Canadian Airport Thread II

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by casper

Speaking of Canada and India. This is a weird one, for the Canadian military to get involved with....


https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/air...y-landing-in-iqaluit-after-online-threat

Basically the Canadian Air Force dispatched an aircraft to pick them up and transport them to Chicago (their final destination).

I do hope the Canadian government send the bill to Air Canada.

Why, exactly, is it the Government of Canada's responsibility to send a rescue plane? Traditionally any private air carrier would have to arrange that at their expense.

Is Harjit trying to buy votes at the taxpayers' expense?

[casper]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Why, exactly, is it the Government of Canada's responsibility to send a rescue plane? Traditionally any private air carrier would have to arrange that at their expense.

Is Harjit trying to buy votes at the taxpayers' expense?

This is a flight between India and Chicago. I don't see there being many Canadian voters on this flight. I don't think it is about buying votes.

Likely more to do with the logistics of what you do with 200+ stranded travelers in a very remote part of Canada.

As an aside, I do hope they send the bill to Air India.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by casper

This is a flight between India and Chicago. I don't see there being many Canadian voters on this flight. I don't think it is about buying votes.

Likely more to do with the logistics of what you do with 200+ stranded travelers in a very remote part of Canada.

As an aside, I do hope they send the bill to Air India.

Iqaluit Terminal and the town itself cannot accommodate 200 passengers and crew. Air India was useless in getting help to them as well. RCMP and Canada Border are to small to deal with it as well.

Anytime there is an emergency landing there people get to sit on the airplane until a rescue flight arrive. Unless arrangements are made to close down most of the terminal. For this one the passengers were eventually off loaded. Food and water was made alliable. And I believe some entertainment as well.

[Djeffery]

What was the timeline involved in this? The plane gets a threat so it lands, then what happened? I assume we sent the Husky because what else do we have? But how fast do they get that set to go and get up there, after however long to even decide to do that? In the meantime, what was going on with the Air India plane and where were the passengers? I'm assuming they weren't sitting on the plane given that it was the subject of a threat. Who checks the plane over and declares that there is no threat to it and has that happened yet?

[AuxTown]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

What was the timeline involved in this? The plane gets a threat so it lands, then what happened? I assume we sent the Husky because what else do we have? But how fast do they get that set to go and get up there, after however long to even decide to do that? In the meantime, what was going on with the Air India plane and where were the passengers? I'm assuming they weren't sitting on the plane given that it was the subject of a threat. Who checks the plane over and declares that there is no threat to it and has that happened yet?

All excellent questions.....

I wonder if there is some kind of Come From Away sequel situation up there in Iqualuit??

I guess a bunch of south asian folks are getting a crash course in rural/remote Canadian living

[LO 044]

The bottom line is the Canadian Government should have said in any news release that the bill is being paid by Air India or we'll assume they didn't.

Air India, though, should have sent one of their widebodies to complete the route. I mean they only have 27 788's, 27 777's and 6 350's so I'm not sure what the story is. Hell they could have hired Nolinor Airlines to make 2 or 3 trips with their 732's to send their passengers to Chicago.

If we funded this little drop off then this government can stamp sucker on their forehead again after already being taken advantage of by Russia, China and now India.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

What was the timeline involved in this? The plane gets a threat so it lands, then what happened? I assume we sent the Husky because what else do we have? But how fast do they get that set to go and get up there, after however long to even decide to do that? In the meantime, what was going on with the Air India plane and where were the passengers? I'm assuming they weren't sitting on the plane given that it was the subject of a threat. Who checks the plane over and declares that there is no threat to it and has that happened yet?

CBC News Reports states

- Passengers spent 18 hours stranded at the Iqaluit airport's international security zone.

- Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan said he approved a request for the Canadian military resources, as Iqaluit was "not equipped to house these passengers" and the airline "hasn't found a solution."

- For hours, the Air India plane wasn't checked for bombs, because Nunavut doesn't have explosives detective units, according to Nunavut RCMP. Specialists from outside the territory arrived later in the day.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/air-india-canadian-military-steps-in-1.7353543

Originally Posted by LO 044

The bottom line is the Canadian Government should have said in any news release that the bill is being paid by Air India or we'll assume they didn't.

