YVR & Sea Island Developments Discussion II

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by nname

Recent F8 update shows YVR-GDL now operates daily for the peak winter season in December.

Looks like after every update, F8 gradually concentrate more and more resource to YVR and YYZ. Though 95 weekly is not the most YVR receive for winter season..

This winter, only 2 routes left out of CUN
YVR-CUN
YYZ-CUN

PVR is somewhat similar, plus a single weekly flight to YYC and YEG.

And only 5 transborder routes left
YVR-LAX
YVR-SFO
YVR-LAS
YYZ-MCO
YYZ-FLL

Compare this to a couple of winters ago, where F8 flies to CUN and LAS from maybe 6 or 8 Canadian cities each...

Looking at their forward schedules your analysis looks spot on.

With Sunwing now swallowed up by Westjet this leaves very little competition for direct flights to Sun destinations in Western Canada outside of YVR.

YEG and YWG will have token twice weekly services to CUN on AC

And as mentioned above Flair offering a pittance

As for YVR - good to see there is still plenty of competition to sun destinations.
I’m impressed Flair is going to increase GDL and CUN to daily and PVR to 8pw
AC will still boast 35 weekly to Mexico as well
Aeromexico’s twice daily flights also provides an excellent variety of vacations
And of course Westjet still offering plenty of YVR Sun flights this winter

And for a completely different experience all the flights to SE Asia and the South Pacific

With AC’s new flights to MNL as well they offer some good options - SIN (Where I am now) is always a fun place to visit and BKK in January is quite pleasant (where I was this January and going again next January too)

A lot of people I talk to overlook these areas as “sun destinations” mainly due to the distance but I highly recommend

[Johnny Aussie]

Condor has removed the * from Vancouver meaning it appears Condor will be daily for the entire summer season next year. Also now showing Westjet connections from many points in Western Canada and Air North from
YXY.

[zahav]

For comparison, here's the weekly flight frequency/destination count for the other main hubs this upcoming winter (I used week of Dec. 14 to 20, so slight difference from previous posts).

YYZ - 116 departures, 13 destinations
YVR - 93 departures, 10 destinations
YEG - 49 departures, 5 destinations
YYC - 46 departures, 4 destinations
YWG - 10 departures, 2 destinations

I took a similar sample in December 2024, same reference week:

YYZ - 125 departures, 13 destinations
YVR - 102 departures, 9 destinations
YEG - 68 departures, 7 destinations
YYC - 99 departures, 7 destinations
YWG - 27 departures, 4 destinations

Pretty significant cuts across the board, but YYC & YWG particularly bad (WS must be loving it). YWG flights dropped by -63%, YYC by -54%, and YEG by -28%; all three airports also declined in # of destinations served. YVR (-8.8%) and YYZ (-7.2%) lost a much smaller % of flights compared to last year; YVR gained one destinations compared to last year and YYZ stayed the same. It really sucks, we barely got over Covid and its years of terrorizing the airline industry, I thought we'd at least get a few years before we get clobbered again

[nname]

Keep in mind that schedule is not finished yet, likely there will still new destination left to be announced.

For the schedule I got (with 95 weekly flight) there is still open slot on the afternoon of days 1357. So if they fill it, the YVR may end up with close to 100 weekly flights, maybe slightly over depend how long the route will be.

Don't know where else can they fly to? US most likely out of the question... Restart peak seasonal service to YKF? Maybe PUJ as WS/WG doesn't seems to be interested in operating from YVR next winter (so far)? Try restart SJD for probably the 4th time or maybe some new station in Mexico or the Caribbean?

Didn't check the YEG and YYC base schedule, but likely there's room for more flight to be added as well.

Can't find their old PR anymore, but based on memory, the loss of daily YVR-YLW is essentially the difference between W24 and W25. Can't imagine they're making any money on that route when 4N always undercutting them on fare and includes free carry-on and 2 checked bags...

