Well Air Canada has cut flights ✈️ between Alberta & Saskatchewan, Canada . And WestJet has stepped up to fill some of these frequencies which is good & Flair & along with few other airlines will too.

UNITED ADDS 737 MAX 9 VANCOUVER SERVICE IN MAY 2023

United in May 2023 plans to add Boeing 737 MAX 9 service to Vancouver, reflected in recent schedule update. From 05MAY23 to 01JUN23, planned 737 MAX 9 operation as follows.

Los Angeles > Vancouver
UA1542 LAX1931 – 2230YVR 7M9 D

Vancouver > Houston
UA1552 YVR1145 – 1819IAH 7M9 D

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230117-uayvr

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...ccur-1.6718375
"Experts say the sun may set on Sunwing as the airline struggles to keep its operations afloat"

Has everyone forgotten that WS is buying WG???

WS would have most likely kept the Sunwing brand alive in one form or another. Now, with all this fiasco, probably not. All of this assumes the acquisition is approved, of course.

Why buy the Sunwing brand anyways? Buy the hotels and/or the vacation business but seeing a Sunwing plane knowing it's affiliated with WestJet doesn't improve WestJet's image. Loosely Googling Sunwing shows that Sunwing owns 18 planes. I believe WS has 12 parked 700's/800's plus the Swoop planes plus the orders for the Max 10's with deliveries starting in 2024 so it's not like capacity isn't coming. I guess to be fair, maybe Sunwing is only giving the option of selling everything.

Another option may be WS pulling its offer similar to AC on Air Transat? If WestJet's CEO says they want to go back to their roots and simplify things then I'm not sure what is less expensive, incorporating another company or growing the WestJet vacation brand.

CHINA AIRLINES 2Q23 NORTH AMERICA OPERATIONS – 18JAN23

China Airlines recently finalized planned North America operation, for the first half of Northern summer 2023 season. Between 26MAR23 and 30JUN23, the Skyteam member will be offering following service.

Taipei Taoyuan – Vancouver 1 daily A350-900XWB

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230119-cins23

thats looks amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Started updating full year airport stats for 2022.

YOW and YEG have posted their full year numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...in_Canada#2022

YWG still hasn't posted the last 3 months of 2022, but based on YTD September numbers, they were still slightly ahead of YOW (by ~48,000 passengers). Will be interesting to see how that race finishes, and if YOW will be able to regain it's 6th spot.

Saskatoon has their numbers out. Looks good especially for a small airport.
https://skyxe.ca/en-us/about-us/mission-history

YWG will probably stay in 6th in 2022 as they've finished ahead of YOW every month for which YWG is reporting on YTD 2022. YOW will probably regain 6th in 2023 by a slight amount with PD's expansion (even with AC's and WS' reductions and the WO pullout). UA are also returning to near pre-pandemic capacity. If PD's not yet done with YOW's 2023 expansion, it'll probably be more like a definite yes.

YOW's December 2022 and year-end pax numbers are out. Just shy of 3M pax = 1996 traffic levels.

Sector / Dec-21 / Dec-22 / % Change
Dom: 165,898 / 235,732 / +42.1%
TB: 7,292 / 38,258 / +424.7%
Int'l: 11,955 / 34,505 / +188.6% - This total = international sun fully recovered vs 2019 minus LHR
TTL: 185,145 / 308,495 / +66.6%

Sector / YTD 2021 / YTD 2022 / % Change
Dom: 1,143,950 / 2,708,999 / +136.8%
TB: 11,242 / 190,335 / +1,593.1%
Int'l: 15,597 / 93,000 / +496.3%
TTL: 1,170,789 / 2,992,334 / +155.6%

Month-Over-Month Change
Sector / Nov-22 / Dec-22 / % Change
Dom: 228,252 / 235,732 / +3.3%
TB: 27,541 / 38,258 / +38.9%
Int'l: 15,773 / 34,505 / +118.8%
TTL: 271,566 / 308,495 / +13.6%
Avg/Day: 9,052 / 9,951 / +9.9%
% of month's 2019 traffic (2019 = 13,990/day) = 71.1% + 6.4% vs November
Year-End TTL vs 2019 = 58.6%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2020
Dom: 2,708,999 / +162.5%
TB: 190,335 / +16.7%
Int'l: 93,000 / -44.8%
TTL: 2,992,334 / +119.5%

