Halifax Stanfield International Airport Developments

[q12]

Great video of plane spotting at Halifax Stanfield during a busy last month of July:

• Video Link

[q12]

Condor next year will be upgrading their Boeing 767-300 to an Airbus A330-900NEO on their Frankfurt route in 2024. This will join Lufthansa's Eurowings Discover A330 service to Frankurt, which looks like it will be starting possibly as early as late March/April in 2024.

[q12]

Condor Halifax-Frankfurt will be 4x (up from 3x) weekly starting next spring.



Lufthansa (Eurowings Discover) now called Discover Airlines will also be 4x weekly next spring on the Halifax-Frankfurt route.



Both will be on an A330. Fridays will now have 2x non-stop Halifax-Frankfurt on A330 widebodies (8 flights a week in total during the Summer).

06 September 2023 | 08:33
From summer 2024: Condor flies to Miami, Florida

September 6, 2023 - Hello Sunshine State: Starting in summer 2024, Condor will fly to Miami in the U.S. state Florida. Connections to Calgary in the Canadian province Alberta will also be resumed. Furthermore, additional nonstop flights to Boston and Halifax on the East Coast are also part of the summer flight schedule. With that, Germany's most popular leisure airline is once again expanding its North America program. Between May and September 2024, there will be three non-stop flights a week from Frankfurt to Miami International Airport and two flights a week to Calgary International Airport.

Ralf Teckentrup, CEO of Condor: "North America is particularly popular with travelers, which is why we are happy to provide our guests with even more flight options. In summer 2024 we will be offering additional destinations as well as more connections to the most popular destinations in North America. New to the flight schedule is Miami in Florida, and Calgary in Canada returns to the route network as an ideal starting point for round trips."

Miami in the Sunshine State Florida is best known for the beach of the same name, with skyscrapers in the background. It is also the starting point for tours through the tropical marshlands of the Everglades as well as to the Florida Keys. The islands at the southernmost end of the U.S. state are connected by bridges to Key West, the southernmost point in the United States.

For many travelers, Calgary is the starting or ending point of round trips through Canada's most famous national parks, Jasper and Banff. The Rocky Mountains, running through the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, are one of many highlights. One of the most popular routes is from Vancouver to Calgary or Edmonton. Condor flies to all three destinations several times a week. Calgary is also the headquarters of Condor's partner airline Westjet, so numerous other destinations are optimally connected.

In addition to the addition of Miami and Calgary, flight frequencies to two existing destinations will be increased in the summer of 2024. The American metropolis Boston will be served six times a week and the Canadian city of Halifax four times a week.

https://condor-newsroom.condor.com/e...miami-florida/

[q12]

American will add seven new routes next summer to coastal destinations in New England and Nova Scotia

American will add service to five cities along the Northeastern coast from LGA, including operating the only service from the airport to Halifax, Canada (YHZ).

New York LGA <- > Halifax (YHZ) June 5, 2024 Daily summer service E175

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...ish%20Columbia

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by q12

American will add seven new routes next summer to coastal destinations in New England and Nova Scotia

American will add service to five cities along the Northeastern coast from LGA, including operating the only service from the airport to Halifax, Canada (YHZ).

New York LGA <- > Halifax (YHZ) June 5, 2024 Daily summer service E175

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...ish%20Columbia

So, essentially just renewing their current service level for next season.

The current difficulties of the entire industry have really hit YHZ hard. We're a long way from the days when there was year-round NYC service, with American flying four times daily to JFK and Continental (later United) serving Newark. I think at one point we were up to 6 or 7 daily flights. These were largely on small-capacity RJs, but Continental operated 737s on one of their dailies.

[NS Bayman]

Originally Posted by q12

American will add seven new routes next summer to coastal destinations in New England and Nova Scotia

American will add service to five cities along the Northeastern coast from LGA, including operating the only service from the airport to Halifax, Canada (YHZ).

