Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

[bomberjet]

https://www.chrisd.ca/2019/03/14/aut...airport-video/

Meet Otto: Winnipeg Airport Utilizing First Autonomous Snowplow in North America

[YWG-RO]

Several 737 Max 8 planes will be parked at YWG indefinitely.

[esquire]

^ Maybe it'll become our version of the F28 boneyard at Saskatoon's airport!

[Rogie]

Flair's flights from YWG (and Edmonton) to Las Vegas, Phoenix-Mesa and Orlando are ending a month ahead of schedule, it's abandoning U.S. routes after April 1.

[Pinus]

Originally Posted by Rogie

Flair's flights from YWG (and Edmonton) to Las Vegas, Phoenix-Mesa and Orlando are ending a month ahead of schedule, it's abandoning U.S. routes after April 1.

Seriously though, I didn't expect this airline to really be a serious player in Canada, however I was hoping that I was wrong and that phat cat duopoly of AirWest CanadaJet would have some competition to finally help bring back fair pricing for Canadian passengers.

[CoryB]

I think there is definitely an opportunity for someone to launch a true ultra low cost carrier model in Canada. The problem is the start up costs are so high it prevents most people from even considering playing.

I think the biggest struggle Flair is facing right now is getting costs down a little further and growing its fleet so it is more consistent.

The other thing they need to do is crunch so hard numbers of the minimum cost per seat to operate some of these routes, like the Florida one, and aggressively discount unsold seats as the flight date starts getting closer. If they continue to pull slow selling routes it is going to be extremely hard to get anyone willing to do anything other than last minute tickets.

[bomberjet]

You need someone with deep pockets to sustain loses over a number of years. Like you said, seems nobody wants to play that game yet.

[CoryB]

And not just "someone" but rather "some Canadian citizen"

[Curmudgeon]

Fargo currently has two non-stops daily to DFW on American Eagle using Embraer 175s. I wonder if it would be viable to extend these flights up to YWG. This would give Wpg direct service to AA's DFW hub which has excellent connections worldwide. Geographically, along with IAH, it is the logical connection point for YWG traffic destined to Mexico as well as Central and South America. Flight time to Fargo would be about 45 mins. gate to gate, FAR to DFW is 2h 47m gate to gate.

[esquire]

^ A connection to AA/OneWorld is easily the single biggest missing component at our airport. An AA flight to ORD or DFW would be huge for Winnipeg travellers... it would unlock a lot of options that are difficult to access without the hassle and expense of a positioning flight.

[CoryB]

FAR-YWG-FAR with a 45 minute flight time one way turns into about 2 hours of operational time by the time you factor in unloading and loading in Winnipeg.

The question becomes if it is better to spend those hours on a different route.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by CoryB

FAR-YWG-FAR with a 45 minute flight time one way turns into about 2 hours of operational time by the time you factor in unloading and loading in Winnipeg.

The question becomes if it is better to spend those hours on a different route.

I wonder if there any demand whatsoever for YWG-FAR service or if the YWG leg would result in further maximizing flight loads. Would one daily non-stop YWG-DFW , early departure from YWG, late return, be viable?. I would sure like to see that myself. AA offers dozens of connections from DFW to numerous destinations particularly in Mexico and Central America that with current schedules are not available on Air Canada, United and Delta, at least without overnighting. Not only that but DFW is far less prone to weather delays than YYZ, ORD, MSP or DEN during the winter months.

I remember in the 70s Frontier had YWG-FAR-DEN(Stapleton) service.

[esquire]

^ I can't imagine there would be much if any demand for YWG-FAR service. If AA is ever coming, it's going to be a flight to one of their hubs.

[blueandgoldguy]

Has anyone taken a flight to Churchill? What's the typical time of the flight, including time on runway prior to takeoff? 2.5 hours on Calm Air or longer?

[esquire]

^ Going by Google Flights, it seems to range from 1:40-2:00 on First Air, which would be the gate to gate time. Calm Air might take slightly longer as I believe they use turboprops?

[The Jabroni]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Going by Google Flights, it seems to range from 1:40-2:00 on First Air, which would be the gate to gate time. Calm Air might take slightly longer as I believe they use turboprops?

Yeah, their fleet consists of ATR42 and ATR72 turboprops. Last I checked, they have only 1 Dornier 328JET, which would obviously be the fastest plane in their fleet.

[CoryB]

YWG-FAR has likely the same level as demand as YWG-YBR.

The key to either route is building it as a direct/feeder route.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by CoryB

YWG-FAR has likely the same level as demand as YWG-YBR.

The key to either route is building it as a direct/feeder route.

YWG-YBR could conceivably work as a feeder for eastbound routes from Winnipeg. It would basically mirror YBR-YYC service feeding into flights headed for points west. But neither YWG nor FAR would really work as feeder points. Neither is really well connected enough to fill that role...unless all of a sudden a pile of Fargoans start travelling to Toronto or Montreal via Winnipeg on a regular basis.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by esquire

YWG-YBR could conceivably work as a feeder for eastbound routes from Winnipeg. It would basically mirror YBR-YYC service feeding into flights headed for points west. But neither YWG nor FAR would really work as feeder points. Neither is really well connected enough to fill that role...unless all of a sudden a pile of Fargoans start travelling to Toronto or Montreal via Winnipeg on a regular basis.

The point would be to get a direct connection to DFW and tap into the AA and Oneworld network there, in particular for Mexico and Central America. The number of Mexican destinations served from DFW is impressive, and not just the typical beach destinations like CUN or PVR. It is currently so hard to get to any of these destinations from YWG without an overnight somewhere. Last time I went to PVR I had to overnight in L.A. on the way down and on the way back I had to spend about 5 hours (in the middle of the night) at LAX before connecting on to ORD and YWG. Never been so tired in my life. Better yet would be a daily non-stop to DFW instead of just adding the extra leg on the existing twice daily FAR-DFW route.

Sioux Falls, S.D. and Sioux City, Ia. also get service to DFW by AA Eagle. Surely at least a daily flight would be viable from YWG.

The Fargo and area market would travel to Toronto or Montreal via MSP or ORD as they do now. And don't discount that market, Fargo-Moorhead is now larger in population than Regina, though the passenger counts are about 30% lower at Hector Int'l than they are at YQR due to the proximity of MSP, which has 8.5 times the passenger volume of YWG.

[EspionNoir]

Posted by theflyzone in Canadian Airport Thread:

Q1 numbers

YYZ - 11.7 million +2.8%
YVR - 6,034,883 +3.0%
YUL - 4,677,201 +6.5%
YYC - 4,180,045 +5.3%
YEG - 1,985,214 +3.0%
YOW - 1,248,517 +1.8%
YWG - 1.1 million +7.5%
...
...
YLW - 554,483 +3.4%
YKA - 101,966 +10.2%