Canadian Airport Thread II

[Alexcaban]

AC just announced

YYZ-PDL
YUL-NTE
YUL-BER
YHZ-BRU

Also YUL-TLV is back.

https://financialpost.com/globe-newswire...st-transatlantic-network-by-destinations.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Alexcaban

AC just announced

YYZ-PDL
YUL-NTE
YUL-BER
YHZ-BRU

Also YUL-TLV is back.

https://financialpost.com/globe-newswire...st-transatlantic-network-by-destinations.

Raise your hand if you had YHZ-BRU on your bingo card said no one. With LH’s flanker brand handling YHZ-FRA, I guess it makes sense for AC to not duplicate that. I also suppose BRU can handle a better payload on a MAX than say YHZ-MUC.

[magee_b]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Raise your hand if you had YHZ-BRU on your bingo card said no one. With LH’s flanker brand handling YHZ-FRA, I guess it makes sense for AC to not duplicate that. I also suppose BRU can handle a better payload on a MAX than say YHZ-MUC.

Feeds nicely into Brussels Airlines morning arrival/departure bank, including their extensive African network.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by nname

Looks like AC is reorganizing the flight numbers.

First stage occurs in on March 1, then second stage at the start of W26 season.

From March 1, any mainline flight not belong to the following range will move to where they belong:
000s Pacific/South America
100s Domestic Trans-con involving YYZ
200s Western Canada
300s Domestic Trans-con not involving YYZ
400s Domestic Ontario/Quebec
500s Transborder 1
600s Eastern/Atlantic Canada
700s Transborder 2
800s Atlantic 1
900s (a mix of everything)
1000s - Transborder 3
1100s - All flights to/from Saskachewan, and some other random domestic routes
1200s - Transborder 4
1300s - Mexico/Central America/Caribbean 1
1400s - (empty)

All existing flights in the 1400s are move to the 2200s range.
All domestic express flights in the 7000s range moved to 8000s.

Then from the start of W26:
900s - Atlantic 2, except:
-- 980-989 South America
-- 990-999 Mexico City
1400s - Mexico/Central America/Caribbean 2

The routes in the 2200s are still in the 2200s.

Not sure if AC is going to keep the special flight number range for Rouge, or they will be mixed with the mainline flight since there is no longer much difference in the cabin experience. All the YVR flight to Mexico using 7M8 (which would be Rouge by now) are assigned a new flight number in the 1300 to 1400 range, except for HUX which is 2208.

I had also noticed as part of this, the PAL operated flights are moving from the 2500s to the 7500+ range.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Raise your hand if you had YHZ-BRU on your bingo card said no one. With LH’s flanker brand handling YHZ-FRA, I guess it makes sense for AC to not duplicate that. I also suppose BRU can handle a better payload on a MAX than say YHZ-MUC.

Is Brussels part of the joint venture, if so this makes sense. Brussels Air was looking to expand to NA and this is a low risk way to do it. Splits costs/risks on someone else plane.
AC puts up the high capacity 777 from Montreal and its packed. I assume this will do well, but no idea if there is demand for Africa from east coast Canada since rest of connections are fairly mediocre out of Brussels.

[thenoflyzone]

PDL, NTE and YHZ-BRU will be operated by the Max 8. So once those planes go to Rouge, will the routes follow suit? I think most likely they will.

It's interesting why they chose BRU. Initially i thought maybe the Max 8 can't reach FRA, but it can from YHZ, comfortably, and FRA would have been a better choice. The difference in distance is not even 200nm.

Maybe they couldn't get slots into FRA.

[hollywoodcory]

I honestly thought AC already served PDL, but I realized I’m mixing it up with PMI lol.
Just one week after WS announced the same route too.

YHZ is really a big winner when it comes to TATL as of late. AMS/BCN/MAD/LIS/CPH and now BRU all announced within the last year. I think WK started ZRH this year as well?

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

PDL, NTE and YHZ-BRU will be operated by the Max 8. So once those planes go to Rouge, will the routes follow suit? I think most likely they will.

My guess is they'll eventually move to the XLR, they just won't have the lift this summer. I don't even think it's a Rouge vs mainline thing, more the fact that they can sell J with the lie-flats whereas the current J cabin on the MAX is sold as PY for TATL flights.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

PDL, NTE and YHZ-BRU will be operated by the Max 8. So once those planes go to Rouge, will the routes follow suit? I think most likely they will.

It's interesting why they chose BRU. Initially i thought maybe the Max 8 can't reach FRA, but it can from YHZ, comfortably, and FRA would have been a better choice. The difference in distance is not even 200nm.

Maybe they couldn't get slots into FRA.

I think these will all stay on MAXes post-rouge transfer. I can see why there's no point in AC adding even more YHZ-FRA capacity on top of LH's flanker brand. My guess is they'd have considered YHZ-MUC too but with the shorter distance to BRU can get a much better payload on the MAX.

YOW-FRA's return aside, I wonder if YOW-BRU on the XLR could be in the cards down the road? The amount of transatlantic service the folks in YHZ have been able to attract is pretty phenomenal. A tip of the hat to them for sure.

Ever since FRA opened their 3rd parallel runway over a decade ago, I didn't think they were slot restricted anymore?

[q12]

14 European airports served directly from Halifax this summer, crazy.

Only behind Toronto Pearson (YYZ), and Montreal (YUL) for most number of European destinations served from a Canadian airport.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Pre-pandemic O&D on YXU-YOW was in the 50-60k/year range. Definitely enough to sustain a daily DH4. AC back in the day also would have had a decent number of YXU pax connecting over YOW. O&D (and capacity) to Ottawa was always higher than to Montreal out of London. For long stretches YUL-YXU had no nonstop service whereas YOW-YXU had been served continuously since the 1970s.

I wonder who those people are who did that pre-pandemic and how many have jobs now that don't need to do that trip very often? There has to be a reason why AC hasn't put that flight back in after all these years. I can see Porter not doing it because it would be the only flight a day they have in London, so maybe if they someday decide to add a couple or 3 dailies out of London, Ottawa might be one of them. I still stick to my guns that very few people would consider Ottawa a connection point from London when with Toronto and especially now, Hamilton have so many options.

[samuelx88]

Great article about YQB plan for 2026-2030.

It says that YQB-MRS return is a test next summer and if successful, LYS and TLS will come next. (NTE and BOD were also tried at the same time as MRS in 2008-2010). YQB Development VP says that LYS and TLS have similar interesting numbers.

They are trying to get a deal with TS to get back YQB-LGW twice weekly (last served 2022-2024) instead of 1x weekly. He's also saying that LIS and BCN have enough OD to get a direct flight.

Their goal is to go from 1.8M to 2.4M PAX from 2025 to 2030 by convincing those who drive southwards 3h to Montreal to use our own airport instead. He mentions that there are as many people in Québec city who use YQB as those who use YUL instead. I don't know if it means that there could be as many as 3.6M PAX if Montreal wouldn't exist but it can all come down to make people calculate how much more it really cost to drive a total of 6 hours, parking fees, restaurant and hotel just to save sometimes less than 100$ on a ticket.

https://www.lesoleil.com/vivre/voyage/20...rt-de-quebec-U2WZPWDCIVFELLDP7POOJFX7EA/

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by samuelx88

Great article about YQB plan for 2026-2030.

It says that YQB-MRS return is a test next summer and if successful, LYS and TLS will come next. (NTE and BOD were also tried at the same time as MRS in 2008-2010). YQB Development VP says that LYS and TLS have similar interesting numbers.

They are trying to get a deal with TS to get back YQB-LGW twice weekly (last served 2022-2024) instead of 1x weekly. He's also saying that LIS and BCN have enough OD to get a direct flight.

Their goal is to go from 1.8M to 2.4M PAX from 2025 to 2030 by convincing those who drive southwards 3h to Montreal to use our own airport instead. He mentions that there are as many people in Québec city who use YQB as those who use YUL instead. I don't know if it means that there could be as many as 3.6M PAX if Montreal wouldn't exist but it can all come down to make people calculate how much more it really cost to drive a total of 6 hours, parking fees, restaurant and hotel just to save sometimes less than 100$ on a ticket.

https://www.lesoleil.com/vivre/voyage/20...rt-de-quebec-U2WZPWDCIVFELLDP7POOJFX7EA/

It will be interesting to see what happens there, as Quebec City really doesnt act like any other market in the country. Its a population of 900,000 its airport on a per capita basis is much lower than other areas its size and flight make up its just different. No year round flights to Calgary via WestJet, no flights to Atlantic Canada, Porter has not even taken a shot to feed the Ottawa Hub with it.
Large summer tourist market with Americans and people from Europe and low business demand. This is pre Covid when I could see the numbers, but The airport handled more people from France than BC/Alberta over summer.

[thenoflyzone]

EK to deploy the A350 to YUL as of February.

https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/em...latest-travel-experiences-to-customers/#

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by samuelx88

Great article about YQB plan for 2026-2030.

It says that YQB-MRS return is a test next summer and if successful, LYS and TLS will come next. (NTE and BOD were also tried at the same time as MRS in 2008-2010). YQB Development VP says that LYS and TLS have similar interesting numbers.

They are trying to get a deal with TS to get back YQB-LGW twice weekly (last served 2022-2024) instead of 1x weekly. He's also saying that LIS and BCN have enough OD to get a direct flight.

Their goal is to go from 1.8M to 2.4M PAX from 2025 to 2030 by convincing those who drive southwards 3h to Montreal to use our own airport instead. He mentions that there are as many people in Québec city who use YQB as those who use YUL instead. I don't know if it means that there could be as many as 3.6M PAX if Montreal wouldn't exist but it can all come down to make people calculate how much more it really cost to drive a total of 6 hours, parking fees, restaurant and hotel just to save sometimes less than 100$ on a ticket.

https://www.lesoleil.com/vivre/voyage/20...rt-de-quebec-U2WZPWDCIVFELLDP7POOJFX7EA/

Their goal is a passenger increase of 38% in 5 years. That's an average of almost 8% per year.

Ain't gonna happen ! Not with the current economic climate.

[jc_yyc_ca]

September Passenger stats for YYC are out. A modest increase of last year's numbers, but was affected due to Trans-border being down significantly.







Source

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

EK to deploy the A350 to YUL as of February.

https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/em...latest-travel-experiences-to-customers/#

That's a 10 seats/departure capacity bump. It also introduces +Y, but reduces J seating from 38 to 32.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

That's a 10 seats/departure capacity bump. It also introduces +Y, but reduces J seating from 38 to 32.

No. The ULR config A350 (internal EK designation, which identifies those A350s with crew rest areas) only seat 298. It’s 4 less seats per departure, but the benefits far outweigh the loss of those 4 seats.

On top of the addition of PE, as you mentioned, business class on the A350 is in a 1-2-1 config, instead of 2-2-2 on the 77L (which itself was better than the 2-3-2 on the 77W used for YUL in the beginning)

Also, economy class is in a 3-3-3 layout. The 77L was 3-4-3. Not to mention EK will save a ton of money on fuel as well. Overall, a huge plus for EK and YUL.

This was a matter of when, not if.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by jc_yyc_ca

September Passenger stats for YYC are out.

You’re late to the party, as hollywoodcory posted YYC Sept starts over 2 weeks ago.

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

YYC September stats are out... Transborder fell off a sharp cliff this month.

Domestic: 1,232,850 +4.6% [YTD: 10,005,117 +4.72%]
Transborder: 322,621 -11.7% [YTD: 2,943,595 -1.44%]
International: 204,709 +2.7% [YTD: 1,936,591 +4.97%]

September 2025 Total: 1,760,180 +0.9%

2025 YTD: 14,885,303 +3.48%

I still think YYC will fall just short of 20 million for the year.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

You’re late to the party, as hollywoodcory posted YYC Sept starts over 2 weeks ago.

I wonder how many more months it'll be at the YYC Airport Authority before the stats person finally realizes the 12 months rolling total is actually counting the past 13 months, lol. It's been like this for months.

The 12 months rolling has YYC at over 21 million, but YYC won't even hit 20 million in 2025.