Less competition is a good thing! Especially when everybody's making money hand-over-fist. Or something like that.

I have some serious reservations about this deal, especially for those in Quebec. It effectively gives Air Canada a monopoly on many routes from there and turns YUL into almost a complete Air Canada fortress hub.

I wish it was WestJet that bought Transat. That would have made competition more even. Not so with AC buying them.

Perhaps.. but don't forget that WestJet is currently going through the process of getting bought out themselves (by Toronto based Onex). Good timing by AC - very shrewd move. Great timing by Onex too, as the 737 Max issues reduced WestJet's selling price by over 10%!

I believe WestJet was approached before AC and turned them down.

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2019...ulouse-Service

AC adding year-round service to TLS. 5x Weekly, starting June 4, 2020 on A333.

Great add, and straight to mainline to top it off. Linking Airbus and Airbus Canada HQ’s, plus serving the healthy O&D on the market. A no brainer for AC.

Within a matter of weeks, AC adds non stop from YUL to Boeing HQ and Airbus HQ, solidifying YUL’s position as an aerospace hub.

If by that you mean the government will approve the deal without putting any restrictions on it, then you are wrong.

AC will be asked to concede something at both YYZ and YUL. Be it routes, slots, gates, I don’t know. But definately something.This will be enforced by the government before the deal is approved. Anything else would be characterized as gross negligence on behalf of the government.

Feds and Province are preserving and opening to the public Gander's old International Lounge, christened by Queen Elizabeth and "the finest modernist space in Canada."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfo...ions-1.5262617

Thank goodness, that place is a treasure. I have never been to Gander but I would love to go see it in person.

Iqaluit-Ottawa and Edmonton-Yellowknife see increased service.

More connections as well. Timing will allow you to travel to any Baffin region community the same day out of Ottawa via Iqaluit.

Same basic for Edmonton /Yellowknife and daily service to Cambridge Bay. Will be interesting to see if there is a drop in frequency or more to keep the seat numbers similar.

Only issue will be the weather holds.

Still need to see flights out of Winnipeg to Rankin and the Kivallak region.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north...dule-1.5265641

Apparently there will be a big investment ($110M?) announcement for Mirabel tomorrow.

https://ipolitics.ca/2019/09/02/what...2019-campaign/

Maybe this will make Mirabel as the 3rd busiest cargo airport in the country.

Airports by freight 2018

1. YYZ: 481,154.8 tonnes
2. YVR: 321,318.1 tonnes
3. YUL: 119,386.1 tonnes
4. YHM: 105,691.7 tonnes
5. YMX: 88,668.0 tonnes
6. YYC: 86,204.1 tonnes

I'm going to toss out an Amazon-related Cargojet announcement. Just a guess though.

CP 24 confirms it is cargo related at Mirabel.
Just saw the headline don't know the details.

Approx 200,000 sq ft of new warehouse, new airplane ramp space and some local road infrastructure work. Don't know if the new space is spoken for, or if any of the cargo companies in the old hangars are moving (or where the new space actually will be for that matter lol)

Some notable AC Changes that are not (yet) announced:

AC 376 YMM-YYZ cancelled, now the route is down to 1x daily year-round

AC 766 SJC-YYZ, already announced, but this is actually done by moving one of the daily SFO to SJC, AC 752 cancelled.

AC 810 YUL-ALG now move back to Rouge

AC 886 YYZ-BRU, up to 5x weekly 788 starting May 1st, YUL-BRU will also change from 333 to 788. This flight operates at pretty much the exact same time as SN's flight, not sure if AC is just taking over the route.

Domestic Rouge flight number changes from AC 19xx to 16xx.

Probably? https://press.brusselsairlines.com/b...treal-in-2020#

YYZ goes from 3 of 4LH group carriers down to only one in the span of a year. Doesn't look good at all.

I imagine it looks much better from the perspective of Lufthansa Group though.

Pushing everybody through Frankfurt and Munich on Lufthansa probably helps profitability there.

SN is following what OS did. Terminating YYZ, starting YUL.

They will launch BRU-YUL, 5x weekly, on top of the existing AC service. AC will start it’s own YYZ-BRU, as nname said.

YUL is on fire, yet another new international carrier, plus its a bonus when you steal it from YYZ...;)

It was always weird that a Belgian airline was serving YYZ and not YUL. Seems like SN has now also realized this.

https://press.brusselsairlines.com/b...ntreal-in-2020

AC and LH don't really compete though, they are part of the A++ metal neutral JV, so it doesn't particularly matter who serves the route. That's why every time we have seen a LH group carrier move, AC fills their place.

Yeah, "don't really compete" isn't strong enough.

They're effectively the same company for anything trans-atlantic with several different brands under that umbrella.


Those Joint-Ventures are basically mergers without requiring approval from various governments to form a multi-national airline.