Kelowna International Airport August numbers are out:

Aug 2019 183,191 passengers (-10% Aug y/y) (-0.9% YTD y/y)

https://ylw.kelowna.ca/business/facts-statistics

It probably will be, but just in teal rather than black/red. ;)

Air Can't-ada

As my American friends who are used to dealing with accommodating agents and stewardess deemed the airline.

I've flown Lufthansa, United, Westjet, Delta, Aeromexico, Aegean, and yeah, Air Canada. I don't get the hate for Air Canada.

I've personally had nothing but positive experiences on AC. I flew transatlantic Rouge a few months ago and was actually impressed. But of course YMMV.

I don't mind AC personally, my aeroplan points have been beneficial. I book what ever airline has the least connections & fastest service to my destination without getting too expensive of course.

Why Aye Man! I can sympathize with both sides of the coin on this one. Having to fly two extra hours over shooting your destination to have to wait for hours in Halifax airport, just to catch another two hour flight to home airport, & that would be the best connection option, it would aggravate me too.

It would be same as imagining flying from London to Vancouver just to fly to Saskatoon!
I can't imagine that kind of connection, although it would be one potential option... i suppose.
Being central on the continent means you usually fly in the direction you need to travel to make any necessary connections, &/or make quick connector flights with short transit time at a through airport because the hub & spoke system works so well.

So I had to look on google maps to make certain, St John's to London has an 8 hour & 40 min transit and costs $859 round trip. Saskatoon to London has a 10 hour & 40 min transit and costs $894 round trip. It doesn't seem very fair, since Newfoundland is twice as close to the UK.
Having a critical population mass with hubs close by has it's benefits I guess.

https://i.imgur.com/tF8Ck6T.png

https://www.google.com/flights?hl=en...D;e:1;sd:1;t:f

https://www.google.com/flights?hl=en...D;e:1;sd:1;t:f

The thing is though, Newfoundland and Labrador is tiny.

If you want to start an airline that ships people in "first class" containers out of Atlantic Canada, be my guest.

Me, I think I'll use the regular airlines, thanks. :P

But that's the rub, right? A region of 850,000 people would be competing with a province of a million as Westjet is launching a flight to CDG from YHZ.

For a region of about 2 million, you'd want to put the flight out of the population mass centre of it. Which, unfortunately for NB, is Halifax.

Same here - forty years + of flying AC and others around the world and I've found AC unfailingly professional and efficient (I'm not looking for friendly, cheery, or funny). They also used to bump me up a lot, which was nice!

Maybe Westjet will go back there once they get the MAX issues sorted out. A 737-700 should be able to make the hop from St. John's to Dublin easily.

But yes, I'd expect it to be low on the priority list. Business fares (of which there aren't much of between Dublin and St. John's) drive a flight. The leisure passengers are just filler for the back of the plane.

I haven't heard any complaints from the lobsters yet about their direct one stop (via Anchorage) B747 service to China from Moncton.

Humans NB residents aren't quite so lucky. :)

Add me as another who hasn't ever had problems with Air Canada. They're certainly not quite in the same level as airlines like Singapore Airlines, but they're pretty decent. The only thing I can complain about them, really, is the prices, especially for domestic / transborder, but that's a general complaint about the Canadian air travel market and not just specific to Air Canada.

I've never had an issue with Air Canada. I get the frustration that comes with dealing with an airline, they have some sort of twisted entitlement to jerk people around, but all airlines do it. Air Canada, surprisingly, is the one airline I have never had an issue with.

Westjet is a flying cattle car which cracks jokes to cover up ineptitude. When my flight to the west coast of the island was cancelled I had a ticket agent suggest I just fly to St. John's and get a cab home... "Ok, and who exactly is forking over $400 for a 9 hour cab ride?" followed by the usual response of "Newfoundland isn't that big". Would you suggest somebody flying to Toronto route through Sudbury instead? No.

Porter once left me stuck in Toronto and refused a refund for the cancellation because the flight was technically still going to my destination, it just wasn't originating from the airport it was supposed to. Still haven't figured that one out.

Provincial Airlines once flew me from Stephenville to Deer Lake (20 minutes) and then said, "oh hey, sorry we are bumping you from the flight the rest of the way to St. John's, you'll have to wait in Deer Lake until the next flight and maybe you can get on then". 12 hours later there was a flight to St. John's. There are no flights to Deer Lake during the day. It was just me and the janitor watching the Chilean mine rescue. Not even the restaurant/cafe was open.

Air Canada has successfully charged me too much, allowed me to board, not bumped me off en route, and dropped me at my desired destination, 100% of the time. My only gripe is they won't fly to YJT.

+1

Maybe I've had really good luck, but I've never had any problems with my flights, either with Air Canada, Westjet or other airlines. I've always arrived at my destination within a reasonable time frame and had my expectations met.

Then again, I generally set my expectations to who I'm flying. If I'm flying AC Rouge, I'm not expecting anything more than a (tight) seat and a drink.

I don't fly much though and I'm somewhat interested in the industry, so I'm aware of how things work, which helps.

I don't have much problem with the level of service on Air Canada, and have always found the airline and it's employees to be competent and professional.

The only issues I have with Air Canada is their slavish adherence to the hub and spoke model and the tight seat pitch on their Rouge service (a flight from Toronto to San Diego a couple of years ago damned near crippled me).

Air Canada remains my default airline, especially for international flight, although I would consider flying WestJet to western Canadian destinations. I also have a soft spot for Porter when flying from Moncton if my terminal destination is Toronto. I really like flying into Billy Bishop.

Air Canada is so far above carriers like United and American it’s not funny.

I've never had issue with any major Canadian airline carrier. I've had only positive dealings with all three. Prices are, on average, the same for most flights so there really isn't an inherent advantage of one over the other.

As for the YYT-DUB flight, people are mad about it. Sadly though it likely didn't make sense for West Jet to keep it going, especially under the hub and spoke model all the airlines use. Dublin was always a peculiar direct flight. Sure, people feel a connection to their ancestral homeland, but tourism alone isn't going to keep a flight alive in such a small market. There isn't enough business between our two cities to keep that flight alive; eventually people who wanted to see Ireland will have done so, and then what happens? At least with a flight based out of Halifax they can take advantage of the higher traffic numbers.

It would make more sense for YYT to focus on direct flights to larger, more in-demand centres. New York and Boston are two glaringly obvious routes that would likely see a lot of business travel.

It does suck to have to back track when traveling though. Like really sucks. But there are trade offs for choosing to live in a sparsely populated area in the middle of nowhere.

Yech, so North America-centric. A flight to Dublin makes just as much sense as Boston in any of the reasons you're citing. Isn't our trade with Ireland higher than Massachusetts?

Good question. :shrug: