Canadian Airport Thread II

[Pellimo]

American Airlines is quietly increasing its presence at YQB, with Philadelphia, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas, and now JFK...

The only thing missing is Miami, which would be a natural flight for YQB given the demand from YQB for South Florida.

Although not all of these are year-round flights, it's a sign in the right direction...

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by ninjakafi_81

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



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

Fairly interesting as they will miss both of the tourist season in both cities.
American has staff in Calgary so makes sense to push that market for American.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

Fairly interesting as they will miss both of the tourist season in both cities.
American has staff in Calgary so makes sense to push that market for American.

YQB is also an existing station for them. Hopefully as the PD partnership matures YOW will gain service.

Though another thing Deluce was pretty blunt about in the interview that was posted here, is that he does expect US demand to be softer for the next three years for obvious reasons.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

YQB is also an existing station for them. Hopefully as the PD partnership matures YOW will gain service.

Though another thing Deluce was pretty blunt about in the interview that was posted here, is that he does expect US demand to be softer for the next three years for obvious reasons.

Today's AC889 was 17/20 J and 20/21 PY. Tonight's AC888 is 20/21 PY and full in J.

Today also saw the fifth daily YTZ flight for AC come online. The sixth frequency comes online at the start of March.

They have a seasonal station with actual staff? Didn't know that.
American is very good at going after leisure and secondary cities, for example the largest carrier in the Caribbean is American despite being a foreign carrier. Likely have a similar business model in Quebec City.

[J81]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

Fairly interesting as they will miss both of the tourist season in both cities.
American has staff in Calgary so makes sense to push that market for American.

In the case of YQB, peak cruise season begins early/mid August so perhaps these additions are to capture the cruise traffic.

[fanofYOW]

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

Then TS launching YOW-LGW was smart. I thought AC was going to retaliate but I guess they can’t without moving frequencies to YOW from somewhere else.

[q12]

From Flight Connections February 2026 update:

Non-stop Routes by Airport:

https://www.flightconnections.com/

Once Halifax regional routes (Sydney, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton) come back online this year, Halifax will be at 57 routes.

[Dominion301]

YVR's 2025 pax count and cargo volumes both set a record: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/yv...passenger-records-in-2025-836742875.html

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) welcomed more than 26.9 million travellers in 2025, marking a new all-time record with cargo shipments also reaching their highest volumes in the 94-year history of the airport.

This 2.7 per cent year-over-year increase in passengers is a testament to YVR's tireless work with airlines, tourism organizations, and other stakeholders to strengthen its position as a global hub and a critical gateway between North America, Asia, and beyond. The previous record of 26.3 million passengers was set in 2019.

By sector, domestic travel was up 3.8 per cent. Notably, for international travel, Asia Pacific passenger volumes increased 15.6 per cent year over year, while transborder traffic between YVR and U.S. destinations declined by 7.1 per cent amidst shifting global travel patterns.

On cargo shipments, 365,000 tonnes of goods moved through the airport, which represents a 7.4 per cent increase over 2024, reinforcing YVR's key role in the local and national supply chain, particularly for high value, time sensitive, and perishable exports.

@Thenoflyzone, the exact numbers for YVR aren't yet available as the website still only has data up until November: https://www.yvr.ca/en/about-yvr/facts-and-stats

[YVR Bruce]

YVR numbers are now showing. The 2024 total stated above (presumably from the press release) at 26.3m looks to be 0.1 too high. The full year growth is >700k

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by YVR Bruce

YVR numbers are now showing. The 2024 total stated above (presumably from the press release) at 26.3m looks to be 0.1 too high. The full year growth is >700k

Ah but 26.3m was 2019, whereas 2024 was 26.2m.

Here's the deets: https://www.yvr.ca/-/media/yvr/documents...2---december/december-traffic-update.pdf

Sector 2025 / 2024 / % Change
Domestic: 13,347,995 / 12,857,619 / +3.8%
Transborder: 6,161,520 / 6,631,214 / -7.1%
Int'l Asia: 4,474,757 / 3,870,313 / +15.6%
Int'l Europe: 1,779,252 / 1,673,043 / +6.3%
Int'l Other: 1,150,037 / 1,173,612 / -2.0%
Grand Total: 26,913,561 / 26,205,801 / +2.7%

[Dominion301]

YQR's 2025 pax totals:

Segment / 2025 / 2024 / % Change
Transborder 94,132 / 59,860 / +57.25%
Total pax: 1,159,639 / 1,082,450 / +7.1%

SOURCE: YQR Airport Authority email. As per the email received, they don't actually track non-transborder international pax totals, so domestic + international = 1,065,507 in 2025 and 990,590 in 2024.

