No, I provided multiple reasons.

I think 183,000 Americans is a huge factor.

As are the cruise ships and American business connections.

Hence why I mentioned all three...

I would assume there are also more ex-Vancouverites in the US than ex-Montrealers , but I don't really have any numbers.

Swoop to connect London to Edmonton, Abbotsford, and Halifax

Ultra low-cost airline is offering fares as low as $99 for one-way flights
CBC News · Posted: Jan 22, 2019

Westjet's discount airline, Swoop, will begin flying to and from the London International Airport later this spring.

Daily flights will be available to Edmonton, Abbotsford, B.C. and Halifax, the airline announced Tuesday. Service to Edmonton will begin April 28, with flights to Abbotsford and Halifax beginning May 24.

Swoop will operate 189-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft for the routes. Fares will start as low as $99 for one-way flights.

Mike Seabrook, CEO of London International Airport, called Swoop's announcement "wonderful news for London."

"I've kept an eye on them and there's some very good value in their fares and service" said Seabrook. "We're confident that, with their aggressive pricing, they're going to stimulate the marketplace."

Seabrook expects the new service will lure passengers from across the region.

"We're going to be grabbing, all over, southern Ontario travellers."

Swoop is described as an ultra-low cost carrier. It began flying in June 2018 with its main hub in Hamilton.

...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/londo...ifax-1.4987855

The Swoop routes will be a fail I think, esp the YXX to YXU one. YVR can't even make this route work, and it's huge and a WS hub. How will YXX sustain daily flights there?

Looks like WS full summer schedule will be formally released tomorrow, some of it already loaded.

-New adds: YYC-AUS & PDX. (Neither are currently open for reservation).
-789 on YYC-YYZ extended right through the summer.

A Canada Goose with a lawn chair on its back can make money in the Domestic Canada market summer travel season.

The Canadian aviation trick is to follow the goose south in the winter and lose as little money as possible in the shoulder seasons.

There is insufficient 789 hours available to run YYZ-LGW, but YYC-YYZ is a good start.

That's an unusual choice, but it makes sense I suppose...

http://i64.tinypic.com/2whr2g9.png

Several of my friends who booked flights from St. John's direct to Dublin, and accepted the change to fly to Halifax first, are now being contacted by WestJet saying they're decreasing the planned number of flights between Halifax and Dublin and asking them to change their dates. Sigh. What a magnificent fuckup. Just give it back already! :haha:

Logical due to relatively few airframes in the fleet yet and qualified crew to fly them. This is a good way accelerate the training process. And not a bad business decision either (for business travelers).

Does AC have flights to Austin?

On another note, I read a stat somewhere that AC has introduced 125 new routes since 2013, which is pretty amazing, though a strong economy and low oil prices probably help.

finally, I work with some people who fly back and forth to Nfld and it sounds like a nightmare, they have to make multiple stops to get home and come back from Edmonton.

Why now tho? Was this flight available during the $100 a barrel oil days?

There is a fairly large market of YYC based frequent flyers that want to try the new WestJet lie-flat product but not spend the 4-5k for a roundtrip to LGW/DUB/CDG. However a for $700 one can try the new premium product to/from YYZ.

Doing YYC-YYZ turns beyond the first 90 days doesn't help with pilot training. However, flight attendant service training is hugely important for WS move into Premium market.

The biggest in-flight service lesson learned from the 763 introduction was how different the guests/passengers were from any other route or city launch. It was a painful first year of operations for FAs serving WestJet Plus on the 763. Initial thoughts that FA's could treat the service standard like an very long mainline run were quickly dashed. The standard FA response to most issues is to point out the flight is a short 2-4 hours flying time. This doesn't work for 9 hour TransAt overnight trip.

It takes 5 days of basic training to get through the safety aspects. Most international premium service airlines put their FA's through one month of service training. The new FA is then closely watched for the first 3-6 months after that and they have 15+ other FAs to ask questions. Comparatively WestJet FAs are all brand new, so it drinking from the fire hose until they find their own path to service excellence.

It seems like a small thing, but appropriately plating the food is something brand new for WestJet. Appropriate food service delivery was not well handled in the past on TransAt runs to/from LGW.

Example: normal standards are pre food drink with wine primarily offered to each J class customer. Plate the food in the galley and assemble the full tray. Deliver the trays no more than 2 at a time. Ask each person if they want a refill of the wine. Wash, rinse repeat for each 2 customers.

The WestJet way is to hand out all the food followed by the drink cart. This means the first customer to get their food must wait 10-20 minutes until the last person has food in order to get wine with their meal. This ruins the customer experience the passenger has paid $5k for the privilege.

Running 3.75 hour runs YYC-YYZ lets the FAs interact with this new type of customers with very different expectations.

"Edmonton is the largest, unserved airline route from our airport," said Marie Manning, Director of Marketing & Business Development with St. John's International Airport.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...851239280.html

I think they moved Vancouver to YXX for that reason. Pure summer leisure and highly price sensitive. YXU is underserved for its size due to proximity to YYZ and DTW. Goal is to get people flying who normally would not. And they might go to BC for $99 one way. I have family in Ontario and their flying is way up mostly due to Swoop. They simply would not fly otherwise. We will see if they can sustain 3x daily 738s. YVR was profitable for WS .... I think YXX may surprise.

We shall see, it is a good experiment to see if the low fares will last and if they can create demand where it didn't necessarily exist before. YXX-YHM is one thing, but to YXU I'm not sure about

It's great that YXU is getting some attention, and could be a good move. I hope so. I'm really curious why both Swoop and Flair are putting so many resources into Edmonton, whereas Ottawa is getting no attention. Also a major population base that is relatively overlooked by the existing airlines. Any thoughts? It just seems so counterintuitive that there's way more attention on Halifax by the ULCCs than on Ottawa or anywhere in Quebec (our second most populated province). Obviously there's a rationale, so what is it?

A main factor behind the rationale is no doubt that Halifax is the hub for Atlantic Canada, population 2.3 million, and in Atlantic Canada driving to other destinations is relatively inconvenient compared to flying. An Ottawa-Hamilton flight is a lot less enticing than Halifax-Hamilton, particularly if your true destination is the GTA.

AC597/598 YYZ-AUS E90 daily

Which was *just* being removed in this week's schedule update. Whether it's route number change, or move to Rouge/Express, or cancelled altogether is yet to be seen.

AC schedule update is still on-going...

EDIT: YYZ-AUS is now Express E75 and increase to 13x weekly.

Also, YYZ-YQB is now fully Rouge, 5x daily, and all flights upgauged to A320.