London is also, essencially, the capital of the world. To draw parallels with Toronto is absurd.

The scale is different, but the parallels are (somewhat) there.

Each city has one 'premium' major international airport that serves most of the intercontinental flights. Those airports are limited in growth by the surrounding development, Heathrow more than Pearson.

Each has a small in-city airport close to the central business district. Those airports have restrictions place that prevent operation beyond a select few types of aircraft to certain destinations.

The parallels start to break down after this, but should growth in Toronto continue at the rate it does, might potentially happen in the future.

Each city has a smaller airport(s) located father from the city in a less developed area. These airports have the advantage of space to expand and lower costs, which make them appealing to low-cost airlines. Hamilton is far behind Gatwick in the percentage of flights handed in the area, but could see growth should Pearson start getting over capacity.

It's not a perfect comparison, certainly.

Not surprising at all. YVR had a 9.7% increase last year. As the article says, the North American average was half that.

Although i have to say, so far this year, YUL is outpacing YVR by around 1 %. :tup:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...senger_traffic

Exactly, London's #2 airport (Gatwick) does the same traffic as Pearson. While British airways does a lot out of it, its the LCC that dominate here, something we won't get in Toronto. At least not to same way we will ever have here.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/londo...port-1.3606967

London's Heathrow world's most connected airport, Toronto's Pearson is 5th: Report

Not sure how accurate this list is. FRA has the most international destinations of any airport in the world and YYZ has quite a few more than ORD. Also surprised JFK wouldn't make the cut.

Apparently Westjet has some exciting international announcements coming soon for Vancouver's YVR!

Apparently WestJet will bring back Hamilton to Las Vegas, starting December 2017.

Counting "international" destinations isn't really a fair comparison given the size of European cities. We could equivalently count interprovincial or interstate flights in North America and they'd be equivalent.

Airlines such as AirTransat, Skyservice and WestJet can't effectively operate out of Heathrow. They can at Pearson.

New international airlines that want to add new flights to London have to buy slots from existing airlines that want out or go to Gatwich.

That was my point - should Pearson hit capacity and be unable to expand, I'd expect that the leisure carriers would be the first to depart to cheaper alternatives.

Thus, Hamilton would become the Gatwick to Toronto's Heathrow.

I agree, considering that within the EU you don't even need to clear customs/immigration so traveling between countries is largely domestic. My point about ORD vis-a-vis YYZ, and JFK still hold though.

Heading off Canada Jetlines before they even start to fly.

I am as well, I can only assume that's because around NYC there are so many airport options like LaGuardia Airport and Newark.

WestJet aims to offer 40% cheaper fares with new ultra-low-cost carrier 'Swoop’
The carrier to be launched next summer will charge fees for everything from carry-on luggage to in-flight entertainment and advertising within the cabin is not off-limits

http://business.financialpost.com/tr...-carrier-swoop

WestJet Airlines said it will offer fares that are 40 per cent cheaper than those currently available in Canada as it unveiled new details about Swoop, the ultra-low-cost carrier it plans on launching next summer.

After months of behind-the-scenes planning, WestJet revealed the new name and logo of its no-frills carrier, which will operate as a separate and distinct brand within the WestJet family. Swoop is expected to start selling discounted tickets in early 2018 and will begin flying passengers on six Boeing 737-800s in late June of 2018.

Bob Cummings, WestJet’s executive vice-president responsible for the launch of the new ultra-low-cost carrier, said in an interview with the Financial Post on Tuesday that Swoop will boast the lowest cost per available seat mile (CASM), a measure of how much an airline spends to fly passengers, within less than a year of launching.

“What we modelled out from an ultra-low-cost carrier perspective is that when we reach 10 aircraft (in spring 2019) and scale economies, we will have the lowest cost of any Canadian ULCC,” Cummings said.

While the company announced that Swoop’s headquarters will be located in Calgary, Alta., the same home base as WestJet, the list of markets the airline will serve has yet to be finalized. Cummings confirmed that Swoop will fly in and out of the Abbotsford Airport, located southeast of Vancouver, and that there are ongoing discussions with major airports in Canada as well as the Hamilton, Waterloo and Windsor airports. The goal, he said, is it launch progressive partnerships with airports that will also “repatriate some of the Canadians going across the border” to access cheaper flights.

LGA is largely domestic and EWR, while a fairly big hub, still lags far behind JFK in terms of international connectivity.

It's kind of a surprising move actually given the increased tourism and business between Toronto and Japan. if I'm not mistaken, Japanese tourism to Toronto is up year over year and it has been that way for a few years now. Almost 100K visitors from Japan in 2016. But like you said, maybe this opens up the door for ANA to NRT.

Still waiting for some major announcements from YYZ.

people on facebook were saying at least it rhymes with poop :haha:

There is no information on routes or which airports Swoop will be based out of yet on their webpage. (Despite contrary statements on the WestJet Facebook page...)

http://www.flyswoop.com

New services announced by AC out of YYZ and YUL:

From YYZ:
Zagreb, Bucharest, Porto - Rouge seasonal
Buenos Aires becomes non-stop on mainline and Santiago remains as a non-stop service

From YUL:
Bucharest and Lisbon - Rouge seasonal
Casablanca to transfer to mainline
Lima to be year round

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2017...isbon-Portugal

Nice announcement, although still waiting for a MAJOR announcement for YYZ, i.e. Johannesburg, Teheran, more India, and Asia.

Someone mentioned YXX in Abbotsford as the west coast airport they will use.