New York LGA <- > Halifax (YHZ) June 5, 2024 Daily summer service E175

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...ish%20Columbia

Flying to USA, non Florida destinations, has been very challenging since COVID. We really need more frequent service to New York for the connections alone. Right now AC to/fr EWR is almost useless as 1) AC bookings limit codeshare options through EWR (it was better when United was the operator), and 2) it arrives way too late in the day to get decent connections to get to your destination at a reasonable time. Departing flight should be first thing in the morning IMO. A 15:40 arrival time back to Halifax is also pretty bad as well. Makes travel West to East very difficult and not business friendly.

Before COVID was there not a year-round daily Delta option to LGA or JFK, I cannot remember? A year round daily option on Delta would be great to have as well.

[q12]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

So, essentially just renewing their current service level for next season.

The current difficulties of the entire industry have really hit YHZ hard. We're a long way from the days when there was year-round NYC service, with American flying four times daily to JFK and Continental (later United) serving Newark. I think at one point we were up to 6 or 7 daily flights. These were largely on small-capacity RJs, but Continental operated 737s on one of their dailies.

This is a new service starting next year. I believe Delta years ago flew to JFK and LGA from YHZ.

American Airlines next year will have 4 non-stop routes out of YHZ.

Boston
New York LaGuardia
Philidephia
Washington Reagan National

This is where U.S. pre clearance for Halifax Stanfield matters as LaGuardia and Reagan National do not have Customs facilities for international flights.

Until the pilot shortage is fixed this is pretty good post pandemic.

Remember Air Canada is daily year round to both New York EWR and Boston.

[q12]

What we had non-stop to the U.S Northeast in 2019 :

Summary of non-stop flights operated to the United States from Halifax Stanfield in 2019:

Boston

Air Canada 2x Daily

New York area airports

United Airlines EWR 3x Daily
Delta LGA 1x Daily Seasonal
American Airlines LGA 1x Weekly Seasonal

Philadelphia

American Airlines 1x Daily Seasonal

Chicago

United Airlines 1x Daily Seasonal

___________________________________________________________

What we have as of now heading into 2024 non-stop:

Boston

Air Canada 1x Daily (78 seat Q400)
American Airlines 1x Weekly Seasonal (80 seat E175)

New York area airports

Air Canada EWR 1x Daily (78 seat Q400)
American Airlines LGA 1x Daily Seasonal (80 seat E175)

Philadelphia

American Airlines 1x Daily Seasonal (128 seat A319)

Washington Reagan

American Airlines 1x Weekly Seasonal (80 seat E175)
_________________________________________________________

So the new LaGuardia service on American Airlines is a big improvement from 2019 going from weekly to daily seasonal and the PHL is bump from E175 in 2019 to A319 in 2023.

[egb]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...vels-1.7002141

I thought this was a good article about the airport’s current situation. A change from being a hub for smaller regional flights toward (presumably) being more of a feeder with larger flights focused on major hub airports is interesting.

1. Having the peak number of passengers increase, while the total number of passengers doesn’t is tough for airport economics. Ideally, you’d make investments to handle the peak load, but the underlying numbers make it hard.

2.The structure of the terminal itself probably looks less ideal than it would have five years ago as there appears to be a lot of capacity to service smaller planes that may be redundant.

3. Having to carry $150M in COVID debt makes all of the above even harder.

4. I don’t think the smaller regional flight model in the Maritimes is going to come back. US flights returning in greater numbers seems more likely, but it will probably take more years of population growth for it to really happen.

5. If population growth keeps up in any sustained way these issues will all probably work themselves out.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by egb

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...vels-1.7002141

I thought this was a good article about the airport’s current situation. A change from being a hub for smaller regional flights toward (presumably) being more of a feeder with larger flights focused on major hub airports is interesting.

1. Having the peak number of passengers increase, while the total number of passengers doesn’t is tough for airport economics. Ideally, you’d make investments to handle the peak load, but the underlying numbers make it hard.

2.The structure of the terminal itself probably looks less ideal than it would have five years ago as there appears to be a lot of capacity to service smaller planes that may be redundant.

3. Having to carry $150M in COVID debt makes all of the above even harder.

4. I don’t think the smaller regional flight model in the Maritimes is going to come back. US flights returning in greater numbers seems more likely, but it will probably take more years of population growth for it to really happen.

