Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

[lotw_wpg]

It would be great if we had international flights besides Mexico and the US. I have a friend who comes to Winnipeg every 3 months from London. That would help him lol.

[neutroniks]

Originally Posted by lotw_wpg

It would be great if we had international flights besides Mexico and the US. I have a friend who comes to Winnipeg every 3 months from London. That would help him lol.

The owners of Dwarf No Cachette in St. Boniface started a campaign and petition to get direct flights from Winnipeg to Japan. They went pretty hard at it for at least a year. I know they probably didn't get very far but I'm curious to know if they at least got a response or if anything came of it.

[Justanothermember]

Europe is very realistic and will more than likely happen before the end of the decade.

Asia? Extremely doubtful, but one never knows.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Biff

The 4 gate expansion planned is on the International/US side. I cant recall if any are flex gates or not. I am not sure if any of that programming has changed.

With how the US preclearance and the domestic/other security works any east side expansion of YWG can only be for US preclearance. It is possible the current gates 2 and 3 could be converted to swing gates. My impression though is they don't need more gates that would be used in a swing capacity but definitely need an expanded hold room in the US preclearance side. Makes sense with the added LAX and ATL flights.

On the west side, as that is where the current ground gates are any extension would be challenging. They could potentially add some sort of pedestrian bridge to a second terminal building though. But that would start a lot more complicated discussions.

[Myst]

East expansion -
Converting gates 2 and 3 to swing gates would be easy. Having the same setup for the new gates wouldn’t be too hard, either. Especially if built with the Edmonton style paired bridges and downramp to customs, it would be quite flexible for boarding at one gate not to block disembarking at the next.

West expansion -
Following the same roofline and adding a few gates, and having all the ground boarding on the south side of the building would be feasible. Plenty of room for apron extension.


I’d like to see east expansion in the next few years. Current gates can handle quite a bit of growth. Even adding one long jetbridge could be done without expanding the holdroom for another US peak departure, just would have to be a smaller aircraft not 737 or A320.

[bomberjet]

From the YWG Master Plan. Page number 46.
https://www.ywg.ca/assets/pages/YWGMasterPlan0615.pdf

FUTURE DEMAND KEY MASTER PLAN 2033 DIRECTIONS
 Passenger growth to nearly double to
6.0 million by 2033;
 Peak hour growth varies by sector,
with largest growth in arrivals (over
70%) and departures/international
(52% increase); and
 24 gates needed.

 Expand the terminal building by:
– adding a ground-level four-gate facility to
the east of the terminal building; and
– building a facility expansion to the west to
meet gating demand;
 Implement Quick Connect processes to
facilitate growing domestic-to-U.S.
connections;
 Address constraints in the long term for
circulation/holdroom space;
 Continue to allocate more airside
retail/concessions space;
 Implement next generation kiosk-based
border clearance solutions with CBSA; and
 Work with CBP to improve processing
capacity and hours of service

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

From the YWG Master Plan. Page number 46.
https://www.ywg.ca/assets/pages/YWGMasterPlan0615.pdf

 Implement next generation kiosk-based
border clearance solutions with CBSA; and

This one is sort of funny as CBSA added the eGates common elsewhere a year or more ago but it looks like a half finished project. In other airports the only way past an eGate is to proper go through them. At YWG you can still literally go about 20 feet to the left or right and just walk around them. Hopefully when they finish up the project they clean that aspect up.

Originally Posted by bomberjet

From the YWG Master Plan. Page number 46.
https://www.ywg.ca/assets/pages/YWGMasterPlan0615.pdf

 Implement Quick Connect processes to
facilitate growing domestic-to-U.S.
connections;
 Address constraints in the long term for
circulation/holdroom space;
 Continue to allocate more airside
retail/concessions space;
 Work with CBP to improve processing
capacity and hours of service

These pretty much all speak the the east end/US preclearance side. Another huge constraint the the US pre-clearance security screening. If YWG is serious about expanding US service they majorly need to beef up the security screening capacity before you speak to the US border agents.

Also I might be missing a detail but my understanding is a domestic-to-USA quick connect is essentially a couple of those double door one way traffic controls connecting the secure domestic side to the US security pre-clearance as all connecting passengers need to be rescreened as the US security screen is different than the domestic screening. Not really any different than the smaller communities that offload at the ground gates and then passengers need to pass through security again if going even to a domestic flight.

[The Jabroni]

Originally Posted by CoryB

This one is sort of funny as CBSA added the eGates common elsewhere a year or more ago but it looks like a half finished project. In other airports the only way past an eGate is to proper go through them. At YWG you can still literally go about 20 feet to the left or right and just walk around them. Hopefully when they finish up the project they clean that aspect up.



These pretty much all speak the the east end/US preclearance side. Another huge constraint the the US pre-clearance security screening. If YWG is serious about expanding US service they majorly need to beef up the security screening capacity before you speak to the US border agents.

