AC adding YYC/YVR-YQB in S22

https://aircanada.mediaroom.com/2021...ng-Next-Summer

YYC-YQB 4x weekly from May 20
YVR-YQB 3x weekly from May 21

Great additions. Although surprised the frequencies aren't reversed, with YVR getting the bigger share. I guess to better compete against the 4x weekly of WS, who is on YYC-YQB as well.

Crazy to think that 2 carriers will be operating each on YQB-YYC and YQB-YVR next summer, as TS also flies YQB-YVR. Until a few years ago, there were none.

Also, its nice to see AC buildup YQB with something other than AC Express. A couple of years ago, AC mainline/Rouge was non existent in YQB, whereas now, Quebecers will be able to take AC Rouge non stop to YVR, YYC, YYZ, FLL, PUJ, CUN and MCO. Yes, it's not mainline, but it's a nice change of pace at YQB. Next step, making sure these west coast runs stick year round.

I think a longer-term strategy might involve a real competing airline alliance in Canada. In short, if Westjet joins SkyTeam.

Until that point, Canada's going to be a Star Alliance fortress at more secondary destinations for business travel. The big hubs (YYZ, YVR, and YUL) have enough traffic for European carriers, but KLM's the outlier in the sense of a big Euro airline serving smaller destinations. Which is why I agitate for people from Edmonton thread to keep flying them - it's the best option for real global travel competition.

Leisure travel is more variable, so the operators tend to be more varied.

WS is certainly pointing in all directions to joining Skyteam, they are almost there in so many senses. Just got to make it official soon. They still have some non-SKyteam codeshares but it is getting rare (QF is one of the remaining), b ut more and more it is becoming a SKyteam alliance. And good for them, the amount of codesharing they have now is amazing, compared to years ago. Being the 2nd biggest airline in a country like Canada is a big enticement for WS, hence why they were teetering between One World and SKyteam for years before choosing a side. Back in the day, their flights weree overwhelmin gly codeshared with One World carrriers

It looks like United Airlines (UA) has now pushed back Edmonton- Denver & Houston US,flights✈️ to end of March 2022. *More changes could still be possible*. Will see.

Not certain they will ever join though it would be good. That said if the have the code shares in place with the key players it is close enough.

Next up will be poorer building out their partnerships with Oneworld.

Aviacionline (AL) interviewed WestJet Frank Satusky who is currently their new Director for Network and Schedule Planning & he used to work for Air Canada.

Key points he said WestJet plans to continue to build its 3 busiest hubs in Calgary,Toronto & Vancouver 1st✅! "FS: We have three hubs, and we will continue to focus on building our three hubs. But part of WestJet’s mandate is to be across the country; we have bases across the country, from Vancouver to Halifax and everything in between, and we want to continue to grow, and our focus also needs to be on building that up. Calgary will remain our main base of operations and Vancouver and Toronto our other major hubs – we want to continue to grow our hubs, while remaining present across the country".

Also he mentioned WestJet plans to continue to focus on Europe & along with Arizona, Las Vegas, California, Florida leisure destinations in the United States,etc.

He also mentioned WestJet plans to use their 787 planes✈️ out of their hubs to build and carry flows from across North America, across the Atlantic, into Europe and beyond.

https://www.aviacionline.com/2021/10...ng-at-westjet/

YOW-ORD has been pushed to the same timeframe, but YOW-IAD is still slated to resume on Nov. 1st with a 1x daily CRJ. This will mark the return of transborder network connectivity ops at YOW, along with the re-startup of YOW-Florida the day before when Flair launches YOW-FLL.

Transport Canada is lifting the ban on flights from Morocco as of Oct 29. Stricter testing requirements will be enforced, similar to flights from India.

AT will be resuming daily service to YUL on Oct 29.

https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-c...r-29-2021.html

It's a case of YQB catching up and being more open to travelling to the RoC and vice versa. Eventually you'd think YQB has the population to have WS fly YYC-YQB year-round.