Probably.

Originally Posted by LO 044

Air India, though, should have sent one of their widebodies to complete the route. I mean they only have 27 788's, 27 777's and 6 350's so I'm not sure what the story is. Hell they could have hired Nolinor Airlines to make 2 or 3 trips with their 732's to send their passengers to Chicago.

Sounds like Air India could not pull that off.

Originally Posted by LO 044

If we funded this little drop off then this government can stamp sucker on their forehead again after already being taken advantage of by Russia, China and now India.

Your still left with what do you do with 200+ visitors in a small remote airport.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

What was the timeline involved in this? The plane gets a threat so it lands, then what happened? I assume we sent the Husky because what else do we have? But how fast do they get that set to go and get up there, after however long to even decide to do that? In the meantime, what was going on with the Air India plane and where were the passengers? I'm assuming they weren't sitting on the plane given that it was the subject of a threat. Who checks the plane over and declares that there is no threat to it and has that happened yet?

It would be a good test of emergency responsiveness. But it sound like more than 12 hours. I can touch base with a contact up there.

[thenoflyzone]

Honestly, I would be surprised if AI isn’t getting a bill for all of this shortly.

The government charges our own citizens for flights out of danger zones (i.e. Lebanon). This won’t be any different, I’m sure.

A service was offered. AI will foot the bill.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by LO 044

The bottom line is the Canadian Government should have said in any news release that the bill is being paid by Air India or we'll assume they didn't.

Air India, though, should have sent one of their widebodies to complete the route. I mean they only have 27 788's, 27 777's and 6 350's so I'm not sure what the story is. Hell they could have hired Nolinor Airlines to make 2 or 3 trips with their 732's to send their passengers to Chicago.

If we funded this little drop off then this government can stamp sucker on their forehead again after already being taken advantage of by Russia, China and now India.

It certainly raises the question of how competent Air India is if they can't russle up a plane to charter in North America.

[nname]

Originally Posted by whatnext

It certainly raises the question of how competent Air India is if they can't russle up a plane to charter in North America.

Well it happened at around 5am EDT. Not sure if any charter company will have a couple of plane and crew on standby and be ready whenever they got a call in the middle of the night. YFB is more than 12 hours away from DEL, so it will take a long time to send a rescue plane from their base, and I believe there is no AI flight that scheduled to be depart in the morning? The departure of the ORD flight on return trip would've been the earliest one. Plus there are many other bomb threats AI is dealing with on that day. Most notably the Singapore one...

Maybe if this happen in November, they could give Flair a call and they would have some plane lying around for some charter work

[casper]

Originally Posted by nname

Well it happened at around 5am EDT. Not sure if any charter company will have a couple of plane and crew on standby and be ready whenever they got a call in the middle of the night. YFB is more than 12 hours away from DEL, so it will take a long time to send a rescue plane from their base, and I believe there is no AI flight that scheduled to be depart in the morning? The departure of the ORD flight on return trip would've been the earliest one. Plus there are many other bomb threats AI is dealing with on that day. Most notably the Singapore one...

Maybe if this happen in November, they could give Flair a call and they would have some plane lying around for some charter work

Well I don't think you can cold-call a charter airline you don't already have a contract in place with and expect them to just get an aircraft in the air. It would likely have to be someone the Air India also have a contractual of some sort with. They are a star alliance airlines, so one would assume Air Canada and United have some agreements in place. Do they have spare aircraft and crew? Probably not.

i think it is impressive the Canadian Air Force was able to do this. Canada has through COVID and until now has contracted Hi-Fly (https://hifly.aero/) from Portugal to do widebody charter work. Perhaps this means less work for Hi-Fly going forward.

There are some CBC clips of passengers expressing their disappointment in Air India. We have not seen any videos out yet showing the inflight experience on the Husky from a passenger perspective.

