Calgary International Airport III

[yyc_engineer]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

Out of 107 destinations, WS serves 99 of them.

This is a crazy stat. I wonder if any other airport has such a high proportion of routes flown by their fortress carrier. Probably only a handful the likes of DXB, AMS, ATL, etc.

[Zmonkey]

Can anyone confirm if they are building a new Aspire lounge in Peir B as part of the renovations for 2027?
I was looking at something for work and there was a footnote that touched on it but no other details

[hollywoodcory]

WS has extended GDL & MZT to year-round, bringing our year-round destinations in Mexico to 6. Both currently planned at 1x weekly for S26.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by yyc_engineer

This is a crazy stat. I wonder if any other airport has such a high proportion of routes flown by their fortress carrier. Probably only a handful the likes of DXB, AMS, ATL, etc.

ATL yes. DXB, AMS no.

According to chatgpt:

ATL: 244 destinations, 215 served by DL

DXB: 269 destinations, only 151 served by EK (EK website says 143 destinations, so might be even less). The rest are served by other domestic carriers or the 101 international airlines serving DXB.

AMS: 301 destinations, only 161 served by KLM. Same thing here. AMS has over 70 foreign carriers.

By comparison, ATL only has 16 foreign carriers, much less than DXB or AMS.

IST is probably in the same league as ATL and YYC, not because of a lack of foreign carriers, but because TK serves over 300 destinations just on it's own.

AC's hubs are somewhere in the middle. According to this website:

YYZ: AC serves 152 of the 196 destinations out of YYZ
YUL: AC serves 121 of the 165 destinations out of YUL.
YVR: AC serves 71 of the 121 destinations out of YVR.

All three have 44 to 50 destinations not served by the main domestic carrier.

[hollywoodcory]

Happy December.

This month WS starts 6 new international destinations.

-GDL from Dec. 7 (already extended to year-round)
-PXM from Dec. 12
-TPQ/PTY from Dec. 13 (PTY already shows an extended season in W26)
-POP from Dec. 14
-CZM from Dec. 20

[casper]

So Calgary going to one central screening point for domestic. Ok, but it is a long walk to some gates. Not certain that improves things.

On the good side, they are getting the new fancy screening equipment that means you don't have to remove liquids and computers. That should speed things up.

• Video Link

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by casper

So Calgary going to one central screening point for domestic. Ok, but it is a long walk to some gates. Not certain that improves things.

On the good side, they are getting the new fancy screening equipment that means you don't have to remove liquids and computers. That should speed things up.

• Video Link

Went through it this morning - its super modern and should make things easy to get thorugh in busy times.

Long walk though. Will be good when B gates open again in 2027.

[YYCguys]

Originally Posted by casper

So Calgary going to one central screening point for domestic. Ok, but it is a long walk to some gates. Not certain that improves things.

Have they closed A and C security or are they leaving them open long enough to get through the busy holiday season?

[casper]

Originally Posted by YYCguys

Have they closed A and C security or are they leaving them open long enough to get through the busy holiday season?

Not certain, but I think that is the plan.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by YYCguys

Have they closed A and C security or are they leaving them open long enough to get through the busy holiday season?

A/C are closed permanently now as far as I know.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by YYCguys

Have they closed A and C security or are they leaving them open long enough to get through the busy holiday season?

They are closed (were closed yesterday).
The longer term plan is to repurpose the spaces (mainly A and C). But this was going to happen after B peir opens in 2027.
The new set up allows much more traffic than A, B, C, has automatic gates when you enter and all security staff in one point.

There is no need to have separate Security for the holidays.

Longer term the layout is still not great in my opinion. If you are flying Air Canada it will be long walks from check in through security. The carts are going to need to stop at this new area as they can't just go as there is too many people. This is from a year ago, but Aspire was looking to take over the old lounge space which would be right in front of the new security (but a floor up).

This is a massive improvement but everything does highlight how the airport really is not desgined for how its currently being used. to spread out and really no need for 3 peirs for domestic.

[Tobuz]

Is there a separate lane for NEXUS ... and, if so, is it "Verified Traveller" or "Front of Line"?

And is there still a separate queue for WestJet credit card and status holders, as there was before at the 'C' checkpoint?

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Tobuz

Is there a separate lane for NEXUS ... and, if so, is it "Verified Traveller" or "Front of Line"?

And is there still a separate queue for WestJet credit card and status holders, as there was before at the 'C' checkpoint?

There is. Larger, better signage and automated now (scan boarding pass and go).

[hollywoodcory]

Busy weekend of inaugurals for WS with 4 new international destinations kicking off their seasons in a 40 hour period.

PXM - Today
TPQ / PTY - Tomorrow
POP - Sunday (technically only 30 minutes after PTY)

GDL launched last Sunday and CZM starts next week.

[trofirhen]

I'm from Vancouver, and I cannot help being impressed and feeling a little envy of how Westjet has taken up the slack, flying to Rome and several destinations YVR does not have.
Calgary is rather "the little city that could." Of course, petroleum powers the economy there, but nevertheless, now as the fourth city of Canada, I think ultimately it will overtake Vancouver.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

I'm from Vancouver, and I cannot help being impressed and feeling a little envy of how Westjet has taken up the slack, flying to Rome and several destinations YVR does not have.
Calgary is rather "the little city that could." Of course, petroleum powers the economy there, but nevertheless, now as the fourth city of Canada, I think ultimately it will overtake Vancouver.

YVR/YYC are pretty evenly matched when it comes to destinations served. They are both almost dead even in terms of Europe and the US, but YVR wins when it comes to Asia, and YYC has the edge in south flights (Mexico, Central America, Caribbean).

[hehehe]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

I'm from Vancouver, and I cannot help being impressed and feeling a little envy of how Westjet has taken up the slack, flying to Rome and several destinations YVR does not have.
Calgary is rather "the little city that could." Of course, petroleum powers the economy there, but nevertheless, now as the fourth city of Canada, I think ultimately it will overtake Vancouver.

Agreed but dunno about overtaking Vancouver...at least in my lifetime

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

YVR/YYC are pretty evenly matched when it comes to destinations served. They are both almost dead even in terms of Europe and the US, but YVR wins when it comes to Asia, and YYC has the edge in south flights (Mexico, Central America, Caribbean).

There is nuance to this. Even though they service similar number of destinations - how they are serviced is vastly different. Calgary generally does thinks seasonally except for a few places, or if year round not daily. Its focus is leisure (which is really WestJet Model for most of its non Canadian cities served with some exceptions). Calgary is also dominated by WestJet and its hub.
Vancouver, has substantially more carriers, larger O&D demand, more year round and more cities served daily. Its international section is massive and used all day.

While Calgary punches way above its weight, its strength is connecting Canada to Canada. No one connects more Canadians in Canada (including Toronto). This is slowly changing but right now that is where things stand.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

Calgary generally does thinks seasonally except for a few places, or if year round not daily. Its focus is leisure (which is really WestJet Model for most of its non Canadian cities served with some exceptions). Calgary is also dominated by WestJet and its hub.
Vancouver, has substantially more carriers, larger O&D demand, more year round and more cities served daily. Its international section is massive and used all day.

Some good points. YVR has grown to 35 foreign carriers (of which 6 are American).
YYC is definitely more leisure focussed. 3 of the 4 intl longhaul carriers are leisure and 2 of which are seasonal. KLM is the only full service intl carrier and also the only one flying year round daily. Of course there are the 4 US carriers as well.
But there is no question YYC is VERY well connected to sun leisure destinations.

And I see that silly poster is still a broken record. Seems to forget about Asia when it comes to intl. YVR continues to be the only airport that releases very detailed passenger results. So yes, YVR certainly “wins” when it comes to Asia.

YTD to September YVR’s Asia Pacific pax total was at 3,307,066. Europe and Other (non USA) international was 2,245,740. Combined that’s 5,553,000.
Compare that to YYC’s total intl for the same period 1,936,591.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

There is nuance to this. Even though they service similar number of destinations - how they are serviced is vastly different. Calgary generally does thinks seasonally except for a few places, or if year round not daily. Its focus is leisure (which is really WestJet Model for most of its non Canadian cities served with some exceptions). Calgary is also dominated by WestJet and its hub.
Vancouver, has substantially more carriers, larger O&D demand, more year round and more cities served daily. Its international section is massive and used all day.

While Calgary punches way above its weight, its strength is connecting Canada to Canada. No one connects more Canadians in Canada (including Toronto). This is slowly changing but right now that is where things stand.

The response was specific to destinations served and not about seasonality or frequency. It was in reply to a comment about Calgary overtaking Vancouver - which won't happen in at least my lifetime.

I'm not saying YYC/YVR are evenly matched when it comes to passenger stats at all.