Air Transat just announced a new weekly direct flight from Québec City to London Gatwick next summer. It will be operated using their A321neo LR

This is a very good new for the airport after last week announcement of YQB-YVR and YQB-YYC on Air Canada

https://www.journaldequebec.com/2021...rtir-du-11-mai

^ Indeed very good news. YQB is on a roll. LGW, and more YYC, YVR are definite pluses for Quebec City.

TS will also be flying YUL-LAX/SFO next summer season, as of May. 3x weekly and 2x weekly service, respectively. Flights are bookable on their website.

Speaking of YQB, TS are going to launch a weekly YQB-LGW summer seasonal on the 321LR.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...802494164.html

I think Transat should just name themselves Air Quebec.

Speaking of...

https://twitter.com/theaeronetwork/s...57476231680000

You can't blame them though.

All A330s are parked. Only a fleet of 12 A321s are currently active. They want to concentrate that small fleet on southern routes from Eastern Canada this winter, all the while maintaining service to their niche European markets from YYZ/YUL.

Also, to be fair, several cities in Ontario will get TS service this winter season, including YYZ, YHM*, YXU* and YOW. Also, YHZ and YQM* will get flights as well, this according to their winter 2021 program press release from last June.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...870729907.html

It makes sense to make sure all their frames stick close to home during the winter (by home I mean YYZ/YUL).

* Assuming these airports get approval from TC in receiving international flights.

Air Algerie resumes ALG-YUL today, after close to a year without service. 3x weekly A332.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAH2700

Canada is one of 10 countries allowed to operate flights into Algeria.

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php

Let's see if AC jumps on this VFR route as well.

As far as passenger experience goes, honestly there won't be much difference between an LH A333 or 4Y A333.

You have near identical 2-2-2 config lie-flat seating in business class on 4Y and LH. So no difference there.

You have slightly less business class seats and more Y seats on Eurowings. But still a 2-4-2 config in Y. So not bad. Still only 283 seats in total, according to their website. That's like only 30 more than LH. Honestly, it could have been much worse. By comparison, Transat has 346 or 375 seats on their A333s.

https://loyaltylobby.com/2021/07/27/...ver-takes-off/

https://www.eurowings.com/en/informa...ing-fleet.html

Transat also announced 3X weekly YUL-AMS for next summer. Is it because they cant loose their slot in AMS and the fact that they are now focusing on eastern Canada that they do this? Will this flight go back to YVR in 2023? Is AC now looking at YUL-AMS hehe!! ?


https://nouvelles.paxeditions.com/fr...zUIAA203oqe7eU

Most likely. With the A330s still parked, they can't operate YVR-AMS non stop. It's outside the range of the A321LR.

Depends when the majority of the A330s will be reactivated, and if/when TS decides to base some of them at YVR again.

Probably not.

A Piper PA-28 landed on the 407 near Buttonville: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/plane-mak...-ont-1.5640564

Thankfully no vehicles were hit and the aircraft appears to be damage-free.

EDIT: Video of the landing: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...kham-1.6226951

I don't think was part of the Flair expansion press release that added DEN, BNA, etc., but F8 are also adding YWG-YQR and YWG-YXE, both twice weekly and both starting in mid-April.

Kind of odd given that they will be running 737s on what are typically turboprop routes.

It's not like they've any other choice - their whole fleet is 737s.

But yeah, I wonder the same thing: Is there enough demand? Regina and Saskatoon aren't the biggest cities and they're close enough that driving is an option from Winnipeg. Nor do I think they'd be some place that has the potential for big induced demand for people who don't already have a reason to go.

Then again, a quick glance at flights shows prices at $450-500; most of which require making a stop elsewhere.

I know they don't have any other choice, that's why I think those are weird routes to deploy them on. As you note, YWG-YQR/YXE is considered a drivable distance on the prairies, and most budget-minded travellers will be doing just that... driving. Corporate travellers who don't pay for their flights won't be trading in Air Canada and WestJet for Flair.

I guess we'll see.

WS operated Saskatoon-Winnipeg and Regina-Winnipeg with the 737 before they purchased the Dash-8.

For the first decade or two of operation there was no direct Toronto service from Saskatchewan on WS.

Westjet had a couple of flights that hopped along in the country during their early days.

