Flair is offering pilots LOA'S until next spring. Maybe they are really pulling back on their rapid expansion plans, and aiming to make some profits.

YQB to receive several Korean 777 charters this fall for autumn foliage: https://canadianaviationnews.ca/sout...hts-this-fall/

Halifax used to get similar, but from Japan air from Tokyo. Wonder if those will come back as well.

I was curious how they would go about marketing a foliage tour to Quebec from Korea, but then I see that the demand is driven by an apparently popular show called "Goblin: The Lonely and Great God" filmed in the area? Interesting, I have never heard of it before.

Coming soon to YOW YTR, YEG and other airports that regularly see military transport traffic. DND have procured two A330s from Kuwait Airways for introduction as transports: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/air...avel-1.6858381. The A310 replacements have begun. These 330s are 2015 builds, so still pretty young.

:previous:

RCAF wants four more to make a fleet of six A330s. A couple of these would be tanker conversions. JT is noncommittal.

This was predictable. Some of those Flair pilots being offered an LOA might want to start looking at their options!

Air Canada pilots look to start bargaining early after WestJet pay hike
By The Canadian Press | May 30, 2023, 10:15am

The pilots union at the country's biggest airline is opening the gate to bargaining ahead of time — as early as this summer.

Air Canada says its pilots group has triggered an option to launch negotiations around a new collective agreement a year early.

The move comes after pilots at WestJet and budget subsidiary Swoop settled on a tentative deal this month that secures a 24 per cent wage increase over four years.....

https://biv.com/article/2023/05/air-...stjet-pay-hike

The article stipulates these two 'in a few years' this pair will be tanker compatible. I would guess at the next major D check (or whatever those are called nowadays). In the meantime the 310s can keep doing that.

This puzzles me. If Jazz is unable to find Q400 pilots, why would PAL have any more luck doing so?

Air Canada taps PAL Airlines for Dash 8 aircraft amid pilot shortage
ERIC ATKINS TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
PUBLISHED YESTERDAY
FOR SUBSCRIBERS

Air Canada has tapped St. John’s-based PAL Airlines to boost its flight schedule in the Atlantic provinces amid a shortage of pilots.

PAL will fly as many as six De Havilland Canada Dash 8 aircraft for Air Canada AC-T -2.82%decrease
on regional routes beginning in July, according to a preliminary agreement separately announced by the companies on Tuesday.

The five-year deal is intended to cover the shortfall of pilots at Chorus Aviation’s Jazz Aviation, which is Air Canada’s long-time operator of regional flights in the East.

WestJet pilots deal grants 24 per cent pay raise over four years

Air Canada made the deal as it expands its schedule to meet pent-up demand for travel, said spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick – describing the PAL agreement as a “bridging” arrangement.

PAL, owned by Exchange Income Fund, will acquire the aircraft and fly them in addition to its own fleet of 13 planes....

....According to Air Canada’s agreement with Chorus, pilots can switch to the larger carrier and retain part of the seniority they earned at Jazz. Many have done so to fill vacancies left by pilots who have taken more lucrative jobs at U.S.-based airlines, leaving Chorus unable to meet Air Canada’s fast-rising demand, experts say.

Air Canada “has been requiring [Chorus] to graduate a much higher than normal number of pilots from [Chorus] up to [Air Canada] under its pilot mobility arrangement – primarily due to rapid increase in demand for pilots associated with the reconstitution of its own main-line capacity,” said Walter Spracklin, a stock analyst with Royal Bank of Canada, in a note to clients.

Air Canada “was not able to pull from labour pools that existed pre-pandemic due to retirements during the pandemic that have kept the pilot labour market tight.”....

....Tyrone Cotie, vice-president of Chorus, said in an interview that the pilot shortage is industry-wide and is a result of the large number who retired in the pandemic.

“We’re in a catch-up phase,” Mr. Cotie said.

A 2018 report from the Canadian Council for Aviation and Aerospace warned that Canada will be short 3,000 pilots by 2025. Commercial flight schools, including those owned by PAL’s parent company and Chorus, issue a total of 1,200 licences a year. This figure plunged in the pandemic, at the same time as many left the industry.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...ilot-shortage/

It's about to get real busy at YUL !

