YVR & Sea Island Developments Discussion II

[mcj]

Triple O's is such an improvement over Carl's Jr., doubt it'll be open before my flight on Friday but it'll be great to have a decent burger option again at YVR (RIP Harveys).

[owenf]

Currently in the air is AC566 YVR-SFO, being operated by 400-seat Boeing 777-300ER C-FRAM. It’s a daily flight usually operated by Air Canada 737-8 MAX. It will return to YVR tonight operating as AC571.

Similarly AC556 YVR-LAX is flown today 9 April with Boeing 787-9 C-FSBV instead of 737 MAX.

Very interesting, I wonder what caused these once-off equipment changes.

[teriyaki]

Originally Posted by owenf

Currently in the air is AC566 YVR-SFO, being operated by 400-seat Boeing 777-300ER C-FRAM. It’s a daily flight usually operated by Air Canada 737-8 MAX. It will return to YVR tonight operating as AC571.

Similarly AC556 YVR-LAX is flown today 9 April with Boeing 787-9 C-FSBV instead of 737 MAX.

Very interesting, I wonder what caused these once-off equipment changes.

I don't have any answers, was out spotting tonight and also caught AC559 inbound LAX-YVR with the very unusual widebody 787-9. Lo and behold someone else here has also noticed the peculiarity of it.

Normally I'd hazard a guess for some major sporting event or something if it was one destination but for both LAX and SFO to be up-gauged from a narrowbody to a widebody in the same day, perplexing.

[nname]

AC997 (MEX-YVR) was diverted to BOI today, so AC sent another plane down to pick up stranded passengers.

Guess they don't have spare 7M8 at YVR at that moment, but they just happen to have a spare 789 or 77W... so they upgauged one of LAX/SFO flight, and send the 7M8 originally intended for the route to BOI instead (see AC7069).

As for the other one, I have no idea...

PS. AC S25 schedule is late this year...

[officedweller]

Canada Post planning major expansion of processing facility at Vancouver International Airport
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-p...g-centre-expansion-vancouver-yvr-airport

[ninjakafi_81]

Air Canada is resuming its Bangkok flights 5 weeks earlier to late October from December. Flights will resume on October 27th with a frequency of 3 flights per week until December where it’ll be bumped up to 5 flights per week.

[LeftCoaster]

Didn't BKK go up to 6 or 7 at peak periods this winter? I would expect them to do that again NW24/25 if they are starting the route earlier too.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Appears to have closed as well according to a google search.

Not the right market for them?

They’ve exploded down under.

the problem here is I believe all the locations were under one franchisee, its happened a few times in this area where the franchisee of a chain takes it all on and they don't end up making it. Loads of KFC locations closed down here, they are very hard to find these days. Chipotle however seems to have done very well and have many locations, perhaps the airport is on their dream list.

[jollyburger]

(deleted)

[whatnext]

I see the Transat A320 has finally left its months-long parking spot outside the old AC hangar! Any idea when it left?

[Orcair]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I see the Transat A320 has finally left its months-long parking spot outside the old AC hangar! Any idea when it left?

According to Planespotters.net, C-GOIR, an A321neo, re-entered service at the end of March: https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/airbus-a321neo-c-goir-air-transat/eyq05d

[trofirhen]

Does anyone know if or when YVR will regain the route to Melbourne (a city hard hit by COVID)?
Also, would Kuala Lumpur be a viable destination from YVR? Or is there an insufficient market to warrant it?

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Does anyone know if or when YVR will regain the route to Melbourne (a city hard hit by COVID)?
Also, would Kuala Lumpur be a viable destination from YVR? Or is there an insufficient market to warrant it?

With direct Singapore flights, it is harder. Petronas is the player for KL. If they demanded 10 J seats a flight to YVR as part of a wider corporate flying contract, that becomes a much better proposition.

[RedArbutus]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Does anyone know if or when YVR will regain the route to Melbourne (a city hard hit by COVID)?

Hopefully soon. Would love to be able to fly there directly.

[owenf]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Does anyone know if or when YVR will regain the route to Melbourne (a city hard hit by COVID)?
Also, would Kuala Lumpur be a viable destination from YVR? Or is there an insufficient market to warrant it?

