I just saw that Royal Air Maroc announcement too, interesting... The lines between YYZ and YUL continue to blur lol. First and most important, YUL has been getting a ton of AC growth to Europe over the last few years, really challenging the capacity out of YYZ even (YUL has almost all the same routes as YYZ, and then more to French cities of course). YUL is behind YYZ for Latin American still, but the gap has narrowed significantly and they both share a remarkable number of destinations now, used to be YYZ had everything, and YUL had none. Even for Asia, YUL is still significantly behind YYZ to Asia, but again, gap is narrowing a lot (with YUL serving Japan, Korea, and India now, I never would have thought that back in 2010. But there hasn't been a ton of movement the other way. Meaning, there hasn't been many Montreal exclusive routes or airlines that have gone to YYZ, the way YUL has gained destinations and/or airlines that were previously YYZ exclusive. Plus they have those unique routes to France and places like Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean.
Then comes the topic of Middle East/North Africa. YUL always used to have a monopoly on these routes, served by the likes of Air Marcoc, Tunisair, Air Algeria, Egyptair, Royal Jordanian, Emirates, and Qatar. YYZ had El Al, Saudia, Ethiopian, Emirates, and Etihad. So the balance was clearly to YUL. But YUL lost Egyptair to YYZ, YYZ was also added to the Royal Jordanian flights, and now Air Maroc serving both. YUL is still not losing out, it's not like there's been a real shift to YYZ or anything, just much more balanced service and growth for YUL and YYZ. And the types of destinations and geographic coverage are overlapping a lot, to the point where they are close to the same international offerings (don't bite my head off, I know YYZ is still bigger, just the spread between the two has really narrowed.
Sooooo.... I finally buckled down and did the number crunching for YYC's WS service this winter (I posted YVR, YEG, YWG, and YYZ numbers a couple pages back. Below are the YYC figures as close as I could see, I may have made many mistakes, but I tried to be careful and thorough. I am also reposting just the summary highlights for those other airports, just so you can see them altogether without having to go 2 pages back. NOTE: I hadn't done the YYC schedule before the updates, so can't make any comparisons the way I did for the other airports. But I assume growth in general, but just a guess
YYC
-919 weekly flights (667 mainline, 252 Encore)
-66 destinations (doesn't include WS codeshare routes)
~129,723 seats
YVR
-436 weekly flights (341 mainline, 95 Encore), compared to 434 flights before the latest update (300 mainline, 134 Encore)
-31 destinations (doesn't include WS codeshare routes), compared to 32 destinations pre-update
~60.930 seats (n/a)
-Increases in flight frequency to YYC, YEG, YLW (mainline portion only), YWG, YXE, FLL, LAS, ORL, PSP, PHX, MZT, and SJD (12 destinations)
-Decreases in flight frequency to YLW (for Encore service), YXS (Encore), YXT (Encore), ATL, SNA, HNL, OGG, and CUN (8 destinations)
-Frequency levels maintained to YYZ, YYJ, YXJ, YQQ, YXC, YCD, LAX, KOA, LIH, HUX, PVR, and ZIH (12 destinations)
YYZ
-333 weekly flights (all mainline), compared to 339 pre-update
-40 destinations (doesn't include WS codeshare routes), compared to 38 destinations pre-update
~53,406 seats
-Increases in flight frequency to YYC, YEG, YLW, YUL, YOW, AUA, LIR, SXM, GND, RTB, and TQO (11 destinations)
-Decreases in flight frequency to FLL, RSW, ORL, MBJ, NAS, PLS, PUJ, VRA, KIN, and SJU (10 destinations)
-Frequency levels maintained to YVR, YHZ, YWG, YQR, YXE, TPA, LAS, HUX, PVR, ANU, BGI, GCM, POP, UVF, BZE, CZM, CUR, MID and BON (19 destinations)
YEG
-315 weekly flights (235 mainline, 80 Encore), compared to 295 pre-update (197 mainline and 295 Encore)
-29 destinations (doesn't include WS codeshare routes), same as pre-update
~43,123 seats
-Increases in flight frequency to YYC (mainline portion only), YVR, YYX, YLW (mainline portion only), YYJ (mainline and Encore), YWG, YUL, YOW, CUN, HUX, and SJD (11 destinations)
-Decreases in flight frequency to YYC (Encore portion only), YYZ, YHZ, YLW (Encore portion only), YQQ, YMM, YQR, YXE, LAS, and PVR (10 destinations)
-Frequency levels maintained to YQU, YZF, MSP, LAX, ORL, HNL, OGG, PSP, PHX, and MZT (10 destinations)
YWG
-171 weekly flights (142 mainline, 29 Encore), compared to 138 pre-update (113 mainline and 25 Encore)
-22 destinations (doesn't include WS codeshare routes), compared to 19 pre-update
~24,549 seats
-Increases in flight frequency to YYC, YVR, YEG, YUL, YOW, YQR, ATL, FLL, PHX, CUN, MZT, SJD, PVR (13 destinations)
-Decreases in flight frequency to YYZ, LAS, ORL, and PSP (4 destinations)
-Frequency levels maintained to YQT, YXE, LAX, HUX and MBJ (5 destinations)
So obviously it's the behemoth we all knew it was for WS, no surprises to see these numbers for me. Total weekly flights is more than double the next highest YVR (about 2.1x more). Both the # of destinations served and total seats are also roughly 2.1x more than YVR. So clearly in its own league, and shocking to thing there was a time YYZ was bigger. Some random observations I made looking at the numbers for this winter (I know summer is different so these figures are only applicable for the sample week in December, not all the time):