One would get on in Calgary, hop to Regina/Saskatoon/Winnipeg, hop to Sudbury and then onto Hamilton.

It had a very era-gone-by feel to it.

I don't think any large airline really does anything like it today.

I'm wondering why Flair isn't adding flights to YQB instead, considering it is Canada's 7th largest city and 5th most popular touristic destination.

They are spreading themselves thin enough as it is. Trying to be everything for everyone. With only a fleet of 11 aircraft, they can't fly everywhere.

Also, their presence at YUL, although somewhat decent in terms of destinations, is still pretty weak in terms of frequency, for Canada's second largest city that is. So flying to YQB would be a stretch for them right now.

Flying YXE/YQR-YWG seems like a pretty bad decision. People who prioritize time or are travelling for work will already use the current and much more frequent/convenient WS non-stops than the infrequent Flair flights. And if you want to visit but want to be cheap why not just drive? It can even be done in a day if you're efficient.

They had one flight that was:

London Ontario <-> Winnipeg <-> Saskatoon <-> Calgary <-> Vancouver <-> Prince George

Back then for business I was regularly flying between Saskatoon and London Ontario and between Saskatoon and Vancouver. It was great flight.

The weird thing about it, was the gate staff in London, ON would go in the day before and assign everyone seats. If they did not do that, what would happen is anyone flying from London to Saskatoon or Calgary or Vancouver would always be stuck in the middle.

Winnipeg being a little mini hub for Saskatchewan worked well for WS for the first few year. Even today it should still work. If your going somewhere other than Toronto you still left with a connection. Mighty as well be in Winnipeg.

Given how they've structured the schedules, it's clear that they're going for the extra-long weekend VFR crowd who don't want to waste 2 days out of a 4 day weekend driving. They're certainly not going after tourists with these Prairie routes.

I am completely confused by Flair business strategy.

Just tried doing some dummy booking for April 16th. From Saskatoon you can flyer to Winnipeg or Toronto. But other days of the week you can't do either. On the 16th the aircraft looks to go from Saskatoon to Winnipeg return and then off to Toronto.

They could offer YWG-YXE-YYZ, but they don't. Yes, it is a silly routing but it is better than having a daily offering than have passengers wait an extra day.

If they are not going to do connections they have the wrong aircraft for these cities. WestJet was able to make their early network with the 737 work because they were setup to do connecting flights. It would have been a failure otherwise.

I mean either way a YWG-YXE or YWG-YQR will both serve at least a million people which is not an insignificant number. In that allotment you need to provide alternative forms of transportation. For example, this could also be used by recently made startups who want to expand operations but need to save resources on transportation while still reaching a destination in a reasonable timeframe.

Fares start at $49 and get to your desired location in 90 minutes that’s probably more affordable then driving while being way more efficient. Especially with the way gas prices are trending I can guarantee you they won’t struggle to find a crowd. If it also helps reduce the absurd prices brought forth by west jet and air Canada I’m all for it.

Enter...er coming soon (again).

https://www.jetlines.ca

I've not really followed Flair's network design, but my understanding is they're more point-to-point leisure flying than anything else. Their customer is one who will change their plans around the cheap Flair flight, not one who needs a reliable everyday service.

Admittedly the YWG-Saskatchewan flights seem more like a trial balloon at this point. I imagine the scheduling operations saw some idle time with planes sitting in Winnipeg. So, a complete round trip probably could be done in less than 4 hours a few times a week. If it works, great. If not, oh well.

I would be curious if a discount airline could make the old Westjet hop across the country flights work on a daily basis. One plane starts in Halifax in the morning, hops to Vancouver via Montreal, Toronto/Ottawa, Winnipeg/Regina/Saskatoon and Calgary/Edmonton. Another plane starts in Vancouver, does the reverse.

I suspect it wouldn't work for a bunch of reasons (fuel-hungry takeoffs/people prefer direct flights/time zone issues/one airport having issues screws up entire operation are some issues that come to mind) and this is why direct flights are definitely favoured.

Any decade now!

I mean, Chinese Democracy did eventually get released too.

