Calgary International Airport III

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by hehehe

I think BOG/MDE would've done better. But GRU is a big market. Will it work out though? Someone needs to keep an eye on the forward bookings

For GRU YYC is pretty optimal for trans pacific travel. It could be a first trial and indication of what the plans are for the next 7 Dreamliners.

If they get traffic up, maybe the airport/government looks at non-visa transit again.

[yyc_engineer]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

For GRU YYC is pretty optimal for trans pacific travel. It could be a first trial and indication of what the plans are for the next 7 Dreamliners.

There is a definitely money to be made connecting Tokyo to São Paulo, however the current schedules for WS 80/81 and 54/55 don't have great timing. It is an 11 hour stopover to GRU and 8.5 on the way back to NRT. Options through DOH, MAD, IST or ZRH are all faster, have greater brand recognition and arguably provide a better product in J and PY.

There are also the US connection options but I could see people wanting to avoid those, at least in the near term.

WestJet may be able to get some of the VFR traffic but they will need to market themselves in Japan and South America. The seasonality of the GRU flight doesn't help.

But, never say never.

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

If they get traffic up, maybe the airport/government looks at non-visa transit again.

The airport (Airport Authority) and Federal Govt. would need to work together on trying to implement visa-free transit. The current set-up with D gates co-mingling Domestic and International departures would not work as there is no physical place to quarantine the sterile International transit passengers.

I don't see any appetite from YYC to implement this as it would require a massive re-configuration to WestJet's gating strategy, back to how it was pre-Covid when the ITB initially operated from 2016-2019.

[Zmonkey]

Air Canada (Rouge) will be starting international from YYC again with Cancun and Puerto Vallarta starting Dec 2026.
Air Canada had stated several destinations to start from Calgary under Rouge, with most being in the US so lets see if those actually happen now.

https://www.travelpulse.ca/news/airlines...s-to-quito-europe-resumes-calgary-mexico

[Johnny Aussie]

So adding some capacity back.

Finally giving Westjet “some” competition on a couple of sun routes!

[hollywoodcory]

New airline! Etihad is coming later this year! 4x weekly from November 3.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/calgary-to-get-western-canadas-only-direct-flight-to-uae

[Cage]

Calgary gets Etihad Airways as newest airline.

YYC-AUH on the 789 launches November 2026.

https://calgarysun.com/news/calgary-to-get-western-canadas-only-direct-flight-to-uae?tbref=hp

[hollywoodcory]

Wonder if this means WS will be expanding its partnership with EY to gain connectivity to other parts of the west.

[Tobuz]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

Air Canada (Rouge) will be starting international from YYC again with Cancun and Puerto Vallarta starting Dec 2026.
Air Canada had stated several destinations to start from Calgary under Rouge, with most being in the US so lets see if those actually happen now.

https://www.travelpulse.ca/news/airlines...s-to-quito-europe-resumes-calgary-mexico

It's fantastic that AC is making an effort at YYC -- even if only some seasonal/leisure routes. But how unfortunate that these are operated by "Rouge" instead of mainline Air Canada.

Rouge's cabins offer a seat pitch in the entire Y cabin that is almost identical to the now-infamous attempt by WestJet to compress legroom in a few rows in the backs of their aircraft. Rouge offers a 29" seat pitch everywhere. The PR disaster for WestJet that caused them to reverse course was due to a 28" seat pitch.

The one inch helps a bit, I suppose. But the only reason that AC didn't face a similar PR disaster as WestJet just suffered through: Rouge was launched far enough back that people didn't film absolutely everything and then post it on social media. Standard seat pitch on most carriers is either 30" or 31". Rouge's 29 and WestJet's planned 28 are both abysmal.

Still, good news. Even with bad legroom.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by Tobuz

It's fantastic that AC is making an effort at YYC -- even if only some seasonal/leisure routes. But how unfortunate that these are operated by "Rouge" instead of mainline Air Canada.

Rouge's cabins offer a seat pitch in the entire Y cabin that is almost identical to the now-infamous attempt by WestJet to compress legroom in a few rows in the backs of their aircraft. Rouge offers a 29" seat pitch everywhere. The PR disaster for WestJet that caused them to reverse course was due to a 28" seat pitch.

The one inch helps a bit, I suppose. But the only reason that AC didn't face a similar PR disaster as WestJet just suffered through: Rouge was launched far enough back that people didn't film absolutely everything and then post it on social media. Standard seat pitch on most carriers is either 30" or 31". Rouge's 29 and WestJet's planned 28 are both abysmal.

Still, good news. Even with bad legroom.

Fortunately 737 Rouge are just going to be mainline with fewer business class seats, not 320s Rouge, trying to compete with Air Transat on cost.

