Canadian Airport Thread II

[thenoflyzone]

Lynx starting YUL-LAX this summer.

https://financialpost.com/globe-newswire...w-route-between-montreal-and-los-angeles

3x weekly starting July 11, going to daily service a month later.

================================================

YXE unofficial 2023 numbers.

1,277,863 +34.2%

https://yxe.ca/stats-figures/

[Airboy]

Not big news in Canada but Northwest Air Least Flight out of Ft Smith NWT went down after takeoff. 6 people on board only one survived. TSB RCMP NWT Coroner all on site. Flight was taking worker from Ft Smith to the Diavik Diamond mine 1000kms north.

You see North west air lease at most Norther Alberta and NET airports

[hollywoodcory]

More Transborder adds by US carriers:

UA adding YWG-DEN/ORD and YQB-ORD from May 23, each 1x daily on a E75.

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

More Transborder adds by US carriers:

UA adding YWG-DEN/ORD and YQB-ORD from May 23, each 1x daily on a E75.

EXCELLENT news! After two years we are finally getting these flights back. The United website is now taking bookings for these flights.

Do you have a source for this info?

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

EXCELLENT news! After two years we are finally getting these flights back. The United website is now taking bookings for these flights.

Do you have a source for this info?

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ad...rth-american-destinations-831295554.html

YEG-DEN is also getting upgauged to mainline - 2x daily 738.

[kattiff]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

EXCELLENT news! After two years we are finally getting these flights back. The United website is now taking bookings for these flights.

Do you have a source for this info?

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7093889

On the local Winnipeg news and from Winnipeg Airport Authority

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by kattiff

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7093889

On the local Winnipeg news and from Winnipeg Airport Authority

Some interesting commentary at the end.

Rosset said the airports authority is still working on more direct connections between Winnipeg and other cities.

Historically, some of the most popular outbound destinations without direct flights from Winnipeg include New York City, Manila and Halifax, the Winnipeg Airports Authority has previously said.

Hmmmmm......I wonder if we will see the WS Halifax flight go year-round. I also wonder if a NY flight is in the works. One of my (loose) connections said that United had been looking at up to two more flights to YWG, outside of Denver and Chicago. I suspect they could be one or two of Newark, Houston or San Francisco. Maybe even LA if they wanted to compete with WS. I guess we will wait and see what materialises from this.

Hopefully a European flight is on the horizon within the next few years. I think these may be exciting times for YWG.

[thenoflyzone]

Directly from the horse’s mouth.

https://united.mediaroom.com/2024-01-25-...-Top-Outdoor-North-American-Destinations

[Justanothermember]

It appears that the YQB-ORD flight is only seasonal.

[kattiff]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

Some interesting commentary at the end.

Rosset said the airports authority is still working on more direct connections between Winnipeg and other cities.

Historically, some of the most popular outbound destinations without direct flights from Winnipeg include New York City, Manila and Halifax, the Winnipeg Airports Authority has previously said.

Hmmmmm......I wonder if we will see the WS Halifax flight go year-round. I also wonder if a NY flight is in the works. One of my (loose) connections said that United had been looking at up to two more flights to YWG, outside of Denver and Chicago. I suspect they could be one or two of Newark, Houston or San Francisco. Maybe even LA if they wanted to compete with WS. I guess we will wait and see what materialises from this.

Hopefully a European flight is on the horizon within the next few years. I think these may be exciting times for YWG.

I remember them talking about Newark before Covid too. So we shall see!

WestJet to DTW is the was new rumor last year but haven’t heard much else yet

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

It appears that the YQB-ORD flight is only seasonal.

Pre-pandemic, it always was.

[whatnext]

Ah Flair, consistently living under the cloud of having planes repo’ed. Gotta love ‘em:

Flair Airlines sets plan to pay $67-million in unpaid taxes after court order
ERIC ATKINSTRANSPORTATION REPORTER
PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO
FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The federal government has obtained a court order that allows it to direct the seizure and sale of Flair Airlines Ltd. property in Alberta to recoup more than $67-million in unpaid taxes.