[Johnny Aussie]

With peak summer just kicking off YVR’s European network looks really strong with 91 weekly flights in July and 90 in August (when DUB goes from 5->4 weekly) and a good variety with 9 carriers

Breakdown as follows:

BA leads the way with 21 weekly
AC 19 (July) 18 (August)
LH 14
KL 7
AF 7
WK 7
DE 7
FI 6
TK 3

China still a big damper on Asia Pacific - however Asia Pac is actually faring very well too

[Johnny Aussie]

And despite what’s happening Transborder - the US carriers haven’t really pulled back at all

Around 50 daily

UA - 19 daily
DL - 13 daily
AA - 8 daily Aug 7 daily Jul
AS - 8 daily
B6 - 2 daily
SY - 3 weekly

And even with the Westjet cuts WS/DL still going to be fielding about 18 daily flights to the DL hubs

And the combined AC/UA flights to UA hubs still an impressive 33 daily

[VancityAvgeek33]

Does anyone know when China and Canada flights will be back to normal? Like as in they can fly as many times a week as they want.

[LeftCoaster]

AFAIK it's never been open skies, but your guess is as good as anyone not directly in the negotiations when flight allowances will be opened up to previous levels.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by VancityAvgeek33

Does anyone know when China and Canada flights will be back to normal? Like as in they can fly as many times a week as they want.

Going off memory, I believe Canada-China was limited to 76x weekly per side. I agree that it would be nice if it went back up to that.

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Meanwhile Air France appears to be going daily year round effective second week of December.

Bumps AF/KL to 10 weekly through the winter

And British Airways moving to a daily A350-1000 again for the winter

Assuming they don't reduce frequency in the shoulder season next year, like they are doing this fall...

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/250613-af4q25na

Paris Charles de Gaulle – Vancouver 26OCT25 – 15DEC25 Reduce from 7 to 5 weekly, A350-900

Same for KL.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/250613-klnw25na

Amsterdam – Vancouver eff 26OCT25 Reduce from 4 to 3 weekly, A330-200

[Johnny Aussie]

Just realised AF has now been flying to YVR for 10 years (commenced in March 2015).

Since then KL and AF have basically flipped winter schedules with AF now daily and KL 3 weekly. The combined 10 weekly this winter is pretty impressive and one more weekly flight than LH.

[nname]

Haven't posted this output for a while.. but based on the current arrival/departure information, YVR gates will be quite busy this summer.

This is the gate use for today:



The red line is at 1pm.

Gate 93 and 96 are unused (although 93 was used by F8 in the morning I believe). Maybe they can squeeze in a few flights in 50, 52 and 66. Other than that, every gate is used.

Note: Today LH to/from FRA is cancelled. Normally it'll use the spot currently taken by WK.

Wonder if there will be more flights in other days of the week, since it's Tuesday today. I believe a few more flights will be added in July? Wonder if there's a chance we could see remote stand in action this summer...

[Calfan12]

Air India Reduced Frequency Until July 15 on Delhi–Vancouver: from 7 to 5 weekly flights, (due to maintenance checks on its long haul fleet of planes✈️), after the AI171 incident/accident June 12 2025.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/...k-full-list-of-changes-13148013.html/amp

[Johnny Aussie]

Air India flights to DEL currently flying via CCU. Nonstop on DEL-YVR though.

Closed airspaces continue to impede certain flights.

AC cannot overfly Russia and AI cannot overfly Pakistan.

Meanwhile AC is switching LHR-DEL to LHR-BOM (originates in YYZ) this winter.

[Johnny Aussie]

“As for YVR - good to see there is still plenty of competition to sun destinations.

And of course Westjet still offering plenty of YVR Sun flights this winter”

Did a quick tally and didn’t realise Westjet’s (non USA) sun program was this big at YVR

Total of 54 weekly including 10 on “Sunwing”

[trofirhen]

with as many flights as Westjet has out of YVR, I am disappointed that we cannot be a hub city. Looking at the WS destination map, though, I can see that about the only destination group out of YVR is Hawaii.
YYZ has the Caribbean, With that bank almost entirely out of YYZ, so yeah, I guess it makes sense why YYZ is their only other real hub outside of Calgary.

