YVR & Sea Island Developments Discussion II

[VancityAvgeek33]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-canad...ow-more-passenger-and-cargo-flights.html

Is there any sources that confirm they have applied to yvr?

[hollywoodnorth]

OK well that kinda sucks ..... YVR is "getting Air Canada deployment of the A321XLR" ......... only its for domestic service ...... cheesy!!

Not Long Haul: Air Canada Adds These 2 Much Shorter New Airbus A321XLR Routes

Air Canada's plan for its upcoming Airbus A321XLRs continues to evolve. You'd not expect otherwise. According to the airline's latest schedule update to Cirium Diio, it'll now fly the XLR domestically, from Montreal to Calgary and Vancouver. While Calgary service was previously known, Vancouver wasn't.


https://simpleflying.com/not-long-haul-a...-new-much-shorter-airbus-a321xlr-routes/

[VancityAvgeek33]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

OK well that kinda sucks ..... YVR is "getting Air Canada deployment of the A321XLR" ......... only its for domestic service ...... cheesy!!

Not Long Haul: Air Canada Adds These 2 Much Shorter New Airbus A321XLR Routes

Air Canada's plan for its upcoming Airbus A321XLRs continues to evolve. You'd not expect otherwise. According to the airline's latest schedule update to Cirium Diio, it'll now fly the XLR domestically, from Montreal to Calgary and Vancouver. While Calgary service was previously known, Vancouver wasn't.


https://simpleflying.com/not-long-haul-a...-new-much-shorter-airbus-a321xlr-routes/

And this is a bad thing because? It’s actually quite exciting especially as someone who’s into aviation to see a new type of aircraft at our airport. Sure it may not be a new route or anything like that but aircanada made it very clear they will be using the type on the east coast! This may give YVR more areas to grow as the 321XLR could replace 788/789 services expanding weekly services to daily then moving those planes to YVR for expansions!

[nname]

The plan was always to use half of the XLR on domestic or trans-con within North America, for them to offer lie-flat business class seats on routes or flight that does not have enough demand for widebody.

YVR-EWR is another route they want to put the XLR on. AC definitely planned to increase the route to 2x daily, but there aren't enough demand for 2x 789 so they used 2x 7M8 for the past few summers and sacrificed the lie-flat on business class. With XLR, they can either do 2x XLR or a mix of 789+XLR when the demand picks back up again.

[Johnny Aussie]

YVR sneaks out a small gain in November.

YVR is the only “major” airport (that has reported) in Canada which showed a gain in November

https://www.yvr.ca/-/media/yvr/documents/facts-sheets/2025/11---november/traffic-update-nov25.pdf

Total up 1.0%

Domestic up 1.7%
International up only 0.3%

Intl breakdown:
Asia/Pacific had a massive increase of 20.9%
European traffic down 1.5%
Misc Intl up 0.7%
Offset significantly by a huge 13.3% drop in Transborder.

Non-USA intl was up an impressive 12.2% (an increase of over 62,000) but Transborder almost wiped that out as it was down just under 60,000

[xd_1771]

XLR were always supposed to be based out of Eastern Canada first because they make sense for transatlantic missions.

It'll be awhile before AC can stockpile enough XLRs so they can finally base some out this way and launch YVR-CTS

[LeftCoaster]

I don't see too many XLR missions from YVR. Maybe PTY or KEF. Long shots could be BOG or CTS, but not sure what the demand is like there. Both could be good winter missions for the YUL/YYZ based europe summer fleet I guess.

Only big benefit to YVR is the XLR supposedly freeing up 789s for us, but AC seems intent on starting YUL to tertiary european cities rather than paying attention to YVR, so I'm not counting on much.

Originally Posted by VancityAvgeek33

Is there any sources that confirm they have applied to yvr?

No, hence why I said it's unsure whether they are interested in YVR. But they do have the Transport Canada rights to add it if they want.

[YVR Bruce]

CTS would be the sole N American nonstop. Marketed well it should work.
Assuming it would start 3-4/wk, a EDI service would be complementary for the rest of the (easy same day return) week.

Good also for NE England.

I’d take 2 seats to EDI the days res’n open.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

We don't know what the future holds, but one thing is certain, if QR and TK are going to get more rights, the next 2-3 years present a very real opportunity to do so. I'm sure as we speak, airline executives at QR or TK are lobbying with their respective countries' top brass in order to see what can be done.

Well that didn't take long.

https://globalnews.ca/news/11605368/carney-qatar-doha-visit-china/

Very real chance the Qatar-Canada bilateral will get updated after this visit, which means a very real potential for QR to come to YVR in the near future. Will be interesting to see what happens on the China front as well.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by VancityAvgeek33

Is there any sources that confirm they have applied to yvr?

They're coming to YVR. It's pretty much a guarantee.

The UAE civil aviation authority (GCAA) put out an instagram post strongly hinting at a Western Canada destination a few weeks ago.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DSR2DnGkp4O/

UAE and Canada mark a new milestone in their bilateral air transport relations: the UAE national carriers have been granted additional passenger weekly flights to points in the west of the Ontario–Manitoba border, and an unlimited number of weekly all-cargo flights between the UAE and Canada with full fifth-freedom rights.

