Saskatoon and Regina Air Service

[casper]

Originally Posted by Dino35

I have to disagree here. The Porter flight departs YXE at 5pm…
Making it an arrival into YYZ at 10pm. MCT in YYZ is likely an hour so you have missed a large portion of the AT flights departing the same day.

Yes, your right. Rome, Zagreb are the only two that work roundtrip. Faro and Lamezia Terme work outbound but not coming back to Canada. Hopefully that changes over time.

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by casper

Yes, your right. Rome, Zagreb are the only two that work roundtrip. Faro and Lamezia Terme work outbound but not coming back to Canada. Hopefully that changes over time.

The only way that would change is if Porter adds an early morning flight to TO, which may occur if loads are strong enough.

[Brutopian]

Porter Airlines Lands in Saskatoon for the First Time

Business Wire

May 16, 2024 10:54 AM Eastern Daylight Time

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Porter Airlines is inaugurating service to Saskatchewan for the first time with daily nonstop roundtrip service between Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Saskatoon International Airport (YXE).

[........]

Read more:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/2...tm_content=307530532&utm_source=hs_email

[The mayor]

https://regina.ctvnews.ca/sight-to-behold-u-s-air-force-cargo-jet-lands-in-regina-1.6933191
Sight to behold': U.S. Air Force cargo jet lands in Regina

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Beginning Sunday October 27th
Air Canada Mainline Service YQR-YYZ (2x Daily) A321-200

(Rouge cannot disappear fast enough).

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

Beginning Sunday October 27th
Air Canada Mainline Service YQR-YYZ (2x Daily) A321-200

(Rouge cannot disappear fast enough).

Same for YXE, except they will have 3 daily flights.

[EDM753Fan]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

Beginning Sunday October 27th
Air Canada Mainline Service YQR-YYZ (2x Daily) A321-200

(Rouge cannot disappear fast enough).

W-O-W!

2 x Daily isn't nearly enough but hey I'll take AC mainline. That is fantastic news!

(and yes - rouge certainly can't disappear fast enough!)

[one_brick_at_a_time]

https://leaderpost.com/opinion/letters/l...s-out-of-regina-makes-travel-frustrating

Really frustrating with only 2 options.

[Myst]

Not sure what the average loads on YXE-YYZ are, but the couple of days I’d looked at weren’t great. It seems to be the way things go that everyone chases the same thing - I suspect both Porter and Flair would be better off if one moved their service to YQR.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

WestJet announces record-level investments across Saskatchewan this winter

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2024/...PBh67UhbL36u8_aem_GpL77omv3Y3bTd5c7bwVhg

YQR Highlights:

• Increasing Vancouver service to daily (for the first time ever at YQR!)
• Increasing Toronto service to daily
• Twice daily service every weekday to Winnipeg
• Increased frequency to Calgary and Edmonton

With 32 per cent overall growth in Regina sun capacity vs. winter 2023, WestJet will offer:
• 95 weekly departures to 11 different destinations during peak travel
• 125 per cent growth in transborder seat capacity
• 27 per cent growth in Latin/Caribbean seat capacity

“WestJet continues to be an incredible partner for YQR and all of southern Saskatchewan,” said James Bogusz, President and CEO of the Regina Airport. “This massive capacity increase is absolutely huge for our community and demonstrates their confidence in our growing province.”

[Justanothermember]

Flair appears to have removed YXE completely from its operations. This means there will be no more Flair service in Saskatchewan after November.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

Flair appears to have removed YXE completely from its operations. This means there will be no more Flair service in Saskatchewan after November.

Porter is a much better option that Flair for onward connections. If losing Flair results in a stronger Porter that is a positive.

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by casper

Porter is a much better option that Flair for onward connections. If losing Flair results in a stronger Porter that is a positive.

I wonder if Flair's exit from the Saskatchewan market will give the 'all clear' for PD to launch YYZ-YQR.

[Myst]

Looking at WS summer 2025 schedules. This won’t make headlines like new routes, but if you’re looking to travel it could be significant. Westjet reworked the schedule for a lot of its YWG flights, and connections from YQR and YXE are drastically improved. Good to have another option at least, and through an easier airport that is less of a detour than YYZ or YYC.

YXE-YOW, YXE-YUL and YXE-ATL connections work both ways with only about 1hr layover.

Same destinations from YQR are all about an hour layover eastbound and a bit longer westbound.

Halifax layover is a bit long eastbound, but works both ways for both cities.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Still no Air Canada Calgary.
Still no Porter Toronto.

[Myst]

Those have their merits.

As I said, it won’t get headlines, but to illustrate the merits of the schedule change:
Currently YQR-YWG-YOW would have a 9 hour layover, and return was not possible without overnighting
With the new schedule the travel time will be 4h31m on WS3334+WS583
The fastest WS alternate via YYC would take 6h56m
The fastest AC would be 5h36m

A YXE-YWG-YOW routing on WS would be about an hour quicker than Porter’s travel time via YYZ.

[Justanothermember]

It appears as though AC has ended the Montreal flights to both Saskatoon and Regina. I thought these routes were doing well.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/241126-acns25ca

[Justanothermember]

LOL so the Sask AC YUL flights are back on again, except they are reverting to the previous summer's YXE-YQR-YUL-YXE triangle routing. I guess they didn't have enough passengers for each of YXE and YQR to be viable on their own. Better to have this milk run than nothing I guess.

*Edit - this flight will be available for four months at 3× weekly.

[The mayor]

https://regina.ctvnews.ca/newly-certifie...pilots-another-avenue-to-learn-1.7131340
Newly certified jet giving Regina pilots another avenue to learn

[Myst]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

LOL so the Sask AC YUL flights are back on again, except they are reverting to the previous summer's YXE-YQR-YUL-YXE triangle routing. I guess they didn't have enough passengers for each of YXE and YQR to be viable on their own. Better to have this milk run than nothing I guess.

*Edit - this flight will be available for four months at 3× weekly.

Triangle routes are not common anymore, but if my memory is right, up until the AC/CP merger there was a YYZ-YXE-YQR-YYZ flight. The mid-day flight maybe?

Station stops are easier than connections. And 1 stop per round trip is better than 2 connections.

Still disappointing…