-Mainline and Encore operate on 11 routes together, which is more than I would've thought. YVR only has 1 route that both operate on (YLW), otherwise all Encore destinations are only Encore, and mainline destinations are only mainline. But at YYC there's so many mish-mash routes that have mainline and Encore alternating through the day, and every day basically the schedule changes for # of flights and whether mainline or Encore operate more. I can tell you it made it miles harder to tabulate totals, since I had to count them separately but they are listed together on the airlines pages, so lots of manual calculations. But also it makes me wonder how WS managed for so long with only mainline 737 jets to all routes (before this starts a debate, I didn't mean to imply having only 737s was bad, maybe WS was better off in those days, I didn't say it for that reason). I said it because it appears by how much the Encore planes are used interchangebly with mainline that their lower capacity is beneficial for their overall service, and likely makes more sense to operate less busy days or times of day, and free up the 737 for one of the sun routes where it makes gangbusters. Who knows though, Encore could close and go back to mainline only, who knows! I have no idea how Encore is received at WS and what the financials look like. If Encore does disappear, there will be a lot of small towns and thinner regional route pairs that would be losing service. In WS's early days they kept adding random smaller centres to their route network, but then so many barely lasted because the 737 was just way too much plane. Encore helped that. But is that benefit of having some regional connectivity with smaller centres, plus the flexibility of interchanging 737 and DH4 to better serve routes, worth the complexity of not having a single aircraft fleet? I could see arguments for both sides. First off, Link is folding, so it's clear the much smaller destinations were not absolutely booming (I'm sure some or most do well, but in many cases the Encore replacements for Link routes is a capacity cut). Secondly, they axed all of Eastern Canada, just dismantled regional connectivity entirely at YYZ. And they aren't even that big in SK or MB, so it's basically just BC and AB that support Encore. YYC focused or not, I can't think it's a good situation to have a subsidiary only operate in a few provinces. But who knows, maybe I'm way off and Encore is crushing it. But for some reason, I wouldn't be surprised if it gets folded in. But for now, YYC sees a lot of mixed aircraft action on the same routes. But I could definitely see a return to all jets overall
-There are seven routes which both airports share that have more flights from YVR than YYC (YXS, YXT, HNL, OGG, KOA, SJD, and PVR). YXS and YXT are BC regional, so that's understandable. The three Hawaiian routes also make sense being more frequent from YVR than YYC, that's always been the case. I was a bit surprised by SJD and PVR though, I thought they'd have more flights from YYC than YVR. I should mention the 787 operates on YYC-PVR, so in terms of seats it's probably more, but still surprised YYC wasn't way ahead for weekly flights too. Again, YYC is so far ahead of anyone else in service, these observations are just that, and not meaning to imply that having more capacity on a handful of routes means anything. The fact is, it's the YYC show and everywhere else is just a bridesmaid lol
-remains to be seen how WG will intergrate, how much that will add to WS's capacity, if they will not replace some capacity, or what's going to happen. Needless to say it will boost YYZ's flight count, potentially enough to regain the #2 spot from YVR, it's definitely within the realm of possibility. But those Toronto-Sun routings have so much capacity on them, and so many competitors. Maybe WS would rather tighten the market a bit to boost fares and increase loads/yields. While Europe is shooing away tourists, Mexico is welcoming them with open arms, the growth in areas like Cancun is nuts, enough that they had to build another entire airport. I bet Mexico is going to benefit if people get turned off from Europe's major tourist jam cities. Don't get me wrong, what Europe offers is obviously different than Cancun or Tulum, but when people have limited vacation time and money, some might reconsider plans and do Mexico instead of Spain or whatever. So maybe WG is doing super well even with all the competition, but it's WS will merge them into WS, that seems enquivocally the plan. But they have moved the date of integration from Oct. 26 to late April 2025, basically leaving an entire winter season in tact. Totally makes sense, as soon as there was doubt that things wouldn't be ready for October, you have to move it all the way to April/May, you can't do something like that in the middle of the sun season, it would be idiotic. Best leave it until April/May doldrums, it will cause way less impact than doing it in December.
Ok I'm exhausted, this took a lot of energy to compile and analyze lol, I love doing it but it eats up lots of time. But when you love doing it, isn't a chore
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