Atlantic Canada airport thread

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Nashe

Sydney, NS: "Hold my beer..."

Indeed.

St. John's NL vs Saint John NB is pretty small potatoes compared to Sydney NS vs Sydney NSW.

And, yes, there have been several well documented circumstances of unsuspecting tourists getting off the plane in Sydney NS looking for Bondi Beach and the opera house.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

That's always a very distinct possibility

I've been on multiple flights back to Saint John where the half the plane let's out an enormous groan because the stewardess or pilot has said "St. John's".

I always think it's hilarious how upset Saint Johnners get about "misspelling" it by abbreviating, let alone spelling it St. John's, New Brunswick.

When they went through all the cost and effort needed to change the name from St. John to Saint John, they should have just picked a truly unique name for the city instead. It's definitely a continuing branding and marketing challenge for the city and region, especially for tourism... other than the few times people mistakenly book flights to YSJ instead or YYT, but those instances don't even come close to making up for the overall issue with the name when it comes to marketing the city. People west of New Brunswick will say or type St. John's more often than not, when talking about either city.

Just think, Saint John could have been named Portland; as what is now the West End of Saint John was once a separate town called Portland. That would have created confusion: Portland, NB; Portland, ME and Portland, OR!

[MonctonRad]

Air Canada is back up to three daily departures from YQM (Moncton) to YYZ (Toronto Pearson), at 0520, 1140 and 1810 hrs.

[magee_b]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Indeed.

St. John's NL vs Saint John NB is pretty small potatoes compared to Sydney NS vs Sydney NSW.

And, yes, there have been several well documented circumstances of unsuspecting tourists getting off the plane in Sydney NS looking for Bondi Beach and the opera house.

I was boarding a flight to YSJ from YUL about a year ago. Flight to YYT was boarding at the same time at the gate beside it. Was mass chaos. Gate agents couldn’t be bothered to say the province to clarify, but were getting increasingly frustrated by the number of people trying to board the wrong flight.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by Ozabald

Just think, Saint John could have been named Portland; as what is now the West End of Saint John was once a separate town called Portland. That would have created confusion: Portland, NB; Portland, ME and Portland, OR!

The Town of Portland was actually in what is today the area around Long Wharf and the North end. St John (as it was then) was the peninsula between the harbour and Courtney Bay as well as the lower westside. Portland was absorbed by Saint John in 1889

Neat old map here......

https://nscc.cairnrepo.org/islandora/object/nscc%3A578

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by sailor734

The Town of Portland was actually in what is today the area around Long Wharf and the North end. St John (as it was then) was the peninsula between the harbour and Courtney Bay as well as the lower westside. Portland was absorbed by Saint John in 1889

Neat old map here......

https://nscc.cairnrepo.org/islandora/object/nscc%3A578

Shoulda just gone with "Courtenay, NB" when given a chance.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Nashe

Shoulda just gone with "Courtenay, NB" when given a chance.

There's a Courtenay BC.

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

There's a Courtenay BC.

At least they're not on the same coast, though!

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Indeed.

St. John's NL vs Saint John NB is pretty small potatoes compared to Sydney NS vs Sydney NSW.

And, yes, there have been several well documented circumstances of unsuspecting tourists getting off the plane in Sydney NS looking for Bondi Beach and the opera house.

Ha! Easy to say for someone from Moncton, no one is mistaking your city for another one in the same general region all the time.

Sometimes, I feel like maritimers don't really understand how little the rest of Canada knows about the maritimes, or how little they care. Very few people west of NB even know that NFLD is not part of the maritimes, but part of Atlantic Canada. And really, you can't blame them.


And no one is ever confusing Sydney, Nova Scotia and Sydney Australia:



But, people from the rest of Canada outside of Atlantic Canada confuse St. John and St. John's all the time, and most of them couldn't care less that we don't want them to abbreviate Saint John.





Sydney does not know our woes (especially NB, SJers), like not even close! It 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 having to constantly correct people about the name. 99% of the time the mistake is someone saying St. John's, not Saint John... It's almost never the other way around. The only time Saint John "wins" is with the airport code. Saint John got YSJ, while St. John's got stuck with YTT.


The whole SJ/SJ thing is a much bigger challenge for branding and marketing than many in the SJ region are willing to admit.

If The Saint John Region was ever to amalgamate, it would probably be in the best interests of marketing and branding to go with a different name for the region as a whole, while letting the respective communities retain their pre amalgamation names, like was done in Halifax. Bay of Fundy Regional Muncipality does't exactly roll off the tongue, but there's surely a suitable name that could be decided upon for the region as a whole.


In terms of air travel, there is another solution to help deal with the SJ/SJ's confusion, and that would be if Saint John and Fredericton shared a midway airport. Perhaps even, an airport shared between all three major centres would be in the cards for the province one day.

I'm sure St. Johnner's would happily inherit the YSJ airport code from us, and I'd certainly be happy to give it up if it meant cheaper, more frequent flights 45 minutes away instead of 20 minutes.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

There's a Courtenay BC.

There's a Boston in England, a London in Ontario, and a New Brunswick in New Jersey

none of these are comparable to the confusion with the SJ's

St. John's and Saint John are by far the two most commonly confused cities in Canada, and i don't think it's particularly close.