5. If population growth keeps up in any sustained way these issues will all probably work themselves out.

Stanfield Intl. shoud be a major hub for international flights. Instead of small feeder lines going to Pearson to connect to European destinations they should instead come to Halifax. In most cases, it is just a connecter flight but travellers have to deal with the logestics of Pearson. Pearson is 2.5hrs farther away from Europe than Halifax and many travellers have to travel away from their destination just to connect at Pearson.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by Empire

... Pearson is 2.5hrs farther away from Europe than Halifax and many travellers have to travel away from their destination just to connect at Pearson.

Halifax-Heathrow is a 6-hour flight
Montreal-Heathrow is 6:30
Pearson-Heathrow is 6:50

[Empire]

Originally Posted by eastcoastal

Halifax-Heathrow is a 6-hour flight
Montreal-Heathrow is 6:30
Pearson-Heathrow is 6:50

Halifax - Heathrow 6h 0m
Montreal - Heathrow 6h 43m
Toronto - Heathrow 7hr 5m

[bartekci]

Anyone know why Flair seems to have stopped flying between Halifax and Kitchener-Waterloo until next Spring? This flight was such a great connection for those of us with family back in that area, vs. flying into Pearson and then exiting the large hub + driving on the 401 for an hour

Don't think there's any Halifax-KW connection until Flair is back on that route?

[q12]

AC868 YHZ-LHR Boeing 737 MAX 8 Cruise Speed 839 km/h
great circle distance
4,597 km
AVERAGE FLIGHT TIME
5:27

AC864 YUL-LHR Boeing 787-8 Cruise Speed 913 km/h
GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE
5,229 KM
AVERAGE FLIGHT TIME
6:11

AC858 YYZ-LHR Boeing 777-333(ER) Cruise Speed 896 km/h
GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE
5,723 KM
AVERAGE FLIGHT TIME
6:32

Montreal and Toronto are more likely to have taxing delays which will delay these flights longer than the actual (average) flight time more frequently than Halifax.

[Empire]

Originally Posted by q12

AC868 YHZ-LHR Boeing 737 MAX 8 Cruise Speed 839 km/h
great circle distance
4,597 km
AVERAGE FLIGHT TIME
5:27

AC864 YUL-LHR Boeing 787-8 Cruise Speed 913 km/h
GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE
5,229 KM
AVERAGE FLIGHT TIME
6:11

AC858 YYZ-LHR Boeing 777-333(ER) Cruise Speed 896 km/h
GREAT CIRCLE DISTANCE
5,723 KM
AVERAGE FLIGHT TIME
6:32

Montreal and Toronto are more likely to have taxing delays which will delay these flights longer than the actual (average) flight time more frequently than Halifax.

If your flight itinerary were to take you from Regina, Ottawa or Winnipeg to Heathrow via Pearson for example, these connections could go through Halifax instead. Pearson could use the reduced workload.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by Empire

Halifax - Heathrow 6h 0m
Montreal - Heathrow 6h 43m
Toronto - Heathrow 7hr 5m

Hmmm... I found shorter on Google Flights, but didn't click through. Maybe you and I were looking at different dates... I just checked again:

Montreal-Heathrow on Air Canada AC864 departs Monday, Nov 6 at 7:40pm and arrives at LHR at 7:10am. Accounting for time changes, 6 hours and 30 minutes.

I couldn't replicate the 6 hours and 50 minutes that I swear I saw previously between Pearson and Heathrow... so who knows? Maybe different planes. Maybe I was hallucinating.

[eastcoastal]

Originally Posted by Empire

If your flight itinerary were to take you from Regina, Ottawa or Winnipeg to Heathrow via Pearson for example, these connections could go through Halifax instead. Pearson could use the reduced workload.

It's possible that Halifax could collect lots of these other flights, but I suspect that most airlines prefer the flexibility to accommodate the unexpected with multiple flights in/out of Toronto and Montreal, so might not be eager to just move transatlantic flights to Halifax.

[q12]

I think the airport is likely trying to get Icelandair flights back. These were popular as they allow connections all over Europe. They were cancelled when they switched from a Boeing 757 to Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that were grounded back in 2019.