Here's YWG through to the end of Q3:

Sector / Sep-21 / Sep-22 / % Change
Dom: 172,694 / 287,772 / +66.6%
TB: 2,402 / 11,444 / +376.4%
Int'l: 0 / 0 / #DIV/0!
TTL: 175,096 / 299,216 / +70.9%

Sector / YTD 2021 / YTD 2022 / % Change
Dom: 699,711 / 2,015,450 / +188.0%
TB: 4,508 / 109,046 / +2,318.9%
Int'l: 109 / 36,279 / +33,183.5%
TTL: 704,328 / 2,160,775 / +206.8%

Month-Over-Month Change
Sector / Aug-22 / Sep-22 / % Change
Dom: 325,561 / 287,772 / -11.6%
TB: 11,433 / 11,444 / +0.1%
Int'l: 333 / 0 / -100.0%
TTL: 337,327 / 299,216 / -11.3%
Avg/Day: 10,882 / 9,974 / -8.3%
% of month's 2019 traffic (= 12,286/day in 2019) = 81.2% - recovery way ahead of YOW whose peak recovery month was August at 75.8% vs Aug '19.
YTD TTL vs 2019 = 62.7% as of September - YOW at year-end only hit 58.6% of 2019's total

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2020
Dom: 2,509,851 / +143.5%
TB: 125,659 / -6.2%
Int'l: 43,991 / -67.3%
TTL: 2,679,501 / +106.2%

https://twitter.com/FlyYKF/status/1616471721015496705
Region of Waterloo International Airport @FlyYKF

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm7cWTdW...pg&name=medium

Love January deals.

Just booked YYC direct to YHZ on AC for $317/per all flying on an A220.

Colourful day at London yesterday, and the passengers got to stay warm and dry lol. Why didn't YKF put in jet bridges?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fm8iFeiW...jpg&name=small

Thanks. Numbers are added on wiki.

Jet bridges are convenient for pax, but they come at a price for the airport operator and airlines.

First off, they cost around $1 million CDN each, plus maintenance and operation costs. So naturally, airport usage fees are usually higher when you use a jet bridge. Not using one, or flying at an airport with no jet bridges can be a cost advantage in attracting ULCC’s.

The boarding process can also be much quicker with remote stands, especially when using two airstairs, one at the front, the other at the back. So turnaround times can be much quicker.

All of this being said, I think YKF's plan is to build a new terminal building once passenger numbers exceed 250,000, either somewhere north of runway 08-26 or south of the existing terminal. What they have added recently is only temporary. Might explain why they haven't invested in jet bridges.

https://www.waterlooairport.ca/en/ab...-04.ACCESS.pdf

In 2021, they handled 171,800 passengers, a 245% increase over 2020, predominantly due to Flair. If Flair goes bye bye, YKF's passenger numbers will dwindle, and fast. So the airport authority is playing it safe. They won't start stage 2 of the master plan until passenger numbers get to 250,000.

YKF was on track for well over 1/2 million pax in 2022 and 3/4 million projected for 2023…assuming Flair don’t fail. YKF recently opened a terminal expansion consisting of a separate building for baggage claim. Two domestic and one international carousel. The Region of Waterloo have definitely copied YHM and built an ULCC type terminal.

Hamilton's is a legacy of a 1980s terminal that's had pieces added and changed incrementally.

I could see the airport (YHM) build a brand new one in the future. Perhaps in a different part of the airfield, perhaps the undeveloped west side -- the current facility is wedged between freight operations, and the existing parking lot would make for valuable real-estate for air freight.

If YHM eventually get past about 2 million pax, they'll have to dust off the old terminal plans from the WS hub days.

On a separate note, TS are unsurprisingly closing the YVR F/A base.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...860966356.html

When does YKF publish its passenger numbers?

Sunwing is cancelling some more flights, this time from Halifax, Moncton and Fredericton, all to Cuba.

I have only ever caught them randomly, but the YKF wiki page has a graph to give a rough idea through to 2021: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Region...ort#Statistics

Here's the PR from last summer projecting 500K pax in 2022: https://www.waterlooairport.ca/Modul...1-5b4bcd0ce697