[nname]

There's only 1 hub for WS, and that's YYC.

Both YVR and YYZ are far below what WS offered at YYC. In fact, if you read the Canadian thread, someone posted that YVR have more total WS flight offered, mainline flight offered, and seat offered compared to YYZ. There are a lot more routes between YYZ and the Caribbeans, but most of them are only a few weekly each.

==================

FJ now extends the 3rd weekly flight until the end of the booking period. Looks like the base service to YVR will be 3x weekly starting early Dec. Now lets see if they'll start adding the 4th weekly flight during peak summer and winter period starting from 2026...

I guess FJ at YVR fares much better than what TN achieved at SEA, where the LF were reported to be in the 20-30s every month since they move the CDG extension back to LAX..

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by nname

FJ now extends the 3rd weekly flight until the end of the booking period. Looks like the base service to YVR will be 3x weekly starting early Dec. Now lets see if they'll start adding the 4th weekly flight during peak summer and winter period starting from 2026...

I guess FJ at YVR fares much better than what TN achieved at SEA, where the LF were reported to be in the 20-30s every month since they move the CDG extension back to LAX..

Always good to see foreign airlines starting and/or adding services at YVR. HK airlines recently increased to daily and TWay is now only three weeks from launching.

The South Pacific is fairly well covered from YVR. Having Fiji Airways is a good option. And like I said the South Pacific is an excellent place for Sun destination travel - but is often overlooked (along with SE Asia)

As 4-holers become more scarce, YVR will still have two passenger routes next summer. FRA on LH continues with a daily 744 (perhaps two more summers to go for them) and ZRH daily 343 on Edelweiss now scheduled daily as well (perhaps the last summer YVR will see those as their whole 343 fleet is being replaced by 359s)

[Calfan12]

BRITISH AIRWAYS SEP 2025 LONDON – VANCOUVER AIRCRAFT CHANGES

British Airways during the month of September 2025 schedules aircraft changes on selected London Heathrow – Vancouver service. From 01SEP25 to 11SEP25, BA085/084 service to see the 777-300ER operating, instead of -200ER.

BA087 LHR1215 – 1350YVR 777 146
BA087 LHR1405 – 1540YVR 777 2
BA087 LHR1415 – 1550YVR 777 357
BA085 LHR1715 – 1855YVR 77W D

BA086 YVR1745 – 1105+1LHR 777 146
BA086 YVR1750 – 1110+1LHR 777 2
BA086 YVR1755 – 1115+1LHR 777 357
BA084 YVR2045 – 1405+1LHR 77W D

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/250624-basep25yvr

[ninjakafi_81]

Not really related to YVR but down south in Seattle, Delta Air Lines just announced that they will have flights to Rome and Barcelona.

Delta Air Lines announces new Seattle (SEA) long-haul routes:

• SEA to Rome (FCO) 1x daily starting May 6, 2026
• SEA to Barcelona (BCN) 1x daily starting May 7, 2026

Flights will operate using the A330neo. Delta is set to have at least 10 daily long-haul international SEA flights next summer.

https://x.com/IshrionA/status/1937654066517278997

Hopefully one day YVR can have flights to Rome and Barcelona.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by ninjakafi_81

Not really related to YVR but down south in Seattle, Delta Air Lines just announced that they will have flights to Rome and Barcelona.



https://x.com/IshrionA/status/1937654066517278997

Hopefully one day YVR can have flights to Rome and Barcelona.

Let's pray for this from YVR. ITA to FCO even if not to BCN. This is a good example of the "Seattle Overtake" I sometimes harp on. If not this, maybe GRU or such.
There is a sizeable Latin American presence here, and looking further afield, there is always that eventual role as Asian connection hub if that ever happens.