Chronicle Herald story from 2019:

Icelandair drops Halifax summertime flights
Bill Spurr · Multimedia Journalist | Posted: March 26, 2019, 8:02 p.m. | Updated: Nov. 22, 2019, 12:19 p.m. |
Icelandair has announced it has cancelled plans to reintroduce its summertime Halifax to Reykjavik service.

The airline made the changes on Monday for both commercial and logistical reasons but it has not yet fully updated its website and flight information.

Tiffany Chase, who speaks on behalf of Halifax Stanfield International Airport, said on Tuesday the Iceland-based company had been planning to service Halifax with its fleet of three Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

The 737 Max 8 and Max 9 jets have been grounded worldwide for the past two weeks awaiting a solution to a perceived safety issue with the modern planes.

https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia...lights-295331/

This was only a 4 hour flight approx.

2018/2019 Route map


Porter is a partner with Icelandair which could make connections out of Halifax which is a planned HUB for Porter.

[q12]

Delta goes head-to-head against American on new NYC-HALIFAX route

Zach Griff
Oct. 27, 2023



Delta Air Lines is growing its North American network with the addition of a route-map pin. The carrier will once again commence flights to Halifax, Canada, beginning on June 7, 2024. The airline will operate two daily round-trip flights to the Nova Scotian city from New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA). Delta Connection subsidiary Republic Airways will operate the flights using the 76-seat Embraer E175 regional jet, which features 12 first-class recliners, 20 Comfort+ seats and 44 standard economy seats.

Delta's Halifax service will be available for sale on Oct. 28, 2023, and the new flights are timed well for connecting travelers looking to fly beyond New York to cities that Delta serves via its LaGuardia hub.

New York — Halifax: 10:45 a.m. — 1:55 p.m.
New York — Halifax: 7:30 p.m. — 10:40 p.m.
Halifax — New York: 6 a.m. — 7:10 a.m.
Halifax — New York: 3 p.m. — 4:10 p.m.

For Delta, Halifax is technically a market reentry. The airline last flew there in August 2019, before suspending its seasonal flights indefinitely due to the pandemic, Cirium schedules show. Fast forward four years later, and the airline is seemingly confident that these flights will succeed on a year-round basis. That said, Delta's decision to reenter Halifax comes just two weeks after American Airlines announced that it too would reinstitute its own service between LGA and Halifax as of June 5, 2024.

American is planning just one daily round-trip in the market, so Delta flyers will have more choices when flying to and from Nova Scotia. Like Delta, American hasn't flown from New York to Halifax since 2019, so this market technically represents a resumption for the Fort Worth-based carrier, too.

Going from zero to three daily flights in a given market might seem like a massive capacity increase all at once, so it'll be interesting to see how Delta (and American) fare. While Delta is no stranger to a turf war — it's started a few over the years, especially in Seattle — the real winners in this face-off are the travelers. With more competition, airlines will likely be incentivized to lower fares in the market — something that's especially welcoming on transborder routes that often have little competition and high fares.

Source:

https://thepointsguy.com/news/delta-...-canada-route/

[q12]

Originally Posted by NS Bayman

A year round daily option on Delta would be great to have as well.

The new 2x daily Delta to LGA is loaded on Delta's website this morning. It offers what people are looking for, an early morning flight down to New York and afternoon flight back to make connections work in both directions.

Starting in June here are the four scheduled daily flights from YHZ to NYC airports:





Where you can connect to from New York LaGuardia:



Updated 2024 non-stop to the U.S. Northeast from Halifax Stanfield:

Boston

Air Canada 1x Daily (78 seat Q400)
American Airlines 1x Weekly Seasonal (80 seat E175)

New York area airports

Air Canada EWR 1x Daily (78 seat Q400)
American Airlines LGA 1x Daily Seasonal (80 seat E175)
Delta Airlines LGA 2x Daily (80 seat E175)

Philadelphia

American Airlines 1x Daily Seasonal (128 seat A319)

Washington Reagan

American Airlines 1x Weekly Seasonal (80 seat E175)