Maybe it just doesn't work and people prefer to fly direct nowadays? If you look at the old CP routes from 1987 (taken from another forum), you'll see most of the routes are hops across Canada. So it would be more acceptable back then when WS just started. No airline do that nowadays, and no one want to fly YVR-YUL with 3 stops anymore.

They did try YVR-YYC/YEG/YMM/YQR/YXE/YWG-YYZ and YXX/YLW-YEG-YYZ, but seems like they move away from that network after just a couple of seasons, and convert all flight to direct and standalone.

I suspect you're right, especially in the case of mainline airlines. Concentrating people at the next big hub and using the appropriate aircraft for the amount of passengers is the better decision. If there's enough passengers between two points, a direct flight makes sense over a multi-stop one.

A quick look at Flair seems to indicate that they're trying to get the low-end passenger who doesn't mind less frequent schedules in exchange for a discount price.

This time Jetlines will have actually $ backing them with the Global X ACMI US carrier that just started ops. https://www.globalairlinesgroup.com/charter.html

This iteration of Jetlines will be completely different more akin to Allegiant and their closest competitor will be Sunwing. I personally hope they actually get off the ground this time.

With TS' retrenchment from western Canada and markets like YOW where demand for sun flights has almost always exceeded supply thanks to YUL being down the 417 and YOW being the AC & WS YYZ feeder capital, there are opportunities there to exploit. In the east, even with a WG presence, places like Sudbury can handle more than 1 sun flight a week. They could easily handle 3-5 more when you compare market size with say Moncton that has a pile of sun routes.

If they're planning to launch in early 2022 but only announce flights in early 2022 they'd be restricted for sun flights. If they want to launch sun flights in February or March or April 2022 they'd have to announce some routes pretty soon (1-2 months).

Interesting flying today out of YYC.

-Domestic lines are 1hr+
-Trans/Inter 10mins
-A few folks past their 72hr window
-US departures seem busy though; our flight to DFW is oversold.

“Expect news” to me equates to “we will announce either our summer 2022 plans or winter sun 2022-23 routes in early 2022”. “Early 2022” to me = anytime in Q1 2022, which could be as late as late March.

Today the inaugural F8 transborder flight to FLL departed YOW, which was the first transborder departure period since June 2020. It even departed on time. Today was also the return of AC on YOW-YTZ since 2005 and later tonight marks the return of network transborder air service as UA touches down at YOW from IAD for the first time since late March 2020.

Wow for Ottawa that US flights✈️ Resumes again. At least it’s slowly returning to
normal for smaller & less busiest airports in Canada but not 100% yet!

Interesting,speaking of Calgary YYC - US flights✈️

This upcoming week:
Calgary - New York JFK resumes on WestJet , 2x weekly November 1 to December 17 and upto 4x weekly from Dec.19 & 1st time it has operated since late March 2020.

Calgary- Seattle, flights resumes again November 4 - on Alaska Airlines which was suspended since late March 2020 will be operating 1 daily & also WestJet’s new Calgary- Seattle service starts the same day operates upto 4-6 weekly.

Also on November 4 seasonal Calgary - Orange County 2-3 weekly flights starts up again on WestJet too.

WestJet 787 planes ✈️ will be operating some flights to sun destinations in Mexico and Hawaii starting November 2021 for this upcoming Winter season again.

Calgary-Cancun
Calgary-Puerto Vallarta
Calgary-Kahului OGG
Toronto- Cancun
Vancouver - Kahului OGG

YYC-OGG (Maui) is back this week too. 2x weekly initially, then increases gradually to daily by late December.

Stuck in DFW due to a cancelled MEX flight from COVID regulation implementations. No cabs, no motels, only airport bar is packed with future residents tonight.

And work on what the US Customs people did to pass the time with no flights day after day? Did they get reassigned to other airports?

You got taken AAdvantage of….;)

Massive cancelations at DFW this past weekend. Some of it was weather, most of it was flight crews timing out at the end of the month.

I went into work last Thursday and there was a GDP for DFW. That’s extremely rare. They were on the 31s due to weather/wind. It snowballed from there.

Not a clue. YWG and YEG also had and YHZ still has no transborder departures to preclear.