Also I might be missing a detail but my understanding is a domestic-to-USA quick connect is essentially a couple of those double door one way traffic controls connecting the secure domestic side to the US security pre-clearance as all connecting passengers need to be rescreened as the US security screen is different than the domestic screening. Not really any different than the smaller communities that offload at the ground gates and then passengers need to pass through security again if going even to a domestic flight.

I thought I read in the plan somewhere that they were planning on doing something like that, or at the very least expand US Pre-Clearance with the anticipated growth and expansion of the terminal.

[Myst]

Q2 traffic figures are out -
https://www.ywg.ca/assets/pages/YWG_...cs_Q2_2024.pdf

April. 2024. 2023. 2019
Domestic. 257,416. 259,835. 284,518
US. 40,556. 29,488. 40,930
International. 18,447. 16,993. 8,558
Total. 316,419. 306,316. 334,018

May 2024. 2023. 2019
Domestic. 312,887. 320,599. 333,060
US. 30,786. 19,048. 36,188
International. 1,242. 0. 0
Total. 344,915. 339,647. 369,248

June 2024. 2023. 2019
Domestic. 343,575. 356,514. 354,763
US. 32,782. 19,955. 34,662
International. 820. 0. 989
Total. 377,177. 376,469. 390,414

[Biff]

I wonder why our domestic is down over the last couple of months?

[bomberjet]

Seems more people are choosing US vacations instead of Canadian. Overall numbers are the similar. US up, domestic down.

[DonaldSmith]

Originally Posted by Biff

I wonder why our domestic is down over the last couple of months?

Westjet labour issues were likely a factor as well.

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by Biff

I wonder why our domestic is down over the last couple of months?

The trend with a decrease in domestic is being observed all across Canada in many airports.

[Myst]

Lynx shutdown eliminated some of the (unsustainably) low fares that would have stimulated demand.

Traffic routing via ATL, DEN and ORD, rather than through domestic routes. That trend will be pretty flat from here forward, but will show in comparisons with previous year for a few quarters yet.

Domestic market does seem to be slowing, based on the trend across the country. Which isn’t surprising - that’s what the interest rate was brought up for, and why it’s now dropping.

[Sheepish]

Is there a plan for the old greyhound site south of the admin building? Seems that there has been some kind of site prep going on.

[Biff]

^^^ Parking lot.

[Sheepish]

Appreciated.

[cheswick]

Originally Posted by Biff

I wonder why our domestic is down over the last couple of months?

Could it simply be more offers of direct US flights mitigate the need to connect elsewhere domestically.

[Myst]

US Bureau of Transportation Statistics data is in for May:

Available seats - passengers carried - load factor

YWG total:
Outbound 19,168 - 13,742 - 71.7%
Inbound 18,983 - 16,841 - 88.7%
Total 38,151 - 30,583 - 80.2%

By carrier:
Delta
Outbound 8494 - 6634 - 78.1%
Inbound 8309 - 7467 - 89.9%
Total 16,803 - 14,101 - 83.9%

Flair
Outbound 378 - 163 - 43.1%
Inbound 378 - 250 - 66.1%
Total 756 - 413 - 54.6%

United
Outbound 1362 - 730 - 53.6%
Inbound 1362 - 1172 - 86.0%
Total 2724 - 1902 - 69.8%

Westjet
Outbound 8934 - 6215 - 69.6%
Inbound 8934 - 7952 - 89.0%
Total 17,868 - 14,167 - 79.3%

By route:
YWG-ATL 3792 - 2290 - 60.4%
ATL-YWG 3792 - 3333 - 87.9%
Total ATL 7584 - 5623 - 74.1%

YWG-DEN 678 - 292 - 43.1%
DEN-YWG 684 - 579 - 84.6%
Total DEN 1362 - 871 - 64.0%

YWG-LAS 1566 - 1505 - 96.1% (Westjet)
YWG-LAS 378 - 163 - 43.1% (Flair)
LAS-YWG 1566 - 1466 - 93.6% (Westjet)
LAS-YWG 378 - 250 - 66.1% (Flair)
Total LAS 3888 - 3384 - 87.0%

YWG-LAX 2262 - 1553 - 68.7%
LAX-YWG 2262 - 2090 - 92.4%
Total LAX 4524 - 3643 - 80.5%

YWG-MSP 8494 - 6634 - 78.1%
MSP-YWG 8309 - 7467 - 89.9%
Total MSP 16,803 - 14,101 - 83.9%

YWG-ORD 684 - 438 - 64.0%
ORD-YWG 678 - 593 - 87.5%
Total ORD 1362 - 1031 - 75.7%

YWG-PHX 1314 - 867 - 66.0%
PHX-YWG 1314 - 1063 - 80.9%
Total PHX 2628 - 1930 - 73.4%

Of course the Flair numbers are the last 2 flights of the season and not statistically meaningful. And UA figures are also the first 9 days of operation.

[Justanothermember]

I was expecting to see a significant difference between inbound and outbound passenger numbers, and its definately a massive difference. I also expect June to be similar, however maybe not as significant. July is when outbound passenger number really turn around.