It looks like AC has isn't operating YOW-EWR at all until Jan. 8th? Is this due to the CRJ exit mentioned a few posts back?
GDL is actually a very major city in Mexico, and Vancouver has a big Mexican population many of whom are from that region, so it makes sense. Not for Flair though lol, it's an odd addition coming from them, it would be more something for AC or AM honestly. It isn't like a Phoenix or one of Flair's other sun spots, it is much more an actual city akin to Mexico City, not a resort spot at all. We tend to think of Mexico as having one major "real" city, and then a bunch of beach cities that may be large and have their own residents, but for Canadians they are very much sun getaways. I am very glad to see this add, I know many Mexican residents here will be pleased as well (and with the lower price!). But moreso, I kind of hope AC will see this and announces their own service to GDL, maybe 3 or 4 weekly (they aren't big on 2 or less frequency for non-beach destinations). Airlines tend to get competitive when someone else gets into a big market; if no one is operating it, sometimes airlines will leave it unserved thinking they aren't losing out. But all of a sudden someone else is doing it, big airlines like AC might try and edge them out. AC just started YYZ-MTY 3-4 times a week, so they obviously have secondary non-resort destinations on their radar. Who knows, I prefer AC and don't trust Flair to keep and nurture routes like this, but glad to gave it for now.
OK I know I am going to sound like a broken record, since I mentioned this on the old thread quite a bit. I am still surprised what Air Canada is doing out east. YUL had always been very popular for Francophone routes to Europe (in France, Geneva, etc.). But AC seemed very clear that YYZ was its global hub, and that's where they were going to build up. Post-covid, or maybe even before, AC seems to be snubbing YYZ in favour of YUL, it's insane the route growth they've had at YUL, and to all over (India, Africa, Europe of course). YYZ was the undisputed king for European routes other than Francophone. Now it seems they are dividing things up almost 50/50! Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Bogota, Delhi, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Venice are all routes I would have thought AC would keep exclusively at YYZ, and grow as demand warranted. Yet here we are. And YYZ might be busy, but it is not THAT overcrowded that AC couldn't increase capacity there if it wanted to keep the "global hub" idea. They are not Heathrow or Schipol, if AC wanted to have all those routes at YYZ and increase frequencies, the airport could handle it. AC is levelling the international field between the two in a big way, I didn't see that coming, I thought they were really thinking to make YYZ a behemoth, but that hasn't been the case. Good for YUL, it isn't easy being a smaller airport located not far from another larger airport in the same country, the larger airport tends to reap the prize routes. But somehow AC is letting YUL take a much bigger share, I wonder if someone at YYZ pissed them off lol!
I see AC still has YVR-YQB (5x weekly) and YYC-YQB (3x weekly) scheduled for next summer on Rouge. I am surprised by this, and not sure if they will update it, but I was thinking AC would keep YVR at least on mainline like they are doing in winter. It's not like it uses a hot commodity like a 787 that would be needed for long-haul international, it's a 737 in winter. I know 5x weekly Rouge is a decent capacity boost over 3x 737, but still, using Rouge seems unnatural at YVR now lol, they went from a big presence at YVR years ago to nothing now, at all. It is this random YQB flight and that's it. Even weirder is AC keeping YYC-YQB, at 3 days at that. I cannot see any rationale for them keeping this, no inbound really on either end, and after their last cut, they went down to bare bones. It's weird to just hand over all those other major routes like LAX and FRA to others, but then keep a weird Rouge flight to Quebec.
Sorry for the long post, I went for a couple months away from the forum (not because of the forum, just personal unrelated things) and so I feel like there's a lot to say
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