Yes totally agree, I don't think the YYC expansion alone will kill them, I just think it's a risky plan for an already shaky company. WS made a very public shift in it's growth strategy, and they have followed through (meaning the Western build-up). They will bleed Flair dry; every single one of Flair's additions at YYC are on WS core routes. And WS will win the war, Flair isn't capable of being real competition for them

A friend bought a Lynx flight from Halifax to Hamilton return some months back on a black Friday sale. He attempted to check-in one night this past week and discovered that the flight had been canceled. In fact, he was told by a Lynx rep. that the flight had been canceled the day after he had purchased the flight. They didn't tell him. They didn't refund him. They left him in the lurch having to pay a much higher fare to make a long time booked appointment with his 90 year old dad. The ULCC airlines are great but a little honesty in their advertising would go a long way. They should be using words like 'maybe' or 'perhaps we'll get you there' in their ads.

Yeah that's the problem with Lynx and Flair. People go on and on about how much they hate AC and WestJet and how badly we need competition in this country, which is not untrue, but booking Flair or Lynx is ultimately a game of roulette with your money.

Your friend should file a complaint with the CTA. Airlines are supposed to communicate flight cancellations in a timely manner. Same for refunds.

But what ace.yyc said is 100% true. You get what you pay for.

1. I'm amazed Flair is still alive. It's only a matter of time really. They are delaying the inevitable.

2. I don't agree that WS brought down AC at YYC. Same way I wouldn't agree that AC brought down WS at YYZ. Each airline decided to focus their efforts where the dividends are highest. The official AC position is that they will be back at YYC. We shall see. The main culprit for AC retreating from YYC is the pilot shortage at Jazz. They simply didn't have enough staff to crew the flights from YYC.

:tup:

it's what I've been saying all along. Gaining 2x weekly to Fiji and 3x weekly to SIN, but losing 50 odd (? don't know the exact number, but it was up there pre-pandemic) flights a week to China is not cause for celebration. And the numbers show it.

I would take a hard line with Lynx. They sold a ticket from Halifax to Hamilton. They should be on the hock to deliver on that. If they can't do it on their own medal then they need to rebook the passenger onto AC or Porter or WestJet.

Lynx, Flair, and Swoop should be held to the same standards as any other airline.

Well, the flights to China will be back, just a matter of when, not if.

If you want the exact number... it's 48x weekly flights, or a bit over 110k monthly international seats. As soon as restriction is lifted, at least 28x weekly will be back within months. The other 20x may have to wait a bit...

The problem with saying this in any online venue, including this one, is that you're attacked as being a shill for big red or team teal and for hating competition. :yes:

I am all for competition as long as the competitors are behaving in a responsible way and not stranding people or placing peoples safety at risk.

I don't like paying the prices of AC and WS. They have gone up quite a bit since the COVID years. However we don't need competitors that are poor corporates citizens. I think Porter has real promise.

Porter's load factors into YYC thus far, if the flight isn't cancelled, are anything but promising so I really hope they can start filling seats soon.

This is surprising to me. No middle seat, better food available in Y (than on WS), and free beer/wine for all! I am tempted to try them out myself!

If you are a business traveller they make no sense. Air Canada And westjet have flights every 2 hours to Toronto, both have better connections (Westjet in Calgary, AC in Toronto) and Porter is just terrible at getting out on time.
They leisure passengers are sticking with AC/Wesjet or saving money going the Flair / Lynx route.
If its dead over summer you know its a real problem.

You have to admire the insanity of the Canadian aviation market. From both a customer and company point-of-view.

It alternates between mix of staid oligopoly and 'mania of new entrants all trying at the exact same time', typically at the worst time to start an airline. Not only do we got one ULCC trying here, we get four at once (admittedly, one exists to bleed everybody else out).

Canadians find out that ULCC flying is Greyhound of the sky level, and to save a penny, they spend a dollar when misery is factored in. At least you get four choices for your misery :shrug:

When something like Porter comes along with decent (but not stupid cheap) prices, proven operational experience, and good service (an actual competitor!), Canadians shun it in droves.

Then the oligopoly retrenches for a bit, or attempts to buy up anything worth buying (see: Sunwing and Air Transat) while it waits for the mania to die down. The feds play along and approve these deals, because we must have both extreme competition that eats itself and oligopoly at the same time. In the meantime, the oligopoly charge top dollar, but they'll at least get you there.

Such a reflection of the national character.

One of Jetlines aircraft is currently operating that exact route.

In Jetlines’ financial report they mentioned an airline has reached out to them for a 5 month ACMI.

“…Charter flights and ACMI lease contracts continued to grow throughout the first quarter of 2023 and in March the Company announced it was chosen to provide an aircraft and crew for a 5-month ACMI contract beginning at the end of March, 2023.””

Has Jetlines become a wet lease charter airline or do they still do some scheduled flying?

Allegedly they still do some scheduled flying. LAS and CUN seem consistent. Everything else has come & gone or perpetually pushed back (YVR).

They now have FLL and YQM listed as sked destinations with no actual flights loaded.

Horrible completion rate for the first 6 weeks of the operation where half the flights were cancelled or massively late, turned people off real quick. The middle seat appears to be overhyped and all people actually care about is price, and PD's basic fare is often comparable to AC and PD's basic fare does not include a carry-on. Travelling across the country without a carry-on is often difficult, so you're in a comparable situation if you just pay for seat selection on AC.

Expanded Canada-United Arab Emirates air transport agreement to allow more flights between both countries

https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-c...countries.html

Currently, Toronto has 18 weekly flights to the UAE between AC (7) and the rest split between Emirates and Etihad.
I assume Vancouver and Montreal will have some EK flights by the end of the year.

:cheers:

EK is currently 5x weekly at YYZ. EY is 6x weekly to AUH. So that's 11x weekly, leaving another 10x weekly for YUL/YVR, assuming YYZ doesn't get any increase.

I think there is a fair chance EK and EY both go daily to YYZ, leaving only 7x weekly for 1 additional city, or a 3x/4x weekly split to both YVR/YUL. Let's see how this plays out.

Maybe EK will add service to one and AC to the other city.

YUL posted February 2023 as well. Once again, percentages based on 2019 numbers:

https://www.admtl.com/sites/default/...ats_fev_EN.pdf

Domestic: 406,775 -14.3%
Transborder: 308,317 -7.6%
International: 661,787 +6.0%

February total: 1,376,879 -3.9%

2023 YTD: 2,862,999 -3.4%