Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW/CYOW)

[mxg308]

Interesting quote: “Beginning May 1, service in Sudbury (YSB) and Windsor (YQG) moves to Ottawa from Toronto City, providing travellers with non-stop access from these cities to Porter’s growing hub in the national capital and greater connectivity across North America,” Porter Airlines said in a statement.

So YSB and YQG are losing YTZ service?

[Rhb]

OpenJaw website has an interview with PD Kevin Jackson this morning. He touches on numerous subjects and their reasoning behind their decisions.

https://openjaw.com/videos/tv-room/t...mmer-schedule/

[Djeffery]

In picking some random date in June, I see one daily non stop at 230pm YQG-YTZ and one connecting YQG-YOW-YTZ at 430pm. The YQG-YTZ looks to be changing from a morning to Toronto and evening back to Windsor where the plane overnights to an early afternoon round trip from the Island and a round trip from Ottawa.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Rhb

OpenJaw website has an interview with PD Kevin Jackson this morning. He touches on numerous subjects and their reasoning behind their decisions.

https://openjaw.com/videos/tv-room/t...mmer-schedule/

Some good tidbits there. Singled out YOW as having many of the new destinations that exceeded expectations this year. Also indicated they will have the ability to book TS vacation packages with PD operated flights for next winter's sun schedule.

He also mentioned that YOW was the largest connecting destination on the YTZ-YQG route.

That said, the ~2pm departure time for YOW-YSB/YQG makes them pretty much useless for connecting. A late evening departure to the outstation and then an early AM arrival back to YOW would have been way better. YQG may be able to get by on primarily O/D traffic, but I'm not sure the same can be said for YSB.

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by Rhb

OpenJaw website has an interview with PD Kevin Jackson this morning. He touches on numerous subjects and their reasoning behind their decisions.

https://openjaw.com/videos/tv-room/t...mmer-schedule/

Key points I found interesting:

- Sun destinations performing better than they expected. Announcement for packages coming this year for next winter.
- CUN is massive for them. They kept pumping in frequencies and those kept being taken up.
- YOW is greatly successful. Everything out of YOW has been a success for them.
- YQG’s biggest connection in YTZ is to YOW. YQG-YTZ o&d is is not performing well. This will connect YQG into a “bigger” network than YTZ.
- They have been watching BNA for years, even before COVID.
- YTZ US pre-clearance announcement is “imminent”.
- Many carriers are coming forward to have talks of partnership with PD.
- “There is still a lot of growth to come, the duopoly is no longer”

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

Key points I found interesting:

- Sun destinations performing better than they expected. Announcement for packages coming this year for next winter.
- CUN is massive for them. They kept pumping in frequencies and those kept being taken up.
- YOW is greatly successful. Everything out of YOW has been a success for them.
- YQG’s biggest connection in YTZ is to YOW. YQG-YTZ o&d is is not performing well. This will connect YQG into a “bigger” network than YTZ.
- They have been watching BCN for years, even before COVID.
- YTZ US pre-clearance announcement is “imminent”.
- Many carriers are coming forward to have talks of partnership with PD.
- “There is still a lot of growth to come, the duopoly is no longer”

Much better summary than I gave. Your point on other partnerships made me remember he also said codeshares are coming this year with Alaska and Qatar. He also mentioned that the JV with TS applies to TATL routes as well, so hopefully that bodes well for TS expansion with YOW-based feed to more niche European destinations.

The YTZ pre-clearance announcement is an obvious one as AC is starting YTZ-LGA at the end of March, so it has to be before then.

I and I think you mean BNA (Nashville) rather than BCN (Barcelona)

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Much better summary than I gave. Your point on other partnerships made me remember he also said codeshares are coming this year with Alaska and Qatar. He also mentioned that the JV with TS applies to TATL routes as well, so hopefully that bodes well for TS expansion with YOW-based feed to more niche destinations.

The YTZ pre-clearance announcement is an obvious one as AC is starting YTZ-LGA at the end of March, so it has to be before then.

I and I think you mean BNA (Nashville) rather than BCN (Barcelona)

Woops! Probably because BCN has been on my radar for a while to visit. Thanks for catching that

[AuxTown]

A Qatar codeshare would be great news. Might be the first step in getting our own YOW-DOH flight. If they arranged great YOW-YUL-DOH and YOW-YYZ-DOH connections with the codeshare then they would see how many people are leaving out of Ottawa to use those flights. My guess is that, if the price is right and the connections convenient, people will use those connections rather than just drive to YUL as most currently do.

[Rhb]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

A Qatar codeshare would be great news. Might be the first step in getting our own YOW-DOH flight. If they arranged great YOW-YUL-DOH and YOW-YYZ-DOH connections with the codeshare then they would see how many people are leaving out of Ottawa to use those flights. My guess is that, if the price is right and the connections convenient, people will use those connections rather than just drive to YUL as most currently do.