[Dominion301]

YLW December and 2025 year-end pax stats.

Period / 2024 / 2025 / % Change vs Prior Year

December / 211,493 / 220,578 / +4.3%
Q4 2025 / 560,056 / 597,555 / +6.7%
Total Pax / 2,133,582 / 2,315,432 / +8.5%

Source: https://ylw.kelowna.ca/business/facts-statistics

YLW blew past their 2024 all-time record. 2026 is looking strong domestically for YLW with more seasonal YXE, YQR and YWG capacity coming on WS and PD adding YOW-YLW. On the flip side, there will be a lot of reduced transborder capacity.

[hollywoodcory]

YYC posted its December and year end totals. Reached 19.4 million in 2025.

Domestic: 972,044 -0.7% [2025 total: 13,098,768 +3.92%]
Transborder: 251,199 -13.3% [2025 total: 3,731,439 -3.42%]
International: 236,357 +9.2% [2025 total: 2,579,343 +6.22%]

December total: 1,459,600 -1.7%
2025 total: 19,409,550 +2.72%

[thenoflyzone]

Started compiling it all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Canada#2025

[hollywoodcory]

WS has filed the rest of its summer schedule in the OAG last night, so it should hit the booking system later today. A few more US routes got cut, and seems YYC is now back to 99 destinations (but maybe they added a new domestic route not filed yet).

[thenoflyzone]

No more Jet A1 in Cuba as of midnight tonight, for at least 1 month.

https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2026-0...aeropuertos-cuba-combustible-aviones-mes

https://www.aviacionline.com/english/com...eduled-flights_a69892c881e7e6768e82eadbd

WestJet, with 97 weekly flights to the island, is the most exposed to this. This is going to be an operational nightmare for them, in was is a peak travel time to Cuba. Tankering enough fuel for the full return is probably not ideal, as it would involve payload restrictions for the passengers/bags, so they will need carry some extra fuel in order to refuel somewhere on the return back to Canada, probably in Florida or the Bahamas. Potential for a huge shitshow coming up.

Long haul operators to Cuba will be impacted as well, especially Russian carriers. Several Caribbean countries ban Russian carriers from using their airspace/airports. This will be interesting to watch.

[Calfan12]

With the (WS) WestJet flight ✈️ cuts at Vancouver YVR, Edmonton YEG & Winnipeg YWG- (basically freed up a few WS Boeing 737 aircraft) to be used on routes out of its Calgary YYC Fortress Hub✅!

Like : WS cutting YEG/ YVR -Montreal YUL in (S26) helped YYC gain 3x daily flights✈️ to YUL, as previous Summer seasons YYC - YUL - YYC on WS was mainly 2x daily✅.

With WS cutting YVR - YOW / also reducing YEG - YOW from 13x weekly to 7, basically helped WS up its YYC - YOW - YYC flights from 3 to 5x daily in summer 2026✅.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

Then TS launching YOW-LGW was smart. I thought AC was going to retaliate but I guess they can’t without moving frequencies to YOW from somewhere else.

Also YOW-YUL flight opens up the rest of their extensive network. Previously you'd have to go to Toronto on Porter and Montreal does have some destinations on TS that Toronto doesn't.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Also YOW-YUL flight opens up the rest of their extensive network. Previously you'd have to go to Toronto on Porter and Montreal does have some destinations on TS that Toronto doesn't.

YOW-YUL also opens up PD connections over YOW to/from PD’s network for YUL. Obviously that won’t represent a huge amount of additional traffic for either carrier but it does greatly improve connectivity.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

YOW-YUL also opens up PD connections over YOW to/from PD’s network for YUL. Obviously that won’t represent a huge amount of additional traffic for either carrier but it does greatly improve connectivity.

The Montreal - Ottawa flight on transat is there 3 times a week and really there for the transatlantic market more than anything else.

The flights are going to be on Fridays, Sundays, and Tuesdays and are there to move the plane to Ottawa for the Gatwick flight.