They also cut Toronto-Sarasota and Toronto-West Palm Beach

Can anyone post the full article? It forces you to subscribe to WSJ to see the full thing. Anyone care to post if they have a subscription?

Stats Canada has released their 2016 figures for O&D Transborder journeys.

http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26...eng&id=4010039

Just need to manipulate the tables to get full data.

Comparing 2016 to 2013 (top 5 Canada - USA markets):

YYZ grew by 1,024,947 up 15.4%
YVR grew by 958,857 up 32.2%
YUL grew by 344,939 up 13.1%
YYC decreased by 130,906 down 5.3%
YEG decreased by 246,708 down 18.0%

TTL 2016 O&D journeys (inbound and outbound):

YYZ 7,662,569
YVR 3,939,852
YUL 2,986,810
YYC 2,351,496
YEG 1,125,763

YYZ and YVR had by far the strongest growth of the major airports in passenger numbers terms.
YYZ and YVR added ~ 1,000,000 O&D passengers between 2013 and 2016.
YVR had by far the largest increase in % terms.
YYC and YEG showed declines during the same period.
YYC is now more than 2 x YEG.

Details by route:

http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26...ataTable&csid=

Looks like Ukraine International are getting closer to formally announcing a restart of YYZ in 2018.... tentatively 3 x's weekly with 777s....

https://delo.ua/business/mau-nameren...-rejsa-333864/

(in ukrainian)

You can see the effect of WS and AC routing through their YYC hub as transborder O&D was down 5.3% yet transborder PAX is up 0.85% over the same time period.

YVR on the otherhand had O&D growth of 32.2% but PAX growth of only 27% showing there should be additional services at YVR but that traffic seems to be funneling through YYC to keep their services viable.

AC Transborder ops at YYC is relatively quite small. They only have 3 mainline flights per day now. The rest is all rouge or Jazz. However, YEG's loss of so many Transborder flights is a direct result of both AC and WS funnelling through YYC and its other hubs. To a lesser extent YQR, YXE and some of the smaller centres in AB and BC. That explains your analysis ;)

Once 2017 figures are released I think you'll see YVR widening the gap even further with all its new flights being added this year as AC is really gunning to funnel pax through YVR and all reports indicate this is working.

I would also agree YQR and YXE are a factor in bumping up YYC trans boarder numbers. YXE has lost the United airlines flight to Denver and Chicago. They were lucky to hold on to the twice daily service to MSP. YQR has lost the United flights to Denver, Chicago and has also lost the Delta flight to MSP.

California, Nevada and Arizona are a significant percentage of the US destinations out of YYC. From YVR the airlines need to deeply discount to get people to travel 1 1/2 hours East to turn around and travel West again. I don't think that is something the airlines want to do or pay for.

YVR and YYZ are becoming major hubs, these two are eating all the other canadian airports. Even though YUL and YYC are headquarters for AC and Westjet, you can still see how they both funnel everything through YYZ and YVR. 5 years from now, I can see Westjet focusing more on YVR and AC on YYZ.

When you delve into the transborder stats further it's amazing just how the downturn in the oil patch has affected the traditionally strong sun destinations from YYC.. LAS, PSP, MCO and PHX have taken massive hits. YVR is now larger to PSP, MCO, SAN, LAS ETC ETC... YYC was over 100,000 larger to LAS in 2013 now YVR is > 40,000 larger. YVR-PHX is now even bigger than YEG-PHX. I know some people are thinking "of course it is Vancouver is 2 x the population" but people do not realise just how big Alberta - Arizona and Nevada are compared to BC. I certainly know it as my Alberta relatives seek the sun in AZ more than anywhere else. YVR to DFW and DEN now also larger than YYC.

I'd say YYZ has already become a major hub while YVR and YUL are becoming more significant hubs. Westjet will continue to build on its YYC hub (at the expense of YEG) and continue to build up, to a lesser extent YVR. AC has not abandoned YYC but they are clearly focusing on YYZ, YUL and YVR for their current growth strategies.

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2017...l-Announcement

Can't wait to hear this !!!

Nrt? Hkg?

I'm
Gonna say Tokyo.

Tokyo seems logical to me.

Maybe a plane announcement. Do they have some C-Series news they could be dropping?

Unless they are reducing the fleet size these route cuts must just mean choosing different routes that make more sense. Like why fly to La Romana when it's only an hour drive from Santo Domingo's much larger airport? There are probably more profitable routes in Florida that will now be getting more flights from YYZ don't you think?????

I'm going with HKG or DKR.

If it's an Asian route, it means AC are pleased with YUL-PVG.
They will probably announce some other routes increasing in frequency as well. Such as TLV.

Someone on another forum confirmed it's going to be Tokyo.

Wow great news! YUL is taking off with Asia.

YUL-NRT schedule effective 1 June 2018.

AC005 YUL 1405 - 1550+1 NRT 788 D
AC006 NRT 1730 - 1630 YUL 788 D

Being downunder we get the scoops early being a day ahead :)

Wow!! Nice. ! This is amazing ! Love it!