Ottawa can easily handle double it's pre-pandemic passenger volume and I think we will get there someday. With many flights to smaller Canadian destinations, people will choose to connect to Paris/London through Ottawa to avoid the chaos that is YYZ and YUL. Just need to get LHR back....

YHZ finally posted 2022 full year numbers.
 

https://halifaxstanfield.ca/news-rel...ring-airports/

Total: 3,107,425 +189%

Halifax Stanfield was Canada’s second fastest-recovering Tier 1 airport and the country’s sixth busiest airport, surpassing YOW and YWG.

So you're saying there's a Dreamliner 5x weekly available beginning this summer..... (YOW-LHR anyone?)

(sarcasm but with a hint of seriousness)

Yeah the timing of that certainly seemed curious lol.

Nice,congrats to Halifax YHZ for having a strong 2022! It will continue to increase in 2023.

YHZ is a destination in Canada I would like travel to at some point for a trip.

There used to be a charter Tokyo- Halifax flight for the fall colours before Covid. Wonder if that will ever come back.

AIR FRANCE NS23 QUEBEC CITY AIRCRAFT CHANGES

Air France in 2023 is adjusting operational aircraft for its seasonal Paris CDG – Quebec City route. In its second year of seasonal operation in Northern summer season, the Skyteam member will now operate Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner 3 times weekly, instead of Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

The seasonal service is scheduled from 02MAY23 to 27OCT23.

AF352 CDG2045 – 2155YQB 789 257
AF353 YQB2355 – 1220+1CDG 789 257

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230202-afyqb

Flair is adding Victoria, Kelowna and London ON to Winnipeg

Serving Winnipeg from both Kitchener and London strikes me as potential overkill.

Maybe Windsor is next, then Hamilton when they're ready to move back. :D

Wonder where else can they fly to in Southern Ontario...?

YXX posted 2022 numbers as well.

Total: 992,712 +97.0%

https://canadatoday.news/bc/abbotsfo...r-2022-135343/

It’s interesting they consider themselves a tier 1 airport. I don’t.

YYZ/YVR/YUL/YYC are very much in a tier of their own. I consider YHZ as a tier 2 airport, along YEG/YOW/YWG.

I guess one can slice the tiers however they see fit. Who knows.

It’s also interesting they already know they’re the second fastest recovering tier 1 airport (so they say). YUL will probably be the first, but considering YYZ hasn’t released any Q4 data yet, how can they be sure YYZ doesn’t come close to second spot? Did they phone GTAA to get the numbers first? Did they extrapolate?…

I agree with this split (or maybe even with YYZ in another tier) but I think the "tier" has more to do with the services and infrastructure provided. And not even so much the "amount" of services but "does it check all the boxes or not".

These could be things like US preclearance (does it have it or not), Customs staff (enough to handle the largest planes, or not), is there enough space for the largest planes to land based on typical conditions, does the ATC/navigational stuff meet X standard or not, does it have a hotel and/or amenities for airline staff, etc. I'm not sure what the actual criteria are.

This is what I meant about YHZ as well. As long as the prices and overall travel times weren't a huge disadvantage I would definitely choose to transfer through YOW vs YYZ and probably even YUL, and I assume there won't be much difference in price or travel time. YOW doesn't seem to be as crushed to its limits and it seems like there'd be less risk of something going wrong or extremely long waits. It's also quite a nice airport in its own right.

Probably has more to do with aircraft and crew shortages. Who would want to lose almost 2/3 of the summer peak?

Tier criteria are here. Definitely a lot of daylight between an airport like YHZ (4-5 million pre-pandemic passengers annually, 300-350,000 international) and Pearson (50 million and 18 million, respectively) but the criteria themselves are cut and dry.

I know you can relate to this in terms of measuring tiers - aircraft movements. On that metric, Boundary Bay and Springbank rank right up there.

…..according to CBSA. It’s important to clarify.

Their criterias are a bit weird and self serving (distance to the nearest CBSA service location? Really? Why? Who cares, besides them.) Can you name me a tier 3 or 4 airport, according to them? Yeah. Me neither.

AIR FRANCE SCHEDULES OTTAWA LATE-JUNE 2023 LAUNCH

Air France yesterday (02FEB23) announced new service launch to Canada, with the opening of Paris CDG – Ottawa reservations for travel on/after 27JUN23. The Skyteam member will be the first carrier to serve Trans-Atlantic flight to/from Ottawa since the pandemic.

Airbus A330-200 aircraft will operate this route 5 times weekly on year-round basis.

AF328 CDG1310 – 1505YOW 332 x35
AF327 YOW1705 – 0615+1CDG 332 x35

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230203-afyow

If they meant "Class" 1, 2, and 3, then here are the list:

Class 1
Class 2
Class 3

Any other airport would be Class 4?