Saint John got the better, airport code, YSJ, than St. John's (YTT), but Saint John is the city constantly being called St. John's by mistake, it's almost never the other way around. They might think St. John's is in New Brunswick, but that's a whole other story. A lot of people are really bad with geography.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

There's a Boston in England, a London in Ontario, and a New Brunswick in New Jersey

Not only is there a New Brunswick, New Jersey, there is also a New Jersey, New Brunswick (somewhere in rural Charlotte County).

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Not only is there a New Brunswick, New Jersey, there is also a New Jersey, New Brunswick (somewhere in rural Charlotte County).

and none of them know what it's like to be constantly confused with another city like Saint John does with St. John's, NFLD

Seriously, like the amount of times I've been on flights where the the flight attendants or pilot announces Saint John's, and half the plane moans lol. It's just funny at this point, we have no one to blame for the continued confusion than ourselves. As the Sailor pointed out, the cities and towns in the region have switched names so many times in the past. When NFLD entered Canada, we should have had some foresight, and picked a new name.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Ha! Easy to say for someone from Moncton, no one is mistaking your city for another one in the same general region all the time.

Sometimes, I feel like maritimers don't really understand how little the rest of Canada knows about the maritimes, or how little they care. Very few people west of NB even know that NFLD is not part of the maritimes, but part of Atlantic Canada. And really, you can't blame them.


And no one is ever confusing Sydney, Nova Scotia and Sydney Australia:



But, people from the rest of Canada outside of Atlantic Canada confuse St. John and St. John's all the time, and most of them couldn't care less that we don't want them to abbreviate Saint John.





Sydney does not know our woes (especially NB, SJers), like not even close! It 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 having to constantly correct people about the name. 99% of the time the mistake is someone saying St. John's, not Saint John... It's almost never the other way around. The only time Saint John "wins" is with the airport code. Saint John got YSJ, while St. John's got stuck with YTT.


The whole SJ/SJ thing is a much bigger challenge for branding and marketing than many in the SJ region are willing to admit.

If The Saint John Region was ever to amalgamate, it would probably be in the best interests of marketing and branding to go with a different name for the region as a whole, while letting the respective communities retain their pre amalgamation names, like was done in Halifax. Bay of Fundy Regional Muncipality does't exactly roll off the tongue, but there's surely a suitable name that could be decided upon for the region as a whole.


In terms of air travel, there is another solution to help deal with the SJ/SJ's confusion, and that would be if Saint John and Fredericton shared a midway airport. Perhaps even, an airport shared between all three major centres would be in the cards for the province one day.

I'm sure St. Johnner's would happily inherit the YSJ airport code from us, and I'd certainly be happy to give it up if it meant cheaper, more frequent flights 45 minutes away instead of 20 minutes.

The new name of a Greater Saint John municipality should be Quispamsis! Let the spelling games begin! Or to really ramp up the spelling challenge, the new name will be Kennebecasis!

YYT comes from when the airport was once known as Torbay airport.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Not only is there a New Brunswick, New Jersey, there is also a New Jersey, New Brunswick (somewhere in rural Charlotte County).

Vancouver, BC and Vancouver, WA. There were some instances during the 2010 Winter Olympics of people booking hotels in Vancouver, WA thinking the games were there! Whoops!

And there's a Toronto, SD. It has such a bustling main street:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.5728279,...KAK0aTesgdA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I'm sure St. Johnner's would happily inherit the YSJ airport code from us, and I'd certainly be happy to give it up if it meant cheaper, more frequent flights 45 minutes away instead of 20 minutes.

YYT airport code dates back to when it was constructed as a military airfield during the 2nd World War. The T refers to Torbay, a suburban town not too far from the airport. We're good honouring history, especially considering the large Canadian and American military presence here during the second World War.

[NBNYer]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Not only is there a New Brunswick, New Jersey, there is also a New Jersey, New Brunswick (somewhere in rural Charlotte County).

Our New Jersey is near Neguac in northeastern NB.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by NBNYer

Our New Jersey is near Neguac in northeastern NB.

I stand corrected

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Ozabald

The new name of a Greater Saint John municipality should be Quispamsis! Let the spelling games begin! Or to really ramp up the spelling challenge, the new name will be Kennebecasis!

YYT comes from when the airport was once known as Torbay airport.

If it actually meant Amalgamation, I'd go for Quispamsis or even Rothesay.

Grand Bay might be the least difficult to spell, pronounce, and least confusing. There's surprisingly few places with the name in North America, all Caribbean islands.

[homebody]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

If it actually meant Amalgamation, I'd go for Quispamsis or even Rothesay.

Grand Bay might be the least difficult to spell, pronounce, and least confusing. There's surprisingly few places with the name in North America, all Caribbean islands.

A little off topic. Maybe a new thread for what to call an amalgamated Saint John!!

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by homebody

A little off topic. Maybe a new thread for what to call an amalgamated Saint John!!

Right. Back on topic.

Saint John and Fredericton should probably share an airport one day in the not too distant future. Not only would sharing an airport located midway result in cheaper, more frequent flights, it would alleviate a lot of the Saint John/St. John’s confusion when it came to booking flights.