Calgary International Airport II

[Cage]

Okay I see it now, three domestic aircraft arrived at 74/75/76 within 8am-8:45am time slot and then departed international or transborder. My information that i looked at initially had the domestic arrival gate assignments for tomorrow.

Thinking outside the box......

The reason for segregating domestic arrivals/departures from international (not transborder) departures is to provide both OSS (One Stop Security) and TWoV (Transit Without Visa). If there is no chance of OSS or TWoV departure connecting pax, then domestic and international departures can be comingled.

The first D concourse departure is not until 10am, PVR WS2312. The first arrival is not until 10:05 being AC585 from EWR. Finally AC9 from NRT arrives 10:30am. So lets say by 10am the D concourse departures hall must be locked down to international departure pax only.

International Duty Free needs a segregated international departure pax in order to be able to let pax leave the store with their purchase. If domestic and international pax are commingled, duty free purchases must be handed out at the gate after being cleared to board the aircraft.

My guesstimate is that WS 104/110/128 have a lot of international and USA connecting pax, especially since these flight connect into the 8 aircraft transborder/international departure bank. Gating these aircraft close to the international terminal would minimize the connection time and walking distance.

At 10am WS has the international departures concourse to themselves, save for a handful of AC10 pax who checkin and go through security 4.5 hours before departure. With D concourse to WS near exclusive use, I could see a plan whereby WS 104/110/128 pax disembark the aircraft to the concourse D departures. With 5-8 helpful WS staff to direct domestic arrival pax back through to C70 departures hall (going backwards through the Commissionaire station at gate C72/73) and to waiting YYCLink shuttles to take them back to concourse A. International connections would remain at gate 76 for the 10am to PVR. Transborder connections would be directed to the appropriate pathway for checkpoint E screening and USCBP formalities.

Your risk is that there are a few domestic pax that remain in concourse D area past the 10am cut off. A few intercom messages would get most peoples attention and the odd straggler would have to be seen by CBSA to explain themselves.

My final conclusion is that WS and the CAA are trialing a new configuration that would address some of WS concerns over the new international terminal being dissfunctional for WS operations and passengers. Picking a Tuesday before school lets out would lessen the downside risk of a major failure while still allowing for summer schedule operations.