Canadian Airport Thread II

[Djeffery]

It does say 789 in that timetable you quoted

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

It does say 789 in that timetable you quoted

Yep. Still early in the morning here.

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

It’s legit, now bookable:

EY29 AUH 08:45 - 12:20 YYC 789 2457
EY30 YYC 18:05 - 19:00+1 AUH 789 2457

Big year for YYC gaining South America and the Middle East.

That’s great! Etihad Airways 787-9 are perfect for Calgary YYC - Im guessing they use a mix of their 226 / 290 seat 787’s for YYC✅.

[Coldrsx]

Congrats YYC.

YEG just got seasonal to Kamloops, so there!

[BlaineN]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

It’s legit, now bookable:

EY29 AUH 08:45 - 12:20 YYC 789 2457
EY30 YYC 18:05 - 19:00+1 AUH 789 2457

Big year for YYC gaining South America and the Middle East.

Brazil and now the middle east. Major scores for YYC.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Calfan12

That’s great! Etihad Airways 787-9 are perfect for Calgary YYC - Im guessing they use a mix of their 226 / 292 seat 787’s for YYC✅.

A 226 seat config would certainly make sense to ensure little to no payload restrictions. This makes more sense than DXB where EK would struggle to get out of YYC on a 359 with a decent payload in the summertime.

Huge year for YYC and YHZ. Mind you, all of the 8 major airports this summer are gaining new transatlantic routes + YQB, so you could say it's a big year across the country.

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

A 226 seat config would certainly make sense to ensure little to no payload restrictions. This makes more sense than DXB where EK would struggle to get out of YYC on a 359 with a decent payload in the summertime.

Huge year for YYC and YHZ. Mind you, all of the 8 major airports this summer are gaining new transatlantic routes + YQB, so you could say it's a big year across the country.

Fair Points , although Etihad Airways 226 787 seater as additional 8 First Class Cabin Seats - (that would be a tough sell out of Calgary YYC)

Their 290 seater 787 can do the YYC route just fine. Plus they can fly over Russia Airspace helps.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Calfan12

Fair Points , although Etihad Airways 226 787 seater as additional 8 First Class Cabin Seats - (that would be a tough sell out of Calgary YYC)

Their 290 seater 787 can do the YYC route just fine. Plus they can fly over Russia Airspace helps.

@Thenoflyzone can chime in with greater expertise on this subject, but YYC's high elevation might make the standard 290 seat layout challenging to operate to YYC in summer without taking a huge payload hit on the outbound.

True about the 8 F seats, but filling a few of those might be doable with oil traffic.

[thenoflyzone]

https://www.etihad.com/en-ca/news/from-t...ghts-between-the-middle-east-and-calgary

Was wondering what EY was going to do with its share of Canadian slots. Well it's now clear(er). EK and EY will split western Canada. One to YVR, the other to YYC.

Congrats to YYC. This one is a huge steal !

Lately EY has been launching service to secondary markets. Charlotte, Luxembourg, Palma and now Calgary. A clear strategy to steer clear of other ME carriers.

The presser only mentions 4x weekly. Wonder what they will do with the other 3x weekly frequencies (assuming the agreement with EK was to split it 7x/7x). Either they are keeping those frequencies in their back pocket, to see how YYC does, in order to be able to increase it to daily eventually if it's successful, or they are planning on increasing YYZ to 10x weekly. It could also be that EK is getting 10x weekly, and EY only 4x, but I doubt that's the case.

Originally Posted by Dominion301

@Thenoflyzone can chime in with greater expertise on this subject, but YYC's high elevation might make the standard 290 seat layout challenging to operate to YYC in summer without taking a huge payload hit on the outbound.

True about the 8 F seats, but filling a few of those might be doable with oil traffic.

The presser only mentions business and economy class, so it seems it will be on a 290 seater.

The route will be operated by Etihad’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, featuring the airline’s latest award-winning widebody Business and Economy cabins

As for the B789 and YYC's altitude, according to Boeing's ACAP document, with typical engines, and on a cool day (around 9 celsius), the payload hit is only 10,000 lbs. It's not too bad. If it's closer to 23C, the hit is 20,000 lbs. If EY has the high-thrust engines, then there is no payload hit, even on days it's 25 celsius.

Considering the B789 can carry 90,000 lbs of payload on YYC-AUH, a 20k hit (assuming typical engines) in summer is manageable. They'll take pax/bags, and less or no cargo.

If WS can do YYC-GRU with a 320 seater, EY should be able to do YYC-AUH with a 290 seater, especially if they can fly the great circle route over Russia. The route is only 540nm longer than YYC-GRU. And as I said, the cooler temps in November will surely help, at least for the start of the route.

Both these routes will benefit from a bit of tailwind as well.

[thenoflyzone]

Find it funny EY's presser mentions " the only nonstop link between the Middle East and Western Canada".

It won't be for long. EY is revealing their hand more than 9 months out.

EK presser for their YUL launch was on 24 april 2023, and the route started 5 July 2023. Only 2.5 months later.

Wouldn't be surprised to see EK announce YVR and start the route 2-3 months later, similar to what they did with YUL. So EY will definitely not be the only carrier to western Canada, and might not even be the first Middle-Eastern one.

A 3 month head start is a bit tight, though. 6 months is better. So if EK announces in the next little while, with a 6 month head start, they can still beat out EY.

[Chocolite]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

It’s legit, now bookable:

EY29 AUH 08:45 - 12:20 YYC 789 2457
EY30 YYC 18:05 - 19:00+1 AUH 789 2457

Big year for YYC gaining South America and the Middle East.