[thenoflyzone]

French Bee finally loaded its flights to YUL.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/241017-bf2q25yul

French Bee in Northern summer 2025 season plans to launch service to Canada, as the airline yesterday (16OCT24) opened reservations for Paris Orly – Montreal route. From 30APR25, Airbus A350-900XWB aircraft to serve this route 4 times weekly, increasing to 5 weekly from 05JUL25 to 30AUG25.

BF760 ORY1920 – 2100YUL 359 x24
BF761 YUL2300 – 1200+1ORY 359 x24

TS with some changes for S25. YUL-AMS, YQB-LGW and YYZ-BCN are cut. YYZ-MAN/CDG see reductions.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/241018-tsns25eu

Air Transat earlier this month filed initial service changes to Europe for Northern summer 2025 season. As of 17OCT24, planned changes include the following.

Montreal – Basel/Mulhouse 25JUN25 – 24SEP25 Increase from 2 to 3 weekly, A321neo
Montreal – Barcelona eff 01MAY25 Increase from 5 to 7 weekly, A321neo
Montreal – London Gatwick 21JUN25 – 13SEP25 Increase from 7 to 8 weekly, A321neo
Quebec City – Paris Charles de Gaulle 22JUN25 – 20SEP25 Increase from 4 to 5 weekly, A321neo
Toronto – Amsterdam eff 03JUN25 Increase from 4 to 6 weekly, A321neo (7 weekly 19JUN25 – 17SEP25, 5 from 19SEP25)
Toronto – Manchester eff 16MAY25 Reduce from 7 weekly in NS24 to 6 weekly, A321neo/330-200
Toronto – Paris Charles de Gaulle eff 20JUN25 Reduce from 7 weekly in NS24 to 6 weekly, A321neo

Following routes has been removed for Northern summer 2025 season:
Montreal – Amsterdam
Quebec City – London Gatwick
Toronto – Barcelona

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by casper

Well I don't think you can cold-call a charter airline you don't already have a contract in place with and expect them to just get an aircraft in the air. It would likely have to be someone the Air India also have a contractual of some sort with. They are a star alliance airlines, so one would assume Air Canada and United have some agreements in place. Do they have spare aircraft and crew? Probably not.

i think it is impressive the Canadian Air Force was able to do this. Canada has through COVID and until now has contracted Hi-Fly (https://hifly.aero/) from Portugal to do widebody charter work. Perhaps this means less work for Hi-Fly going forward.

There are some CBC clips of passengers expressing their disappointment in Air India. We have not seen any videos out yet showing the inflight experience on the Husky from a passenger perspective.

No doubt HiFly will continue to get a decent amount of military charters until the RCAF’s received its full compliment of CC330s. There was a HiFly departure at 0100 this morning out of YOW. Ironically for the rescue flight, the RCAF received its third aircraft just a couple of days prior to the AI diversion. Even though it’s only 3 hours from YOW to YFB, 18 hours to get the pax on their way is pretty quick.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

No doubt HiFly will continue to get a decent amount of military charters until the RCAF’s received its full compliment of CC330s. There was a HiFly departure at 0100 this morning out of YOW. Ironically for the rescue flight, the RCAF received its third aircraft just a couple of days prior to the AI diversion. Even though it’s only 3 hours from YOW to YFB, 18 hours to get the pax on their way is pretty quick.

HiFly is a regular visitor to YQM as well.



Military traffic from CFB Gagetown to Riga, Latvia. The runway at YFC is not long enough for this bird, so, we get all the traffic here.

[MonctonRad]

Reposted from the Atlantic Canada Airport Thread:

CYQM press release:

YQM Reports Strong Year-to-Date Performance
October 16, 2024

Greater Moncton, NB, October 16, 2024 – The Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport (YQM) is pleased to announce remarkable year-to-date figures as of September 2024, highlighting significant growth in both passenger traffic and cargo movements.

YQM has welcomed 521,630 passengers so far this year, achieving an impressive 100.6% of the year-to-date figures recorded in 2019, pre-COVID. This reflects a notable increase of 10.7% or 50,532 additional passengers compared to the same timeframe last year.