This, coupled with the EK gauge reduction in SEA as of March pretty much guarantees it.

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Well that didn't take long.

https://globalnews.ca/news/11605368/carney-qatar-doha-visit-china/

Very real chance the Qatar-Canada bilateral will get updated after this visit, which means a very real potential for QR to come to YVR in the near future. Will be interesting to see what happens on the China front as well.

I doubt YVR could handle going from 0 (or 3 if you count last years fractional YVR-DXB service), to 7-14 flights PW to the gulf.

Maybe there's that much pent up demand, but with directs to DEL already it's really about servicing Iran and smaller secondary markets.

I guess the only other thought is the through traffic on european carriers, especially in the summer, can be replaced by actual travel to europe and the gulf carriers will connect pax to India/Iran/Africa rather than LH/BA etc... I have been bitching about YVR being under capacity to Europe for ages, so maybe this is how it shakes out.

I'll say this much at least, TK is going to be pissed if both EK and QR get daily rights after they played the game with Transport Canada fairly and get shafted to 3xPW.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

I doubt YVR could handle going from 0 (or 3 if you count last years fractional YVR-DXB service), to 7-14 flights PW to the gulf.
...... / EDIT / ...

I'll say this much at least, TK is going to be pissed if both EK and QR get daily rights after they played the game with Transport Canada fairly and get shafted to 3xPW.

If the ME3 (or one thereof) get daily out of YVR, shouldn't TK get the same?? They (TK) asked for 5x/week at the outset and got kicked back to 3x/wk (and more out of SEA) then they have a valid complaint, IMHO. Transport Canada has something up its ass and it's uptight and problematic.

[jollyburger]

Maybe they can get Emirates to buy naming rights on BC Place

[nname]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

I doubt YVR could handle going from 0 (or 3 if you count last years fractional YVR-DXB service), to 7-14 flights PW to the gulf.

Wonder if QR going to fly to YVR during the World Cup, at least temporary, since their national team will be playing in BC Place... although it's game 2 so should have the least travel demand.

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

I'll say this much at least, TK is going to be pissed if both EK and QR get daily rights after they played the game with Transport Canada fairly and get shafted to 3xPW.

Not sure if "fairly" was the correct word. They did not have the traffic right, so they applied for extra-bilateral right that was mainly reserved for emergencies. The application was accepted for 1x weekly for 3 peak months the previous years, so they tried pushing for 5x weekly for the whole summer season last year and got rejected.

HX tried the same years ago when trying to obtain 4x weekly extra-bilateral to run daily YYZ-HKG, and was rejected with the same reason.

[jollyburger]

FWIW They are codesharing with Air Transat and AT is adding one additional flight from Toronto this year.

Turkish Airlines Celebrating the 15th year anniversary of its Toronto operations last year and has grown its Canadian position with three gateways in the country, including Montréal and Vancouver, in addition to Toronto. As part of this new cooperation, Air Transat will add a new weekly flight on its year-round Toronto–Istanbul route, every Thursday, starting May 28, 2026, bringing the total to three flights per week.

https://www.wingsmagazine.com/turkish-airlines-and-air-transat-strengthen-collaboration/

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by YVR Bruce

CTS would be the sole N American nonstop. Marketed well it should work.
Assuming it would start 3-4/wk, a EDI service would be complementary for the rest of the (easy same day return) week.

Good also for NE England.

I’d take 2 seats to EDI the days res’n open.

Is YVR-CTS something AC is thinking about, though... or just a case of drawing lines on maps to see what fits. I mean, it's an interesting proposition, I'll say that, and I'd rather connect to KIX from CTS than TYO, as there aren't any mainline NRT-KIX flights.

[jollyburger]

Never knew there was a niche export market of horses to Japan for horse meat. Someone on Reddit said there were flights from Edmonton to Kumamoto to service that market.

https://inspection.canada.ca/en/animal-h...ne-transport/horses/regulatory-oversight

https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/1hzt3zb/possible_future_direct_flights_between_edmonton/

[VancityAvgeek33]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

Is YVR-CTS something AC is thinking about, though... or just a case of drawing lines on maps to see what fits. I mean, it's an interesting proposition, I'll say that, and I'd rather connect to KIX from CTS than TYO, as there aren't any mainline NRT-KIX flights.

CTS is on Air Canadas route plan map from yvr that they posted in December 2024.

[VancityAvgeek33]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Never knew there was a niche export market of horses to Japan for horse meat. Someone on Reddit said there were flights from Edmonton to Kumamoto to service that market.

https://inspection.canada.ca/en/animal-h...ne-transport/horses/regulatory-oversight

https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/1hzt3zb/possible_future_direct_flights_between_edmonton/

I don’t think this was true but I do remember hearing about it on the news that there was interest between the two airports but that never happened. Personally I don’t think this would ever happen personally

[msmariner]

Originally Posted by VancityAvgeek33

I don’t think this was true but I do remember hearing about it on the news that there was interest between the two airports but that never happened. Personally I don’t think this would ever happen personally

The flights used to happen from YYC. Used to have regular Korean 747’s loading live horses heading to Japan. They have stopped those flights. Probably because of the heat of the bad press