Congrats Calgary, this is huge. YYC is showing no signs of slowing down.

[Chocolite]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Find it funny EY's presser mentions " the only nonstop link between the Middle East and Western Canada".

It won't be for long. EY is revealing their hand more than 9 months out.

Maybe so but EK hasn't been announced yet, and nobody knows for sure if it will be. Until it is, of course EY is going to grab the headline.
EK could come out with their announcement and technically be the first, but the announcement will feel like a 'already seen that' type of announcement.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

Looking ahead to 2026, it seems YYC is the sole major that doesn't have anything new announced yet? There likely won't be any new long hauls, but I'm guessing they'll be a new domestic add (YAM / maybe even YQX) and maybe more Mexico later in the year.

WS does have another possible international destination for S26, but I don't believe its planned from YYC.

Crazy a month ago I said this, and YYC has since gained not one but two new long hauls since.

On another note, WS has delayed the start of YYZ-MDE from April 28 to June 10. Also they already added additional YYC-CUN/PVR at almost identical times to the new AC adds.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Chocolite

Maybe so but EK hasn't been announced yet, and nobody knows for sure if it will be. Until it is, of course EY is going to grab the headline.
EK could come out with their announcement and technically be the first, but the announcement will feel like a 'already seen that' type of announcement.

Fairly certain EY knows very well EK's plans for (western) Canada with respect to their additional frequencies. Hence why my comments. Unless you're naive enough to think EY would really choose YYC over YVR without some inside knowledge of EK's plans first.

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

On another note, WS has delayed the start of YYZ-MDE from April 28 to June 10.

Not a good sign. And pretty much confirms that....

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Choosing Medellin as their first foray into South America was a bit weird as well.

[Dominion301]

YOW's December and year-end pax stats. YOW hit 4.86 million and are now 250K away from recovering to 2018 & 19's 5.1 million.

Sector / Dec-24 / Dec-25 / % Change
Dom: 289,590 / 290,655 / +0.4%
TB: 81,666 / 65,563 / -19.7%
Int'l: 58,020 / 69,195 / +19.3%
TTL: 429,276 / 425,413 / -0.9%

Sector / Y-E 2024 / Y-E 2025 / % Change
Dom: 3,431,500 / 3,654,284 / +6.5%
TB: 741,449 / 726,311 / -2.0%
Int'l: 433,875 / 485,641 / +11.9%
TTL: 4,606,824 / 4,866,236 / +5.6%

December % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / December / Full year % recovered
Dom: 92.8% / 91.5%
TB: 111.8% / 105.8%
Int'l: 146.0% / 113.8%
TTL: 101.5% / 95.3%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2023
Dom: 3,654,284 / +14.1%
TB: 726,311 / +26.1%
Int'l: 485,641 / +53.3%
TTL: 4,866,236 / +18.8%

[nname]

Originally Posted by nname

As posted in another forum, just noticed AC got a daily slot back from OS:
https://www.acl-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/LHR-S26-OS_AC.png

The slot was originally used for the second daily YVR flight, and the flight number 862/863 matches it.

So what's AC's plan?

1. Restart second daily flight from YVR
2. Start flight from other city in Western Canada (ie. YEG?)
3. Increase YOW to daily and YYZ/YUL to 4/2 daily (although the slot more suitable for the West as it means 1:30am YYZ departure, or 2am YUL departure)
4. Restart YYT-LHR (again, timing is not suitable)
5. Launch LHR-DEL to compensate the loss of YUL-DEL
6. Lease to NZ for them to run AKL-YVR-LHR
7. Lease to another airline?

Regarding to the LHR slot, AC leased it to KE, which subsequently lease it to OZ.

No second daily from YVR or increase YOW to daily, or any new/increase service from any Canadian city.

https://www.acl-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/LHR-S26-AC_KE.png
https://www.acl-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/LHR-S26-KE_OZ.png

So the answer would be #7

[Chocolite]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Fairly certain EY knows very well EK's plans for (western) Canada with respect to their additional frequencies. Hence why my comments. Unless you're naive enough to think EY would really choose YYC over YVR without some inside knowledge of EK's plans first.

I don't disagree. My point was that I don't find it funny for EY to do this announcement even though EK might actually have the first flight. I would do the same thing if I were EY.
The second point about EK's route to YVR not being a done deal is exactly that. It's probable that it'll happen, but I don't count on speculative flights as already happening. In my mind no flight is happening, until it's happening.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by nname

Regarding to the LHR slot, AC leased it to KE, which subsequently lease it to OZ.

No second daily from YVR or increase YOW to daily, or any new/increase service from any Canadian city.

https://www.acl-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/LHR-S26-AC_KE.png
https://www.acl-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/LHR-S26-KE_OZ.png

So the answer would be #7

That's too bad. That probably means it's leased out for at least 2 years. Maybe they're waiting for the 78X deliveries to start before taking back that slot for their own use.

[ninjakafi_81]

Per Ishrion Aviation on Twitter / X, American Airlines will start up two new routes between JFK and YYC/YQB this summer.

American Airlines to commence 2 new routes from New York (JFK):

• JFK to Calgary (YYC) 3 weekly 737 MAX from August 6

• JFK to Quebec City (YQB) 1 daily E175 from August 5

https://x.com/IshrionA/status/2017790241998823672?s=20

[hollywoodcory]

YYC is on a roll. This is the 5th new route added in less than 2 weeks, and only one of them was by WS.

Guessing AA was happy with its weekly LGA flight.