or cancelled nearly two dozen trips because of maintenance issues.

The WestJet Airlines subsidiary said 11 of its flights were cancelled on July 7 and 8, including trips from Hamilton, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

The cancellations, which began on July 5, will continue for next two days. July 9 trips from Hamilton, Halifax and London, Ont. and July 10 trips from Hamilton, Winnipeg and Edmonton have also been grounded.

The airline blamed unscheduled maintenance on one of its aircraft.

"Safety is our number one priority and we sincerely apologize to our travellers for the interruption in their plans," said Swoop spokesperson Karen McIsaac in an email to CBC News.

"We know how disruptive it is when travel doesn't go as planned, and we're sorry for the inconvenience and disappointment this has caused."

...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...dale-1.5203982

missed this just heard about it today

Boeing admits falsifying documents of Air Canada Dreamliner?

CLÉMENT CHARPENTREAU

Among the reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is starting to investigate the production of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a specific manufacturing incident involving the aircraft has come to light. Boeing seemingly admitted that some documents regarding a Dreamliner sold to Air Canada had been falsified. That same plane experienced an oil leak, after ten months of service.

On June 29, 2019, Boeing sent a statement to CBC News where it admitted the falsification of several certificates of the 787 Dreamliner, registered C-GHPQ, which was the first to be delivered to Air Canada. After only ten months of service, the aircraft was affected by an incident.

On February 10, 2015, the Air Canada Boeing 787 registered was performing flight AC-3 from Vancouver, Canada to Tokyo Narita, Japan, when "the pilot [received] oil indicators from one of the engines," according to Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick. The plane diverted to Anchorage, Alaska, and a new aircraft was dispatched to take the passengers to Narita.

...

https://www.aerotime.aero/clement.ch...ada-dreamliner

see also: Seattle Times: DOJ's Boeing investigation expands to 787 Dreamliner

Caroline Kelly
By Caroline Kelly, CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/polit...ner/index.html

Some idiot threw coins to one of the engines. As a result, the idiot is responsible for all of the recent cancellations.

The fleet isn’t huge (I think under 10 aircraft?) so when one of the frames goes inop, the ripple effect is huge. With the Max fleet grounded, WS can’t even be expected to pick up the slack because it needs all available frames for its own ops.

Gander International
 

CNN Travel: Gander International

An interesting article on an airport that was once a major player in Transatlantic air travel.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/g...ada/index.html

Pan Am, TWA, BOAC, El Al, Air France, Alitalia, Sabena, SAS, Swissair, TCA etc. were all there and most had extensive operations with crew bases, dispatch etc.

Even Aeroflot, Interflug (East Germany) CSA-Czechoslovak and Cubana stopped for fuel on their way to and from Cuba and many travelers got their first taste of freedom there when they defected during the stopover in the Gander Terminal.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1...fueling-lounge

YOW's June pax stats are out and not surprisingly, transborder was down due to UA's 10 month ORD suspension starting in early June (means July will be even worse), and domestic was flat no doubt due MAX cancellations/reductions. The fact that domestic was flat is not bad at all.

Sector / Jun-18 / Jun-19 / % Change
Dom: 363,899 / 363,732 / -0.05%
TB: 52,462 / 48,101 / -8.3%
Int'l: 21,556 / 23,088 / +7.1% - Best result since 2015. No capacity change vs 2018 = a higher LF of 86%
TTL: 437,917 / 434,921 / -0.7%

Sector / YTD 2018 / YTD 2019 / % Change
Dom: 1,894,204 / 1,918,579 / +1.3%
TB: 375,885 / 386,410 / +2.8%
Int'l: 230,875 / 263,212 / +14.0%
TTL: 2,500,964 / 2,568,201 / +2.7%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2018
Dom: 4,026,584 / +0.6%
TB: 731,295 / +1.5%
Int'l: 420,159 / +8.3%
TTL: 5,178,038 / +1.3%

No schedule update from AC last night :(

But from booking site, seems like AC had rolled back quite a lot of the planned increase likely due to MAX grounding.

India-Pakistan airspace had been opened, but current schedule shows YYZ-DEL suspension remains till end of September. YVR-DEL still fly above China, Mongolia/Japan both directions and avoid the middle east side altogether.

That's good news for DEL and India in general. Indian airlines have lost over $80 million because of the airspace closure.

I don't think AC will reopen YYZ-DEL before October. Filling up these flights on such short notice won't be easy, and resuming next week with half empty planes isn't the best of ideas.

AC45 currently northwestbound out of DEL.

Back to the old routing it seems.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ac45

The two new AC Rouge sun routes are officially announced: https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...869743454.html

Flights are on all-Y 200 seat 321s. What's interesting is, in order to rotate in/out the 321s, the 321 will departing YQB to YYZ on Mondays at 0550, only 1/2 hr after the daily 320 at 0520. That's a LOT of early morning seats to fill to YYZ. Not sure how they're rotating in the 321 though as that's not loaded yet, but I'd imagine it'll be a similar extra flight on Friday nights.

I don't think it's a lot of seats. Quebec City is an 800,000 + market, after all, and has been underserved for years. What's 360 seats in the morning to Toronto.

There should be plenty of YQB-YYZ-Sun passengers to capture as well. An early morning departure out of YQB is ideal in order to capture that market.

Glad to see AC finally paying attention to YQB.

YWG's Q2 Pax Stats

APRIL

Sector / Apr-18 / Apr-19 / % Change
Dom: 286,084 / 284,518 / -0.5%
TB: 39,322 / 40,930 / +4.1%
Int'l: 8,558 / 8,570 / +0.1%
TTL: 333,964 / 334,018 / +0.02%

MAY

Sector / May-18 / May-19 / % Change
Dom: 325,133 / 333,060 / +2.4%
TB: 29,676 / 36,188 / +21.9%
Int'l: 0 / 0 / 0%
TTL: 354,809 / 369,248 / +4.1%

JUNE

Sector / Jun-18 / Jun-19 / % Change
Dom: 352,650 / 354,763 / +0.6%
TB: 31,321 / 34,662 / +10.7%
Int'l: 768 / 989 / +28.8%
TTL: 384,739 / 390,414 / +1.5%

YTD 2019

Sector / YTD 2018 / YTD 2019 / % Change
Dom: 1,763,100 / 1,819,117 / +3.2%
TB: 225,613 / 255,998 / +13.5%
Int'l: 139,183 / 151,890 / +9.1%
TTL: 2,127,896 / 2,227,005 / +4.7%

12 MONTHS ROLLING TOTAL

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2018
Dom: 3,903,226 / +1.5%
TB: 486,905 / +6.7%
Int'l: 193,321 / +7.0%
TTL: 4,583,452 / +2.2%

Airbus commited to expanding the Mirabel FAL.

https://montrealgazette.com/business...ity-in-mirabel

Nice to see Airbus investing in Mirabel, and keeping the jobs in Quebec.

On another note, REM station construction officially started at YUL. Link in french only (used google translate for the quote)

https://www.lelezard.com/communique-18852734.html

Both the REM and the expansion of the departure ramp are much needed at YUL. The traffic jam leading to the airport during the evening rush hour often stretches 1km long all the way to highway 20 and 520.