Buried in the article:

[edit: the only currently listed WestJet-"Europe" route on either website is YVR-LGW]

It's also newsworthy in the sense that YHZ seemed primed to take some of the pressure off of YYZ and YUL as a secondary (tertiary?) hub for transatlantic routes, but that won't really work anymore.

If this is really the case then maybe you answered your own question as to why WestJet dropped the flights. On another note, BA and EI have some 320's that could do the route and they have connection options on their end. YHZ is not as strong for connections. So I imagine if the European airlines aren't interested, perhaps these routes weren't as profitable as imagined and WS walked away from them.

AC can probably get away with offering some flights like YHZ-LHR since their crew bases are in YUL (1h 30min from YHZ) and YYZ (1hr 55min from YHZ) so the odd pilot can make that trek and fly the international route. WS has YYZ listed as a crew base but perhaps that is dwindling with it's refocus? I dunno. Purely speculation on my part.

Oh and pretty much every airline says they "hope to come back" or they "plan to come back". Another nice line from airlines is "we hope to be back once we take delivery of Plane X".

Was it you that said this very same sentence a couple of months ago?

To call Halifax a reliever airport for YYZ/YUL is a laughable notion at best. YHZ’s European ops, even including the WS flights from last year, are insignificant in terms of “taking the pressure off” markets like YYZ and YUL, which are transatlantic beasts in terms of seats to Europe, and which are only matched by a handful of other North American airports.

You’re talking about airports with 4-5 million seats to Europe next summer, vs an airport with barely 135,000.

https://simpleflying.com/nine-canadi...e-summer-2023/

When AC was running the A319 from NFLD to Heathrow they were using pilots from the A320 Winnipeg base. There was some special training required and that reduced the number of pilots that needed the training.

I think that translates into some time in the distant future where we have aircraft that we can't find some other place in the country where we could make more we will do an internal study to see if we can come back.

Only initially. It was taken over by YUL based crew fairly quickly I believe.

And yes, you’re referring to ETOPS training, or as it’s now called, EDTO. Extended diversion time operations.

Last summer when returning from Norway I was originally booked with a 26 hour layover in Manchester, followed by a flight to YYZ before getting to YOW. After rebooking I got a flight from Heathrow to Halifax and on to YOW. It was great, no line up for custom in Halifax, no crowds and a short flight to YOW bypassing all the nonsense in YYZ. I would do it again and go through Halifax in both directions.

Yes & looks like China Eastern Airlines will be flying the Shanghai PVG - Toronto YYZ - PVG route 7x weekly this Spring/Summer 2023, as of March 26 & which makes it up for Air Canada (AC) flights 27/28 being suspended in S23.

Likely to be the case for a long time. I don't see Russia and Canada being on the same page any time soon.

I mean it in the sense that YYZ and YUL have obviously run into serious capacity issues lately and offering a few of the same destinations through YHZ (which generally has not been suffering from those issues) gives passengers the option of not having to deal with all that chaos. The passengers who chose to go through YHZ would not be adding to the chaos at YYZ or YUL, but now they don't have that option and so they will add to that chaos, as those airports continue to operate at or above their functional capacity, while YHZ operates under capacity.

Case in point; when's the last time you heard a review like this about YYZ? No one likes having to transfer through there, because they aren't equipped to handle their current passenger levels, let alone more.

You are correct, but it’s worth noting that AC is flying YYZ/YUL-DEL with the detour (longer flights, and an even greater detour than to China), so if the yields are there, AC could very well attempt to do the same on YYZ/YUL-PVG. Operationally speaking, it’s doable.

Last summer's issues at YUL/YYZ are hopefully a thing of the past.

So that being said, if your origin or destination is YYZ/YUL, you would still be adding to the chaos. You’re just flying on a domestic flight to YHZ vs. flying International (and most likely non stop). Just as an example, the security lineup for domestic or international flights is one and the same at YUL. You're in that mess, regardless if you're going to YHZ or CDG. It’s going to be chaos nonetheless. Plus you’re subjecting yourself to an unnecessary one stop.

If your point of origin is say YQM however, then yes, I would agree with you. YHZ over YYZ/YUL is a no brainer.

Tomorrow marks the inaugural scheduled E95 flights for Porter. Someone on airliners.net claims they’ll announce a bunch more domestic and transborder routes either tomorrow or in the very near future including FLL LAX LAS SFO MCO YQR YXE YYT YYJ YWG.

It would be a no-brainer from somewhere like YQM but it would also have offered better options from somewhere like YOW or YWG, and to a lesser extent YEG.

:tup:

We need Porter in YYJ. I am just trying to book a flight for April from YYJ to YOW. The lowest possible option is around $780. Doing YVR-YOW it is around $350. YVR has Porter and Flair.

The one complaint I have about Porter is their booking engine is broken tonight. I guess I should not complain to much, I have a flight to Europe on Air Canada and when I try to check up on it the Air Canada website crashes.

WS never had YHZ-Europe for sale this summer, and removed the YYZ/YVR routes like 2 months ago, why is this being reported now? :haha:

Unless they wanted to get it out now, so that when the summer schedule gets announced in the coming weeks it can be all "good news".

Flair adds more YWG flights.

2x weekly each:
F8 904/905 YWG-YXU
F8 918/919 YWG-YYJ
F8 922/923 YWG-YLW

Alaska Airlines has long ties to YVR, don't see them dropping it. Delta has provided lots of competition, but Alaska isn't going to budge I don't think. Could just see that route at equilibrium with it's current AC/DL/AS frequencies.

I think YYJ is safe, and YLW seems to be too. As others have said, the E75 is the same capacity as the DH4, so "all jet service" doesn't mean huge jump in seats. Bigger plane though, as the E75 has business class too, and I don't think the DH4 did?

This is the kind of stuff that is going to be the downfall of these guys.

WestJet, so, you decided not to unload bags from the aircraft because you don't have staff. Then you tell the press the problem is solved and everyone has their bags back. Despite the announcement not being true your still surprised those customers do actually want their bags back.

A women on her quest to find her bags......

https://globalnews.ca/news/9447751/s...stjet-calgary/

Technically it's even a capacity cut as the DH4s had 78 seats vs 76 on the E75.

Flair fly YYJ-YOW nonstop seasonally but only on Saturdays.

Press release:
https://storage.googleapis.com/flyfl...c1d72009bd.pdf

In the PR, but not in the schedule yet:
YWG-YYZ increase to 3x daily
YWG-YYC increase to daily
YWG-YVR increase to daily

YMM Has seen some interesting Aircraft land this week. Air Greenland A330Neo
Alaska Air
Air North and Canadian North.

All Heading in for the Arctic Winter Games.

https://blog.rewardscanada.ca/air-gr...7%3A30am%20MT.