I'm not sure it works like that. I believe you need to use 80% of each slot. Not 80% of all the slots you have. (Ex. Having 5 slots and not using 1 of them is unfair for airlines wanting access to LHR.)

If they bring back YOW-LHR, then for sure they will revert YUL back to 1x daily, instead of 2. In which case, they can use the same flight number as well.

That's a possibility if they go HD 77W. The capacity loss vs 1 788 & 1 789 isn't that great. But I think the 2nd daily YUL-LHR is here to stay.

As for the slots, I'm pretty sure it's the % of total slots allocated by IATA season as AC using that unused slot 80% of the time would just mean slots they're using 100% would be reduced to say 85% to make up the difference.

I did some digging and my hunch was right. It's not counted that way. Each "series of slots" held needs to abide by the 80% usage rule.

Here is the link to IATA slot guidelines.

https://www.iata.org/contentassets/4...sh-version.pdf

Key definitions.

Airport Slot: a permission given by a coordinator for a planned operation to use the full range of airport infrastructure necessary to arrive or depart at a Level 3 airport on a specific date and time.

Series of Slots: at least 5 slots allocated for the same or approximately same time on the same day-of-the-week, distributed regularly in the same season.

Historic Precedence: the principle whereby airlines are entitled to a series of slots that were operated at least 80% of the time during the period allocated in the previous equivalent season.

Use it or Lose it: the principle whereby historic precedence is only granted for a series of slots if an airline can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the coordinator that the series was operated at least 80% of the time during the period allocated in the previous equivalent season.

==============================================

If an airline holds more than one series of slots at the same time with identical or overlapping periods of operation, then the usage of each series
is calculated separately.

If a flight operates on more than one day-of-week, then each day-of-week is considered as a separate series of slots.

Thanks for that. :tup:

Slots are Heathrow are not origin-destination specific though, right?

As long as AC is using their allotment (or leasing them out), Heathrow doesn't care what cities in Canada are served. So, whether every LHR flight comes out of Toronto, or is speckled across the country is irrelevant, correct?

Yes. they could potentially also do a tag on flight if they wanted to.

Many decades ago, AC operated to India with a stop at Heathrow. They could in principle do that again.

They are going to this winter to Mumbai, no?

They are indeed given the Russian overflight back makes a nonstop uneconomical for now.

On a separate note, YUL released their Q3 results: https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...825356534.html

Looks like Porter's E95 YOW maintenance base is being announced this afternoon:

https://i.imgur.com/kEOQAWB.png

We'll see if there's anything beyond the base. I doubt it but a huge boost to the local NCR economy nonetheless. PD will join 5T with maintenance bases at YOW.

That's right. From the IATA guideline linked above:

90% of 2019 numbers. It was a very good Q3 at YUL.

That is fantastic news for YOW. Very jealous!

CEO at Canada Jetlines
59m • 59 minutes ago

NEWS: Department of Transportation Grants Canada Jetlines Authority to Service U.S. Routes

The announcement follows Canada Jetlines’ confirmation of a new route out of its travel hub at Toronto Pearson International Airport #YYZ with direct service to Vancouver International Airport #YVR.

"We are looking forward to expand our international network, as the U.S. is a top market for Canadian travelers” stated Eddy Doyle, President & CEO Canada Jetlines. “With the winter months fast approaching, we know sun destinations will be a priority for leisure travel and we intend to announce our first international destination later this month.”

Click the link to read the entire announcement and to book your travel with #CanadaJetlines ➡️ www.jetlines.com/Media

Flair adds domestic capacity at London (YXU).

They scored Vancouver and Halifax 3x weekly next summer. Swoop will undoubtedly retaliate with the return of YHZ and YXX service next summer (probably).

It only makes sense that they do more at YXU than just TUS.

Eviation now have orders for $2 billion worth of 9 seat electric aircraft: https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...874160738.html

Edmonton International Airport (YEG)

More planes. More cargo. Construction on our new 47,000 m2 cargo apron is complete. That’s the size of five-and-a-half CFL football fields!

The increase in cargo demand at YEG means we needed more space. By circumpolar routes, YEG is North America’s closest major airport to many parts of Asia. For example, the Edmonton to Beijing flight path is the shortest of any major city in North America. We are also strategic location to access Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Our airport has also become a major entry point into North America.

The expanded cargo apron allows us to accommodate six more widebody cargo planes.

https://flyeia.com/corporate/wp-cont...o-Apron-8-.png
https://flyeia.com/corporate/media/n...rgo-expansion/

That's really good news for me - travelling from Vancouver or Abbotsford to London has been very inconvenient, time consuming and expensive due to having to go through Toronto or even Hamilton since I resumed travelling after the start of the pandemic.

YXU seems like one of those airports that always gets flights added just to make use of a plane, but is never really the real prize, no offence to London at all! It is no reflection on the city itself, just one of those medium size places that airlines add to their roster to try and expand, but would be the first to end up on the chopping block. I'm pretty sure both WS and AC tried the YXU-YVR route and the past and both pulled out, and that's with a ton of connecting traffic at the YVR end. But hey, maybe Flair's uber cheap point to point appeal will allow it to succeed, all the best to them! Just skeptical is all, I've been around the industry too long so always take these kinds of additions with a grain of salt.

A route like YVR-YHZ was LONG overdue to be served by Air Canada, so it's an example of a domestic pairing that made a lot of sense and was a long time coming. And it will only get stronger, I think AC is in for the long haul on that route. WS is still keeping it too, so I definitely think it's more than just a filler route to use up a dormant plane. Wheras YXU to YVR and YHZ seems possibly temporary and could change with the wind.

Not sure if this was mentioned before?

AIR TRANSAT / PORTER AIRLINES BEGINS CODESHARE SERVICE FROM NOV 2022
Published at 0800GMT 04NOV22

Air Transat and Porter Airlines this week commenced reciprocal codeshare partnership, initially covering selected service to/from Montreal. This codeshare agreement that went into effect since Wednesday 02NOV22 (travel date) also marks the debut of Porter Airlines’ debut in the UK market.

Air Transat operated by Porter Airlines
Montreal – Halifax (Replacing WestJet codeshare service)
Montreal – Toronto City

Porter Airlines operated by Air Transat
Montreal – London Gatwick

Additional codeshare routes to be added in the coming weeks.

Didn't realize Transat and Porter cooperated. Granted this is not groundbreaking news, but curious they are partnering.

I recall back in the Air Canada Zip or Tango era, they ran a YHZ-YVR flight that stopped in London in each direction. Of course, that was back when WS started serving London itself with flights to the west, and AC was sitting on all these 737-200's from Canadian that couldn't fly all the way across the country anyway so they needed to land somewhere. The flights didn't last all that long as I recall. I have in my mind that Westjet did something similar at the height of their servicing in London but I'm not 100% on that.

In the early days of WestJet they regularly had a milk run from London-Winnipeg-Saskatoon-Calgary-Vancouver-Prince George.

I ended up taking that many times between London and Saskatoon. You could not pick seats until check in back then. The station staff in London were nice and would log in at around 24 hours before departure and select seats for everyone traveling beyond Winnipeg otherwise if they did not when you arrived at the airport the only thing left were middle seats and sometimes they did not even have a seat without moving someone else. At least that is what they told me they did.