I think when AC gets their B78X starting Q4 next year, they can transfer some 789 frames that they currently use for YYZ/YUL-Europe ops to YVR for a few weekly MEL rotations in W25. That's my hunch.

Also wondering if we are going to get any Europe expansion soon...

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by owenf

I think when AC gets their B78X starting Q4 next year, they can transfer some 789 frames that they currently use for YYZ/YUL-Europe ops to YVR for a few weekly MEL rotations in W25. That's my hunch.

Also wondering if we are going to get any Europe expansion soon...

This is what they said in 2023

While Air Canada is busy ramping up flights from Sydney and Brisbane, the Star Alliance member is also looking forward to restarting its non-stop Melbourne-Vancouver route as more aircraft become available.

“We would love to see Air Canada back in Melbourne” Mark Nasr, Air Canada’s Executive Vice President Marketing and Digital, tells Executive Traveller “and it’s certainly a service that is on our list… but we are short on aircraft.”

And while Air Canada is reported to be closing on a deal for up to 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners to both renew and expand its long-range fleet, the delivery of any factory-fresh jets would be years away as Boeing struggles to hit its pre-pandemic output.

In the shorter term, Nasr suggests Melbourne-Vancouver could be relaunched as a seasonal service spanning the Australian winter months, which is how it began in late 2017 before moving to a daily schedule.

This would hinge on the arrival of long-range Airbus A321XLR jets from 2025, which “will allow us to serve destinations across the Atlantic as within North and Central America.”

Nasr says some destinations would be “better served” by this 182-seat single-aisle jet rather than the airline’s larger 298-seat Boeing 787 or the flagship 450-seat Boeing 777, “particularly in the northern winter, which is peak season down here in the southern summer.”

“So we're looking at a world where as these aircraft come in there'll be some wide-body capacity that’s freed up… for seasonal markets within the Asia-Pacific region.”

Great White North, with fast and easy transits to the US letting passengers skip the headaches of Los Angeles, San Francisco and co.

“We were the fastest way to get from Melbourne to New York at the time,” reflects Vic Naughton, Air Canada’s General Manager, Australia & New Zealand, "and at the moment we’re the fastest from Brisbane to New York,” with Sydney-New York being “very, very close.”

“We’re longer in the air but less time at the airport, because a lot of travellers (from Australia) aren’t necessarily just going to San Francisco or Los Angeles,” so they value “a really simple, quick and easy connection process in Vancouver to New York, Washington, Denver, Miami or wherever it might be.”

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/air-canada-a321xlr-business-class

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by owenf

I think when AC gets their B78X starting Q4 next year, they can transfer some 789 frames that they currently use for YYZ/YUL-Europe ops to YVR for a few weekly MEL rotations in W25. That's my hunch.

Also wondering if we are going to get any Europe expansion soon...

Thank you for the answer. / Regarding future Europe expansion, that's a bugaboo of mine, too. A good start would be making Munich year-round. Swiss year round from Zurich would be great, and if Westjet can do Calgary><FCO even seasonally, surely YVR><FCO would work, even seasonally. // There is a large Italian community in Vancouver, no doubt larger than in Calgary... But I'd guess much more a Y class family/tourist route, without the requisite business traffic to warrant year-round to Rome, although that's be Awesome. (Milan might support more J class, but that'll never happen).

[aznkrazy504]

Does anyone have any idea if the remote gates in ITB will ever be used? It seems like it has been built but not utilized.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by aznkrazy504

Does anyone have any idea if the remote gates in ITB will ever be used? It seems like it has been built but not utilized.

Post-pandemic the flying landscape has changed (at least for now). See this:


Tourism operators face heavy debt, even as business roars back
Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press
8 hours ago

....Tourism has come roaring back from pandemic lows, but operators say the sector has yet to reach pre-COVID levels and debt remains a hefty burden for thousands of small businesses across the country.

International visitor numbers remained down from four years earlier, with tourists from the U.S. at 85 per cent of 2019 levels and those from further afield at 78 per cent, according to Crown corporation Destination Canada.

The industry brought in more than $109 billion in revenue last year, about four per cent more than in 2019 but significantly less in real terms after accounting for inflation, according to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.....

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/tourism-operators-face-heavy-debt-even-as-business-roars-back-1.2062598

[Gordon]

Have the remote stands (U.S. Departures) been used yet?