Except when you have to go transborder.

My biggest problem with connections is the increased likelihood of delays, especially with winter weather. And also kids - my son can't walk by a Relay store without begging for knick knacks. In February we were connecting in Toronto and we had to to walk by a bunch of them and he had a tantrum at each one. We caved and got him a Toronto fridge magnet so he will always remember our 3 hours in Pearson airport.

Yes, but for those of us in Atlantic Canada, flying 2-3 hours west before we fly an eastbound transatlantic makes for a very long travel day. I wouldn't mind connecting flights if I could start my journey in the right general direction.

Fortunately there are a few TATL flights out of Halifax, and if the MAX ever get back in the air we may see a few more eventually.

I flew to Calgary to get to London - it’s not really that big of a deal.

Depends on the airport - Calgary and Montreal make it easy. Toronto and Vancouver still have work to do from what I understand.

Calgary went from the absolute worst for TB to one of the best since the new terminal opened. I don't mind Toronto or Vancouver.

I'm with you generally, though. I'm fine with connections as long as they're reasonable. The 1x a week YWG-LGW flight is meaningless to all but a tiny handful of Winnipeggers flying overseas. It has more value as a selling point ("YWG has service to Europe!!!!") than anything else.

Thomas Cook Group just went belly up......

Condor is a part of Thomas Cook Group. They are still operating, but applied to the German Government for some much needed cash. Let's see what happens.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/ge...093244564.html

Condor's operations in Canada include service to YXY, YVR, YYC, YHZ and YYZ.

It's not been a good few years for many low-cost/vacation operations in Europe.

Wow Air
Air Berlin
Thomas Cook
Monarch

All of them have gone belly up. I'm not sure if it's Ryanair and the like eating their lunch or if the consolidation of airlines into mega-players like IAG and Lufthansa, but man, small airlines are just getting killed.

Notable AC Long-Haul changes for S20 that was not already posted:

YVR-PEK/HKG downgauge from 777 to 789.
YVR-KIX/ZRH now mix 788 and 789, with frequency increase for KIX.
YYZ-DXB now mix 788 and 789 with service increase to 4x weekly.
YUL-DUB(4)/TLV(3) now share a 788.
YVR-DUB(4)/CDG(3) now share a 333.
YVR-LHR/FRA change from 789 to 77W.
YYZ-ICN change from 77W to 789.
YYZ-GRU change from 789 to 77W.

YYZ-WAW down to 5x weekly.
YUL-LIM cancelled, and YYZ-LIM service increase to 5x weekly.
YYZ-BOG service reduce to 5x weekly after introduction of YUL-BOG.
YYZ-TXL down to 5x weekly.

YYZ/YUL-DEN operates with 223, 2x daily

Plus lots of 333 and 789 swaps from YUL and YYZ, and I'm not going to list them all...

Also:

YYC-LHR 333 replacing 789 from 29MAR until mid-June and then again in September.

YUL-LIM suspended for the Summer or really cancelled?

Decent boost for YVR, nearly 4.5%, with the beatdown on AsiaPac continuing but Europe showing strong growth.

A 2 hour flight in the wrong direction means the 2 hours of flight time plus connection time plus 2 hours of flying more or less the way you came from. This can easily be 5 hours of extra time. This means your Halifax to London UK trip goes from just under 6 hours to 11 hours.

Nobody wants to do this and it's expensive. The question is whether it makes economic sense to do that instead of having direct flights. There clearly is enough demand from YHZ to make the direct flights profitable. That is not surprising since it's a hub for a region with over 2 million people that has weak road connections to anywhere else.

Not sure. W20 schedule was not posted yet.

What is the reason?the route was not profitable anymore ?

YYC August stats are out, and just like everywhere else, not much growth. Domestic probably taking a hit from the MAX groundings. Nice boost to international though.

https://www.yyc.com/Portals/0/MEDIA/...r_paxtotal.pdf

August 2019 Stats:
Domestic: 1,302,872 -1.9%
Transborder: 325,135 +4.0%
International: 168,986 +20.1%
Month total: 1,796,993 +0.8%

2019 Year-to-Date: 12,146,658 +3.62%

YUL-LIM was initially announced as 2x weekly winter seasonal in the press release. The route was launched as 2x weekly year round, and then quickly increased to 3x weekly year round. These incremental increases tells me the bookings were strong and that AC was pleased with the route.

Hopefully the route is simply going back to winter seasonal as originally planned. We shall soon find out.

A big component of all flights to LIM is cargo. Could be cargo demand is getting weaker on the route, which might impact overall yields. YUL-LIM getting axed could also be related to the launch of YUL-BOG, where AC feels it has better chances of success.

Growing cargo business ‘doing very well’ at Edmonton International Airport

September 20, 2019
By Margeaux Maron Community Reporter Global News

For more than four years, a KLM flight direct from Amsterdam has been bringing precious goods to and from Edmonton.

Passengers, of course, in addition to the all-important cargo.

“Cargo has a huge impact to the economy — more than a passenger flight does,” said Myron Keehn, vice-president of air service and commercial development at Edmonton International Airport.

The better the cargo business, the more likely routes like KLM’s stay in Edmonton.

“Cargo volumes in Edmonton are doing very well,” said Keehn. “We’re up almost five per cent year-over-year in a world economy that has about a six per cent decline in cargo.”

As Edmontonians arrive home, a flyover of the southeast corner of EIA shows a significant change from the canola fields that stood there five years ago.

...

https://globalnews.ca/news/5931640/e...argo-business/

Add XL Airways France and Aigle Azur to the list. The latter was founded in 1946. XL Airways stopped selling tickets, but still has some flights coming/going it seems.

On a somewhat related note, Thomas Cook's demise will pose some headaches for Air Transat, which had signed a 7 year aircraft sharing deal with the airline. They were supposed to get some narrowbody airbuses from them this coming winter.

Don't know if the leasing companies will honor that deal.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/thomas-c...dies-1.1320461

Edit: It's now offical. XL Airways France ceased operations. So did Adria Airways (a star alliance carrier which has been around since 1961). The European airline landscape was simply too crowded.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...ations-461169/

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...bankru-461173/

Condor should be okay. They've continued to be profitable, but in the short-term, losing the TCX component of the business will hurt.

It does seems this way. YUL-LIM flight operates until the end of May, while BOG starts at the beginning of June.