Saskatoon and Regina Air Service

[casper]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

Did you even read the article? How would your idea of a passenger bill of rights, solve the problems highlighted in it particularly the profit motive vs national interest, lack of competition, lack of workers, and the use of public infrastructure to benefit private interests?

I’m also confused by how you say “thankfully” workers in Regina/Saskatoon are contracted out and then a few paragraphs later admit that job security is why airlines can’t find workers. Nationalization would solve this major problem.

I did read the article and agree on the problem, the performance of Air Canada, WestJet and the airports over the past few weeks has been terrible and needs to be fixed.

I disagree on the proposed solution. They propose the solution is to nationalize Air Canada.

The key difference between now and the 1980s and 1990s for domestic air travel is we use to have two airlines running aircraft on the same routes that were operating at fairly low capacity factors. I use to travel between Ottawa and Vancouver regularly in the 90s. A route that was always a A320 or 737 and usually had an empty middle seat. Today that is not the case. Computer modelling, yield management etc and result in full flights.

When a flight gets cancelled you just cant rebook people onto another flight. To their credit AC and WS have an agreement in place that allows them to move passengers on the other airline if it same day and a domestic only itinerary. The requires staff know how to use their computer systems which is another problem.

That does not happen with the ULCC. Swoop and Flair are island onto themselves. That needs to be fixed. If Swoop is going to be late and seats are available on Flair or WS or AC it needs to be forced to rebook passengers. It will cost them money and their prices will go up to be incline with AC and WS.

Nationalizing AC and then making them compete with Swoop is not a solution.

As for the airports, honestly they are already nationalized. The land is owned by the government, the airports are operated by community based non-profits with board of directors mostly made up of local business and municipal governments.

[djforsberg]

Are WestJet and Air Canada not overbooking flights 11 months in advance knowing full well they cannot staff them? How does one get re-booked onto another flight when no flights have open seats? Again, how would this requirement solve the staffing issues that are at the heart of the problem? I will admit, your idea could be implemented yesterday, yet our feckless federal government continues to sit on their asses.

[casper]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

Are WestJet and Air Canada not overbooking flights 11 months in advance knowing full well they cannot staff them? How does one get re-booked onto another flight when no flights have open seats? Again, how would this requirement solve the staffing issues that are at the heart of the problem? I will admit, your idea could be implemented yesterday, yet our feckless federal government continues to sit on their asses.

WestJet does not overbook. It use to be because their reservation system did not have the capability to overbook. A few years ago they transitioned to Sabre that should permit it but they have said they don't.

Air Canada does overbook in Economy but not in Business class. That is all driven by sophisticated computer algorithms that look at past no-show data to determine just how many seats they can overbook on a specific flight at a specific time of the year and get away with.

Even if they overbook there are always going to be open seats at the last minute due to people missing connections etc.

What both airlines do, is 11 months out they will typically loading the schedule from the pervious year into the reservation system then they start making adjustments. The people who build these schedules are doing it based on the number of aircraft they have in the fleet with the assumption that the departments responsible for training crew and staffing flight have sufficient people to fly all the aircraft they have. Just now they can't get them hired and trained fast enough.

[djforsberg]

Originally Posted by casper

WestJet does not overbook. It use to be because their reservation system did not have the capability to overbook. A few years ago they transitioned to Sabre that should permit it but they have said they don't.

Air Canada does overbook in Economy but not in Business class. That is all driven by sophisticated computer algorithms that look at past no-show data to determine just how many seats they can overbook on a specific flight at a specific time of the year and get away with.

Even if they overbook there are always going to be open seats at the last minute due to people missing connections etc.

What both airlines do, is 11 months out they will typically loading the schedule from the pervious year into the reservation system then they start making adjustments. The people who build these schedules are doing it based on the number of aircraft they have in the fleet with the assumption that the departments responsible for training crew and staffing flight have sufficient people to fly all the aircraft they have. Just now they can't get them hired and trained fast enough.

So they had 11 months to do it and in that time almost every other sector was also having staffing issues, yet they didn't foresee this happening? That is a level of incompetence that should result in the harshest of penalties. That's not to say this isn't going as planned. The executives and shareholders aren't suffering. Just everyone else. Our just-in-time, profits above all society needs to be reigned in and no this should not be solved with a bunch of imported cheap labour.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Early morning AC flight to YYZ from YQR finally coming back (though it being Rouge)

[EDM753Fan]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

Early morning AC flight to YYZ from YQR finally coming back (though it being Rouge)

Now THIS.... is a score!!!

Great news for anyone who travels east on AC.

Rouge or not - it will eventually be moved back to mainline. I've observed that they generally use Rouge (rude) metal when they're short of mainline. Its usually a temporary measure. Perhaps we'll get some nice A220's back after that...

[YYCguys]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

Confirmed with a friend at WJ. They are reorganizing their fleet, focusing on 737s in the east, and setting up bases in Halifax and St John.

Setting up bases in YHZ and YYT? Really? I work for the same company and have not heard this at all!

