Quote:
Originally Posted by thenoflyzone
AI used to have access to Pakistani airspace. They don't anymore.
YVR-DEL used to route eastbound. Due to the Pakistani airspace constraints, they now route it westbound out of YVR. Westbound=headwinds. That's why the stop in CCU is needed.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/f...ai186#3ab1b7c6
DEL-YVR can be done non stop because they now route it eastbound as well, meaning tailwinds most of the way. So even though distance wise, it's longer than over Pakistan and Russia, time wise, it's quicker. |
Oh right yes, I recall now hearing this a few weeks ago. I always thought India and Pakistan were always prohibited from using each other's airspace, I was surprised this was a new occurrence. I didn't realize so much Indian traffic went over Pakistan anyways, or that detouring was enough to make routes unviable. Russian airspace closures causing major route interference made sense, as it covers such a huge area basically on top of everything from Turkey to Japan, so it blocks a massive swath. But obviously it did make a big difference, enough to drastically re route. Who'd have thought we'd be contending with not one but two airspace closures, ugh.. For the longest time we yearned for new non stop routes, destinations, etc. and it was aircraft limitations and/or financial viability that held us back. No sooner do we start getting the fun routes (ie. the right aircraft and economics make sense) then suddenly geopolitical becomes an issue lol, can't catch a break! The airline industry really gets sideswiped all the time, good times never last long and they get battered by so many forces. So I guess this is all just part of a historic pattern of external shocks that rattle the industry, just seems to be a lot right now, and so many self imposed (ie. the trade war telling people to not go to the US).
It looks like WS is playing with July schedules at the moment, certain random flights I am seeing frequency decreases; they are often just for a few weeks, but some seem to be the whole summer. I have already done my full WS schedule so many frickin times, I can't keep up with how much they change now, if I had more time/energy I'd gladly do it, but it's time consuming. Most years there wouldn't be so many late changes, but thus is the world we are in. I am not surprised at all, I always said it seemed unrealistic that WS could operate as much as it planned to given the plumetting travel demand to/from the US.
Some random routes I checked and noticed changes on include (reference week July 14-20):
YEG-SFO down to 1x weekly from 2x
YEG-LAS down to 7x weekly from 9x
YEG-ORD down to 1x weekly from 2x
YEG-SLC down to 2x weekly from 3x
YEG-BNA down to 1x weekly (this may not be new, I overwrote my previous number and saved over, so can't remember if this was a new decrease)
YVR-LAS down to 10x weekly from 12x
YVR-LAX down to 7x weekly from 10x
YVR-BOS down to 5x weekly from 7x
YVR-BNA down to 1x weekly from 2x
YVR-ATL down to 12x weekly from 15x
**All comparisons are with the schedule that was in effect on June 7th, which was already a big change from months before
YVR was always going to be hit hardest because of this, I said many times. Other cities already had transborder trimmed hugely, so there wasn't much meat left on the bone to trim (ie. YYZ didn't seem to change in this update, but the transborder service had already been hacked away so badly so not much more they could do). But YVR still had a lot of capacity/frequency transborder, even up till last week, it baffled me they hadn't cut some yet. So I am not surprised to see routes like LAX, LAS, and ATL loser some (they were all clocking almost or over 2x daily service). ATL at 15x weekly seemed the most outlandish in today's environment, so thought it could go down even more. Surprised DTW hangs on to 7x weekly. BNA is basically toast, the writing was really on the wall.
YEG losing was also expected to some degree, unfortunately it has left a lot of once or twice weekly flights, and many on routes that don't make sense to have such low frequency weekly (SFO, ORD, SLC). Hopefully this is temporary, I'd think operating so many once weekly leaves them vulnerable long term, folding into YYC would be a strong possibility. Such a large volume of 1x weekly really works with sun destinations and specialty package destinations, not so much for places like ORD, SFO, SLC. But hoping it is temporary and there's no long term issues.
I have no clue how YYC has changed, I haven't tackled their summer schedule at all so have no comparison. But they'd cut at YVR and YEG before they'd ever chop at YYC. Shouldn't surprise me that YYC is suffering way less due to the current US issues. I bet polls would show Calgarians are less likely to avoid US travel right now, especially compared to Torontonians or even Vancouverites. It's not like there's a lot of love between them and the rest of the country right now due to many political/economic factors (ie. Feds sniffling their industry). So wouldn't be a huge shock that in a fight between Carney and Trump, there isn't necessaerily a clear villain...
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