Flair incurred the taxes from the import of 20 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, and has made arrangements to repay the amount owed, said Ashley Fields, a spokeswoman for Flair.

The ruling issued by the Federal Court of Canada comes less than a year after a leasing company repossessed four of Flair’s aircraft for missed rent payments.…

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business...-67-million-in-unpaid-taxes-after-court/

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Ah Flair, consistently living under the cloud of having planes repo’ed. Gotta love ‘em:

Flair Airlines sets plan to pay $67-million in unpaid taxes after court order
ERIC ATKINSTRANSPORTATION REPORTER
PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO
FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The federal government has obtained a court order that allows it to direct the seizure and sale of Flair Airlines Ltd. property in Alberta to recoup more than $67-million in unpaid taxes.

Flair incurred the taxes from the import of 20 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, and has made arrangements to repay the amount owed, said Ashley Fields, a spokeswoman for Flair.

The ruling issued by the Federal Court of Canada comes less than a year after a leasing company repossessed four of Flair’s aircraft for missed rent payments.…

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business...-67-million-in-unpaid-taxes-after-court/

Between this and their botched aircraft sharing arrangement with Bonza of Australia, I think Flair will soon collapse. Who knows how many routes will now need to be cut because of this.

[thenoflyzone]

^ Quite frankly, amazed this airline is still flying !

=================================================

Updated numbers. They are exactly the same as the ones above from a month ago.

Updated numbers. Yet again, they are exactly the same as the ones above from Nov/Dec. Maybe they stopped updating? Kind of unlikely they would be exactly the same for this long.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

Some interesting commentary at the end.

Rosset said the airports authority is still working on more direct connections between Winnipeg and other cities.

Historically, some of the most popular outbound destinations without direct flights from Winnipeg include New York City, Manila and Halifax, the Winnipeg Airports Authority has previously said.

Hmmmmm......I wonder if we will see the WS Halifax flight go year-round. I also wonder if a NY flight is in the works. One of my (loose) connections said that United had been looking at up to two more flights to YWG, outside of Denver and Chicago. I suspect they could be one or two of Newark, Houston or San Francisco. Maybe even LA if they wanted to compete with WS. I guess we will wait and see what materialises from this.

Hopefully a European flight is on the horizon within the next few years. I think these may be exciting times for YWG.

Having just announced the resumption of DEN and ORD, I think its highly unlikely UA launches anything else from YWG this year.

YEG and YWG are the next logical cities in Canada to get NYC service. UA used to serve YEG-EWR in the past. It lasted a little over a year. YWG-EWR is a much shorter route, so it has that going for it. It's still a long shot though. Plenty of US States without NYC service. North and South Dakota, just to the south of Manitoba, are 2 examples. Same reason. Not enough demand.

On a side note, I find WAA's press release about the UA resumptions funny ! They talk about US hunters coming up to Manitoba (which I'm not denying), but we all know these flights are predominantly Canada POS, and 80-90% full of Canadians.

[Dominion301]

PD have extended YYZ/YOW-MCO and YYZ-FLL to daily year-round.

[Alexcaban]

Looks like A330 service is back on YUL-YHZ this coming summer along with a bunch of other changes.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

Between this and their botched aircraft sharing arrangement with Bonza of Australia, I think Flair will soon collapse. Who knows how many routes will now need to be cut because of this.

And from BNN-Bloomberg today:
[B]
A tough industry’: Flair CEO puts expansion plans on hold amid debt, delivery delays]/B]
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

Flair CEO Stephen Jones says he's effectively suspending the budget airline's expansion plans for at least a year as it contends with plane delivery delays and hefty debts.

"This will be a more muted year," he said in an interview, "but we’ll look to get back into growth mode strongly in 2025.”
As recently as the fall, the Edmonton-based company aimed to boost its fleet to 26 Boeing 737 Max jetliners in 2024, up from its current roster of 20. On Monday, Jones said the fleet likely won't grow much in the coming year, due partly to hold-ups at Boeing Co….