I do believe this is a possibility. If YOW market is insufficient for this route on its own. PD feed can bridge the difference.

[Dominion301]

So with the additions of YQG and YSB on Fridays, that should take the summer max up to 95 if any Friday manages to go cancellation-free.

Today’s departure count: 82

Sun flights count (both transborder & international): 14

Today's cancellation count (so far): 2

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Excellent. Hopefully YHM and YQB eventually follow, along with YXU if they ever launch service there. YLW at X15 must mean something else will fly on those days.

I continue to think YKF would be a better bet than YXU.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I continue to think YKF would be a better bet than YXU.

I agree, and not just because it would be super convenient for me. There is a lot more population around YKF, and a natural link to the tech sector.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I continue to think YKF would be a better bet than YXU.

Without question they would both work at least 1x as would YHM. YOW-YXU existed from sometime in the 70s until COVID. Eventually someone will bring it back, be it AC or PD.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

A Qatar codeshare would be great news. Might be the first step in getting our own YOW-DOH flight. If they arranged great YOW-YUL-DOH and YOW-YYZ-DOH connections with the codeshare then they would see how many people are leaving out of Ottawa to use those flights. My guess is that, if the price is right and the connections convenient, people will use those connections rather than just drive to YUL as most currently do.

Qatar was given 7 more flights to Canada a week. They use there high density plane in Toronto since demand is so high - they will likely be going more to Toronto. For Qatar that would make most sense, if they want Eastern Canada. Otherwise its Vancouver which makes the most sense.

[RomanR27]

Looks like AC has loaded the rest of the summer schedule past Labour Day. The only somewhat notable thing I saw was that YVR will stick at 3x daily all the way through the end of the summer schedule (in years past, the third flight has either been dropped after Labour Day, or as it was this past year, at the end of September). The same rotation of 321/789 on AC342/345 with 4x/3x weekly flights is loaded.

Essentially, the schedule posted here now applies to the whole summer schedule, with AC347/348 being effective until 07SEP.

I also noticed that YOW-YYZ on PD is actually 26x weekly this summer, with only three flights days 36. The turn missing is a YYZ-YOW-YYZ pattern, so I don't think that's indicative of anything else to come from YOW in that slot.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 88

Sun flights count (both transborder & international): 17

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1

Both PD 587 and UA 3715 are shown as being on gate 2 only 15 minutes apart. I bet 587 is on 12 and someone forgot to punch in the "1".

AF 327 on 17B, AC 345 on 28 and AC 888 on 15B.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Today’s departure count: 88

Sun flights count (both transborder & international): 17

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1

Both PD 587 and UA 3715 are shown as being on gate 2 only 15 minutes apart. I bet 587 is on 12 and someone forgot to punch in the "1".

AF 327 on 17B, AC 345 on 28 and AC 888 on 15B.

I believe AF was supposed to be a 77W today, but appears a 772 is enroute. IIRC today was the day they had the config loaded with F class, so it wasn't the high density economy config in the first place.

The premium cabins on AC889/888 are full in both directions today.

[RomanR27]

I took a closer look at the PD schedule today and I think they adjusted some timings as there's a lot more stuff that connects to Sudbury/Windsor since when I looked yesterday.

Between 1230 and 1315 (YQG departs at 1400 and YSB at 1425), there are arrivals now from EWR, YHZ, YQM, YEG, YYC, YYG and YFC. That said, of those destinations the only ones you can connect to in both directions are YFC, YEG and YHZ.

In theory with a 6+ hour layover you can connect YVR/YYT-YOW-YSB/YQG, and the reverse is possible here as well (and a more reasonable layover).

I also notice the UA 319 is now loaded through August 10.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

I took a closer look at the PD schedule today and I think they adjusted some timings as there's a lot more stuff that connects to Sudbury/Windsor since when I looked yesterday.

Between 1230 and 1315 (YQB departs at 1400 and YSB at 1425), there are arrivals now from EWR, YHZ, YQM, YEG, YYC, YYG and YFC. That said, of those destinations the only ones you can connect to in both directions are YFC, YEG and YHZ.

In theory with a 6+ hour layover you can connect YVR/YYT-YOW-YSB/YQG, and the reverse is possible here as well (and a more reasonable layover).

I also notice the UA 319 is now loaded through August 10.

Not surprised there’s been adjustments and I’m almost certain PD aren’t done with making summer 2026 announcements. For example, the YYZ-YQB timings make zero sense without an early morning YQB departure to an unknown location.

Great to see the UA 319 extension.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 74

Sun flights count (both transborder & international): 18

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1