Still on single runway until June 23 and the aircraft movements are set to increase by about 100 movements a day as of next week, with the summer schedule coming into full swing.

Some highlights coming up:

AC starts YUL-CPH and TLS tomorrow, and AMS on friday. They resume TPA on June 3, and will start YUL-YMM on June 20. And of course, in about a month's time, EK is starting daily flights to DXB.

Oh and btw, just like last year, this year's F1 weekend (June 16-18) will be handled entirely on single runway. That's going to be fun ! :shrug:

Once 06L/24R reopens on June 23, the rehabilitation of that runway will finally be complete (it only took 5 years, as it started in 2018 !), with new high speed exits to decrease runway occupancy time. There will also be a renumbering of a bunch of taxiways and runway 10-28 coming up along with it.

Is 10-28 now a taxiway?

So YUL GDP every day?

Yes. Has been a de facto taxiway for 5 years now. It will “officially” become a taxiway soon.

Pretty much a guarantee. There’s been GDPs on most days already since we’ve been on single runway ops. And this was only with 550-600 movements a day. We’re going up into the 700s in June.

Me neither. Always find it fascinating how Asians like to travel to places they’re emotionally attached to based on a tv show or book, etc.

Good on Quebec City for leveraging that to their advantage.

YUL used to get those as well. However, now that AC serves YUL-NRT, there is no need for charters.

A one runway operation is a plane spotter's dream although I never seem to see many videos from YUL. Maybe the sightlines aren't great.

Maybe you talked about this 5 years ago but was Runway 10/28 ever supposed to be lengthened to the west? It looks like there was some room left there on purpose. To piggyback on that, does YUL not ever have poor crosswinds where both parallel runways would be of no use and 10/28 would be needed?

YVR has a similar setup but I feel like Runway 13/31 is hardly used. YYC has Runway 11/29 which also seems to be used sparingly relative to the two parallel runways. I don't know if it can even handle planes larger than the 737. YYZ seems to have a plethora of runways but I feel like Runway 15L/33R is used the least. YEG, YWG and YHZ have "prependicularish" runway setups. It just seems like parallel runways only are the way to go in any new/refurbished airport design.

Quite the contrary. ADM built a planespotting park just off of 06R/24L. Perfect location for single runway ops on that runway. Facebook has a spotters group called “55e avenue -spotteurs Montreal “. They’ve been posting quite the videos in the last 3 months. That park has been jam packed with people the last couple of months.

There were no plans that I know of to extend 10/28 to the west. And yes, during fall/spring, that runway came in handy with the crosswinds. It’s been 5 years now we can’t use it, but the crosswinds haven’t been an issue. Commercial planes can handle 25 kt crosswinds with no issue.

LHR doesn’t have a crosswind runway and they seem to be doing fine. It makes for spotting on those days quite fun.

I am curious if PAL offers a better life/work balance versus trying to claw one's way up at a larger airline that might move pilots between bases across the country regularly.

The call of home and sleeping in the same bed at night is something not easily quantified in dollars. Same with the concept of working for a smaller business versus a larger one. A small-town bakery might be a better fit for some than a massive Weston-branded bread manufacturing facility.

AC for the first time are partnering with Swissport to open a new lounge at YTZ: https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...831749591.html

The location is quite good but the lighting for photo/video becomes crappy just in time for the good stuff (backlit in summer). On the 24R side, St. François is also great for but it suffers the “inverse” lighting issue (backlit until around 3). The AC and BBD bases sitting right between the 24s is a major limitation for photo/video geeks.

https://kitchener.citynews.ca/2023/0...international/
New hangar officially opens at ROW International By Jonathan Strom May 31, 2023

The ribbon is cut at Chartright Air's new FBO at ROW International. / Jonathan Strom. CityNews.
https://kitchener.citynews.ca/wp-con...r-1024x576.jpg

https://twitter.com/jonathan_strom/s...34561665859587

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxd7qM3X...pg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxd7qM2W...pg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fxd7qM6X...pg&name=medium