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/a-tough-indu...hold-amid-debt-delivery-delays-1.2027875

[Dominion301]

Now for some cuts. AC ending service to BWI: https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/240130-acapr24bwi

F8 are ending 6 winter seasonal routes early and converting two year-round sun routes to winter seasonal: https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/240130-f8ns24intl

[q12]

Almost 3.6 Million passengers through Halifax Stanfield in 2023.

Halifax Stanfield Celebrates Impressive Passenger Traffic Growth in 2023

January 30, 2024

The sounds of passenger announcements, suitcase wheels humming over the floor tiles and laughter as people prepared to depart on an exciting journey were music to our ears at Halifax Stanfield in 2023. Today, Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA) is pleased to announce that the airport served 3,579,293 passengers in 2023, marking an impressive 15 per cent increase over 2022 figures.

“We are incredibly proud to have welcomed nearly half a million more travellers to our airport in 2023 than the year prior,” said Joyce Carter, President & CEO, HIAA. “This is a testament to continued travel demand, the industry’s recovery efforts, and the unwavering dedication of our employees and airport community. With the pandemic behind us, we can now celebrate our success.”

Following a fast and furious restart of the air transportation industry midway through 2022, 2023 kicked into a year of even higher passenger activity. In February, Porter Airlines expanded its capacity at Halifax Stanfield by introducing non-stop service to Toronto Pearson through their new E195 jets. Condor and Discover Airlines returned with their popular non-stop services connecting Halifax and Frankfurt, Germany, and Air Transat started their sun flights earlier than usual, offering sun flights as early as December 2023 instead of February. Air Canada continued to offer the most connectivity for Halifax Stanfield travellers, with their popular year-round non-stop services to London Heathrow, Newark (New York), and Boston, along with flights to nine destinations across Canada.

U.S. travel continued to recover at a slower pace than international traffic, due to ongoing sector challenges, such as crew and aircraft shortages. American Airlines was the only U.S.-based airline to operate in 2023, with daily flights to Philadelphia and weekly flights to Boston and Washington, D.C. Despite the temporary suspension of some popular non-stop European routes in 2023, the international sector still demonstrated a strong recovery.

“Overall, our airline partners reported significantly higher load factors across all sectors than in previous years, with the demand outpacing the supply of capacity during peak travel periods,” said Marie Manning, Vice President, Business Development & Chief Commercial Officer, HIAA. “Our airline partners are excited to serve the dynamic city of Halifax, and this presents an exciting growth opportunity for us at Halifax Stanfield.”

Anticipation is building for the return of several routes that were temporarily suspended in recent years, including Icelandair’s non-stop seasonal service to Reykjavik, which will operate three times weekly this summer. HIAA is also pleased that WestJet will operate three transatlantic services in 2024, providing non-stop flights to Dublin, London Gatwick, and Edinburgh, a new destination on Halifax Stanfield’s route map.

Moreover, both Condor and Discover Airlines (formerly Eurowings Discover) will be back with seasonal non-stop service to Frankfurt. Condor has up-gauged its aircraft to an A330-900Neo and will be adding a fourth weekly frequency, while Discover Airlines is extending its season to start in late April instead of June. This summer, there will be up to nine weekly flights to and from Frankfurt.

Much-needed capacity will also be added to the U.S. this summer. Delta Airlines is returning to Halifax Stanfield with twice-daily non-stop service to New York LaGuardia Airport. American Airlines will also offer daily service to New York LaGuardia, complementing its existing Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. routes, with the Washington service being offered daily in August and September, providing a significant increase in capacity. United Airlines is also returning to Halifax Stanfield and will have twice-daily service to Newark Liberty International Airport starting in May, complementing Air Canada’s existing daily, year-round, non-stop Newark service. The added services to the New York region result in 6 daily flights being available for passengers during the peak summer season.

“Our commitment to providing our community with an exceptional passenger experience and expanded connectivity to the Atlantic region is what motivates us to achieve these significant recovery milestones,” said Carter. “Looking ahead to 2024, we are not only optimistic but also enthusiastic about the positive trajectory for Halifax Stanfield.”

https://halifaxstanfield.ca/news-release...essive-passenger-traffic-growth-in-2023/