The airport experienced its best summer on record from June to August 2024, with a total of 210,663 passengers traveling through YQM. This surge underscores the airport’s robust recovery and continued appeal as a key travel hub in the region. Looking ahead, 2024 has the potential to be the best year on record for passenger traffic at YQM.

By the end of September 2024, the airport handled 30 international cargo flights, compared to 33 for all of 2023 and YQM has established a consistent track record in domestic cargo operations. These figures indicate ongoing growth in our cargo services throughout 2024.

To continue their momentum YQM is gearing up for another robust winter sun destination schedule, with Air Transat and Sunwing set to offer a total of twelve direct flights to sun-soaked destinations, including Jamaica, Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, Varadero, Cancun, and Orlando, starting in February 2025. Air Transat will begin services to Cancun on December 19 and to Orlando on December 20, making winter getaways more accessible than ever.

“We are thrilled to see such strong growth in passenger and cargo traffic at YQM,” said Courtney Burns, President and CEO of the Greater Moncton International Airport Authority. “This success is a testament to the dedication of our team and our partners, as well as the support from our community. We are committed to providing exceptional service and enhancing the travel experience for everyone.”

So, passenger numbers at YQM have recovered to pre-pandemic levels. This is very, very good news.

The international cargo flights they refer to in this press release is mostly super heavies carrying fresh lobster to China via Anchorage. In addition to this, YQM has robust domestic cargo capacity as well, mostly for the courier services like UPS and Fed Ex.

[Dominion301]

For anyone spotting at YYZ, you might see this EK 380 at some point (for some reason I can't embed the pic):

https://mms.businesswire.com/media/20241...OTUyMTgwNS4xNTguMS4xNzI5NTIxODYyLjMuMC4w

[Dominion301]

YHZ's August and YTD pax stats:

August:

Sector / 2019 / 2023 / 2024 / % Chg: 23 vs 24 / 24 vs 19
Dom: 415,934 / 380,912 / 410,997 / +7.9% / -1.2%
TB/USA: 38,946 / 18,116 / 36,876 / +103.6% / -5.3%
INT'L: 31,631 / 26,828 / 47,012 / +75.2% / +48.6%
Total: 486,511 / 425,856 / 494,885 / +16.2% / +1.7%

Year-to-Date (YTD):

Sector / 2019 / 2023 / 2024 / % Chg: 23 vs 24 / 24 vs 19
Dom: 2,365,198 / 2,082,207 / 2,160,460 / +3.8% / -8.7%
TB/USA: 255,343 / 135,416 / 202,194 / +49.3% / -20.8%
INT'L: 257,507 / 250,050 / 343,578 / +37.4% / +33.4%
Total: 2,878,048 / 2,467,673 / 2,706,232 / +9.7% / -6.0%

[Justanothermember]

So based on Flair's new schedule, it appears to have pulled out of Saskatchewan, PEI and Nfld completely. Three entire provinces. Likely a fourth province as well, Quebec, as I have doubts they intend on resuming service out of Montreal. My guess is that New Brunswick is next for removal on Flair's retrenchement plan, and that it's only a matter of time before they pull out of Nova Scotia and Manitoba as well.

Flair is becoming more of a limited service air carrier than nationwide domestic.

[whatnext]

A lot more than just the previously reported 80 layoffs at Transat

Air Transat laying off hundreds of flight attendants, says cuts are temporary
Updated Oct. 23, 2024 1:22 p.m. PDT

Air Transat says it is laying off as many as 400 flight attendants, but plans to bring them back to work at some point, a move one expert called “a little unusual.”

Montreal-based international tour operator Transat A.T. Inc., which runs the Air Transat airline, confirmed in an email to CTVNews.ca Wednesday that the temporary layoffs will affect 350 to 400 staff starting Nov. 1....

....Air Transat's move is "a little unusual," said commercial aviation expert John Gradek.

"Typically, you'd see a slight reduction in seasonal workforces," said Gradek, faculty lecturer in supply networks and aviation management at McGill University. "This one is a little too, too large for me. "

While the company said financial challenges and reduced travel demand aren’t a factor behind the temporary layoffs, Gradek said there is concern about its survival.....

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/air-tran...attendants-amid-financial-woes-1.7084191