[Calfan12]

WESTJET NW22 DOMESTIC FREQUENCY VARIATIONS

Calgary – Regina Reduce from 48 to 44 weekly
Calgary – Saskatoon Reduce from 53 to 42 weekly
Edmonton – Regina Reduce from 20 to 13 weekly
Edmonton – Saskatoon Reduce from 23 to 16 weekly
Winnipeg – Regina Reduce from 7 to 6 weekly
Winnipeg – Saskatoon Reduce from 12 to 9 weekly
Toronto – Regina Reduce from 7 to 3 weekly
Toronto – Saskatoon Reduce form 7 to 4 weekly

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/220815-wsnw22ca

It’s similar Domestic weekly winter frequencies from Saskatoon YXE / Regina YQR departing to Calgary YYC, Edmonton YEG, Toronto YYZ & Winnipeg YWG.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Originally Posted by Calfan12

WESTJET NW22 DOMESTIC FREQUENCY VARIATIONS

Calgary – Regina Reduce from 48 to 44 weekly
Calgary – Saskatoon Reduce from 53 to 42 weekly
Edmonton – Regina Reduce from 20 to 13 weekly
Edmonton – Saskatoon Reduce from 23 to 16 weekly
Winnipeg – Regina Reduce from 7 to 6 weekly
Winnipeg – Saskatoon Reduce from 12 to 9 weekly
Toronto – Regina Reduce from 7 to 3 weekly
Toronto – Saskatoon Reduce form 7 to 4 weekly

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/220815-wsnw22ca

It’s similar Domestic weekly winter frequencies from Saskatoon YXE / Regina YQR departing to Calgary YYC, Edmonton YEG, Toronto YYZ & Winnipeg YWG.

Westjet only had 1 flight a day to Toronto from YQR to begin with (which never made any sense). And now, only 3 Toronto flights per week. Wow. Air Canada will love this.

[Robag]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

Westjet only had 1 flight a day to Toronto from YQR to begin with (which never made any sense). And now, only 3 Toronto flights per week. Wow. Air Canada will love this.

I think this is an indication of the way Westjet is moving towards a more western focus. We are being funneled through Calgary if we want to fly east. I have a flight booked in Feb to Florida, and on our way out, we are able to fly through Winnipeg, but on our return, we have to fly through Calgary. The days that we are flying there and back, have no connections in Toronto.

I guess there are still issues with bringing back employees and re-building with new staff. It will take another year or two to get themselves back to where they were. And who knows what that will look like down the road.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Robag

I think this is an indication of the way Westjet is moving towards a more western focus. We are being funneled through Calgary if we want to fly east. I have a flight booked in Feb to Florida, and on our way out, we are able to fly through Winnipeg, but on our return, we have to fly through Calgary. The days that we are flying there and back, have no connections in Toronto.

I guess there are still issues with bringing back employees and re-building with new staff. It will take another year or two to get themselves back to where they were. And who knows what that will look like down the road.

That is not ideal. When I use to live in Saskatoon, WestJet would have a morning Saskatoon, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton etc that arrived into Winnipeg at about the same time. The aircraft would then continue off to Toronto, Montreal, London and Ottawa. The reverse happening in the evening. Doing the connection in Winnipeg was much nicer that back-tracking through Calgary. That was even during the time Winnipeg had the old terminal that was a crappy experience.

[djforsberg]

Originally Posted by Robag

I think this is an indication of the way Westjet is moving towards a more western focus. We are being funneled through Calgary if we want to fly east. I have a flight booked in Feb to Florida, and on our way out, we are able to fly through Winnipeg, but on our return, we have to fly through Calgary. The days that we are flying there and back, have no connections in Toronto.

I guess there are still issues with bringing back employees and re-building with new staff. It will take another year or two to get themselves back to where they were. And who knows what that will look like down the road.

Pretty much every industry is having trouble finding people. I don’t see how things get better anytime soon unless they start bringing in plane loads of immigrants. Considering our aging population, this should have been anticipated but corporations only care about the next quarter, and with the pandemic expediting people’s retirements, well, here we are. Yay free market and lack of state planning.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

Pretty much every industry is having trouble finding people. I don’t see how things get better anytime soon unless they start bringing in plane loads of immigrants. Considering our aging population, this should have been anticipated but corporations only care about the next quarter, and with the pandemic expediting people’s retirements, well, here we are. Yay free market and lack of state planning.

And our political folks are so good at looking beyond the election cycle? Both sides of the coin need up their game.

[djforsberg]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

And our political folks are so good at looking beyond the election cycle? Both sides of the coin need up their game.

Our governments today work for corporations and the wealthy, so I wholeheartedly agree. Which is why we need governments who work for the people but that won't happen unless everyone puts the work in to see it happen.

[The Bess]

Some good news

https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/saskato...very-1.6037443

[kattiff]

this real YQR to CUN
https://thecancunsun.com/air-canada-...tes-to-cancun/

[EDM753Fan]

Bad news. Looks like AC is bringing back DH4 equipment on the YQR-YYC route's starting in November.....

[McBean]

Originally Posted by edm753fan

bad news. Looks like ac is bringing back dh4 equipment on the yqr-yyc route's starting in november.....

yuck

[caveat.doctor]

Quick stop over at YXE yesterday, between Regina and Montreal, first time seeing the new terminal. (Edit - didn't realise that "new" is back from 2015! So new to me at least.) Quite nice:







The AC lounge is quite nice - much larger and brighter than the one in Regina, and with bar service (though I guess some would prefer the self-serve one at YQR instead).







Tornado shelter - hopefully not a commonly used feature!



Was a beautiful Thanksgiving Monday for a fly over!

[esquire]

I haven't been to YXE since 1995... looks a lot bigger, brighter and nicer than I recall! Thanks for sharing.