[hollywoodcory]

With the recent adds, YYC now has 15 intercontinental destinations including 11 Europe, 2 Asia, 1 South America and 1 Middle East.

Served by 5 airlines year-round, and 2 additional seasonal airlines.

[Johnny Aussie]

It is good to see there will be 3 intl longhaul carriers operating year round and two at least are full service. 5 of the 15 destinations are also year-round. Unless of course GRU is going to be year round. I would assume some frequency cuts to existing routes for the summer months if that’s the case.

YYC will be served by 9 foreign carriers (5 longhaul and 4 American)

Perhaps see some of the seasonal European destinations start going year round in the next couple of years I would think (LHR AMS CDG and FRA are currently year round)

[hollywoodcory]

DL has upguaged one of its 2 dailies to MSP to a 321. I think this is the first time Delta has increased capacity in a while.

MSP is the big Transborder winner for S26. Gaining flights and seats on both WS and DL.

[hollywoodcory]

AA adding JFK starting in August:

AA2665 JFK 08:59 - 12:04 YYC 7M8 247
AA2667 YYC 13:20 - 20:00 JFK 7M8 247

The brings their NYC presence to 4x weekly along with the Saturday LGA

[Nick]

Is that too late of an arrival to JFK to hit a trans-Atlantic departure bank?

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by Nick

Is that too late of an arrival to JFK to hit a trans-Atlantic departure bank?

I’d imagine the 9am departure misses the TATL arrival bank too. It’s timed almost the same as the Saturday LGA flights.

[hehehe]

August seems a bit late no? Till the end of September?

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Nick

Is that too late of an arrival to JFK to hit a trans-Atlantic departure bank?

Pretty late arrival, but I'm wondering if there any people picking this flight in order to transfer to a trans-Atlantic flight? There are lots of options from YYC direct to Europe or for transferring in Europe could use KLM or Discover. Could also transfer from ORD, MSP, YUL, YYZ.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Nick

Is that too late of an arrival to JFK to hit a trans-Atlantic departure bank?

Yes. Most of AA's TATL flights out of JFK are gone by 8pm. It might connect with DEL though. 1 hour connection only. So it's a bit tight.

The timing of these flights is clearly targeted at local O&D.

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

I’d imagine the 9am departure misses the TATL arrival bank too. It’s timed almost the same as the Saturday LGA flights.

Clearly targeted for local O&D.

On top of what I said above, it's worth noting that AA's main TATL hub is PHL, not JFK. If it was AA's intent to syphon traffic from YYC to Europe, they would have started a YYC-PHL run, not JFK.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

Wonder if this means WS will be expanding its partnership with EY to gain connectivity to other parts of the west.

Wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t go for a westjet cooperation.

EY is a bit weird. They seem to have a fetish with fortress hubs lately.

They launched ATL last July. DL fortress hub. No Delta tie-up.

They will be launching CLT next month. Another fortress hub, this time for AA. No AA-tie-up. They didn’t mention AA once in the press release, and apparently the airport authority found out 1 day prior that they were going to announce CLT.

Now YYC. WS fortress hub. Wouldn’t be surprised if there is no tie-up either. Didn’t mention WestJet once in the PR. They were very quick to announce the route, so much so, that I wouldn’t be surprised if YYC airport authority was caught off guard, same as CLT.

In contrast, it seems other airlines like QR or EK take their time, negotiate with airport authorities, and properly plan a new route. That’s probably why EK hasn’t announced YVR yet.

And let’s face it, no one had EY choosing Charlotte and Calgary as their next two destinations in North America.

Like I said. Weird. They’re going against the grain on a lot of aspects.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t go for a westjet cooperation.

EY is a bit weird. They seem to have a fetish with fortress hubs lately.

They launched ATL last July. DL fortress hub. No Delta tie-up.

They will be launching CLT next month. Another fortress hub, this time for AA. No AA-tie-up. They didn’t mention AA once in the press release, and apparently the airport authority found out 1 day prior that they were going to announce CLT.

Now YYC. WS fortress hub. Wouldn’t be surprised if there is no tie-up either. Didn’t mention WestJet once in the PR. They were very quick to announce the route, so much so, that I wouldn’t be surprised if YYC airport authority was caught off guard, same as CLT.

In contrast, it seems other airlines like QR or EK take their time, negotiate with airport authorities, and properly plan a new route. That’s probably why EK hasn’t announced YVR yet.

And let’s face it, no one had EY choosing Charlotte and Calgary as their next two destinations in North America.

Like I said. Weird. They’re going against the grain on a lot of aspects.

WS / EY already have an existing interline agreement anyways.

Also they held a press conference alongside YYC airport authority in downtown Calgary so I suspect they were aware of it, not to mention YYC had a promotion video ready to go up the same day as the announcement.

The Alberta government was recently in Abu Dhabi, so I suspect this has been in the works for a bit.