Calgary International Airport II

[casper]

Originally Posted by Cage

Your welcome.



My old man worked for AC, both at the airport and at headquarters. He retired as a network schedule manager.

I have done management consulting and corporate finance projects for three Canadian airlines. But I have never pulled a paycheque from an airline.

Mostly I enjoy flying premium cabin for cheap, that requires an intimate and understanding of tariff regulations and airline systems and operating procedures.



TC minimum gate utilization regulations is a mechanism to deter airlines from sitting on gates to prevent competition. The regulation predates common use equipment and goes back to the days of AC, CP, PWA, Nordair, Calm Air, nationair, etc.

Before Arinc muse and the Sita solution, airlines had to hardwire their gate terminals into the mainframe system. This meant that gates would have one terminal for each airline that used the specific gate. Consequently to save time and money, gates were assigned to each airline.

In YEG, AC had four gates in the north wing and CP had 3 gates in the middle followed by 2-3 gates that were assigned to US airlines. However only the gates assigned to AC and CP would have a terminal to access the Departure Control Systems. The US airline Out stations would not have DCS access.

Let's say a new domestic airline wants to start service out of YEG. Each of CP and AC have 15-18 flights per day, but AC has one more gate. Under the TC formula for gate use, AC would have give up one gate to the new entrant because they were below minimum standards for gate use. Alternately, AC increase the number of daily flights to meet minimum atac standards and thus prevent the new entrant from gain access to prime gate locations.

Cage - Thanks for the insight. Interesting perspective.

That allocation of gates to airlines and predatory gate sitting behaviour sounds like how most of the older airport terminals in the US still operate today.

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