Canadian Airport Thread II

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

So I don't see a "Canadian Airlines" thread but I do have a question: I'm flying from Toronto to Lisbon via Air Transat in May and I've never take that airline before. Thoughts? Is it in the Air Canada-class or more of a ULCC?

more of an in between. I've flown them to London from Toronto before and it's a typical economy class experience - nothing fancy, but not ULCC level either. It's fine for the price you pay - Air Transat has some of the cheapest trans-Atlantic flights out there.

[Dominion301]

YZF's 2025 pax stats. @Thenoflyzone, 2023's and 2024's numbers have also changed slightly from what you had in the wiki. Also, based on 2023's % growth, 2022's total was within 100 pax of 446,700 if you want to go back and add YZF to that year. There's also a chart in the PDF to give an approximate total for years 2016 to 2021 and aircraft movement stats are in there too.

https://www.inf.gov.nt.ca/sites/inf/..._2025_-_en.pdf - monthly pax totals at YZF include both from the ATB and from FBOs (including Air Tindi's own building), which account for over 1/5 of YZF's traffic.

Month / 2025 / % Chg vs 24 / 2024 % Chg vs 23 / 2023 / % Chg vs 22
January / 49,705 / + 4.55% / 47,541 / +21.26% / 39,206 / +107.97%
February / 49,627 / -0.45% / 49,850 / +29.79% / 38,407 / +88.32%
March / 54,858 / +1.21% / 54,202 / +17.88% / 45,981 / +38.80%
April / 44,248 / -1.23% / 44,799 / +15.28% / 38,860 / +22.23%
May / 43,407/ -6.14% / 46,248 / +14.61% / 40,352 / +13.20%
June / 48,802 / +2.14% / 47,779 / +1.82% / 46,927 / +10.70%
July / 52,855/ -2.87% / 54,418 / +6.62% / 51,038 / +5.00%
August / 56,295 / -1.23% / 56,994 / +71.29% / 33,274 / -35.74% - forest fires in 2023 (Aug & Sep)
September / 59,772 / +4.81% / 57,031 / +48.25% / 38,469 / -17.99%
October / 57,431 / +13.17% / +50,746 / +8.52% / 46,761 / +12.28%
November / 47,088 / +2.95% / 45,738 / +4.65% / 43,704 / +18.85%
December / 54,089 / +10.42% / 48,984 / -0.11% / 49,040 / +26.19%
TOTALS / 618,177 / +2.29% / 604,330 / +18.03% / 512,019 / +14.60%

Interestingly, September and October were YZF's busiest months of the year.

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by egb

For those that know airline schedules, is there a way to sort out how much they increased their summer domestic frequency for YHZ? Saskatoon and Regina are up to twice a week from weekly but I can’t sort out how much they’re increased YVR, YEG, YYC, and YWG.

I have just been doing this manually by going through Google flights https://www.google.com/travel/flights and looking at the schedules for each of those markets. I regularly follow the schedules so I already have an idea of what they looked like in 2025 in order to compare them to 2026.

Vancouver (YVR) - WestJet have gone from offering no flights in 2025 to offering a daily flight for most of the 2026 summer season. Air Canada have a daily Vancouver flight from early May to the end of October which is similar to the 2025 season. Air Canada did offer double daily service in September and October in 2025, but this was an add-on later on in the season. This doesn’t currently look like it is offered for 2026, although it was announced very late in the season in 2025 so who knows if it may happen again

Edmonton (YEG) - WestJet have gone from offering one flight a day in 2025 to offering double daily service throughout the 2026 summer season. Air Canada don’t fly this route.

Calgary (YYC) - WestJet fly this route four times daily for 2026, which is identical to their 2025 season. Air Canada no longer fly this route.

Winnipeg (YWG) - WestJet have increased their frequency on this route from one daily to double daily for the majority of the 2026 summer season. Air Canada do not fly this route.

Toronto (YYZ) - WestJet have increased their frequency on this route from three daily flights in 2025 to 4 daily flights for the 2026 summer season. Air Canada will fly this route from 8 to 10 times daily depending on the day for the whole 2026 summer season. This is an increase from 2025 when they generally flew 8 times daily on this route. Porter will fly this route four times daily in the summer season for 2026, which is identical to their 2025 schedule. Flair Airlines will fly this route up to three times daily for the summer 2026 season which is an increase over 2025 where they generally flew the route twice daily.

Much of the increased WestJet flights are aimed at tying in with their ever increasing European flights out of Halifax. For the 2026 season, they are adding Lisbon, Copenhagen and Madrid. These new destinations will be added to their current roster, which includes Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh, London Gatwick, Paris and Barcelona. They seem to be creating a model similar to Icelandair with their Reykjavík hub were they funnel passengers through Halifax from Western Canada to Europe. This was aided with the introduction of the new pre-clearance facility built at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by JonToms

I have just been doing this manually by going through Google flights https://www.google.com/travel/flights and looking at the schedules for each of those markets. I regularly follow the schedules so I already have an idea of what they looked like in 2025 in order to compare them to 2026.

Vancouver (YVR) - WestJet have gone from offering no flights in 2025 to offering a daily flight for most of the 2026 summer season. Air Canada have a daily Vancouver flight from early May to the end of October which is similar to the 2025 season. Air Canada did offer double daily service in September and October in 2025, but this was an add-on later on in the season. This doesn’t currently look like it is offered for 2026, although it was announced very late in the season in 2025 so who knows if it may happen again

Edmonton (YEG) - WestJet have gone from offering one flight a day in 2025 to offering double daily service throughout the 2026 summer season. Air Canada don’t fly this route.

Calgary (YYC) - WestJet fly this route four times daily for 2026, which is identical to their 2025 season. Air Canada no longer fly this route.

Winnipeg (YWG) - WestJet have increased their frequency on this route from one daily to double daily for the majority of the 2026 summer season. Air Canada do not fly this route.

Toronto (YYZ) - WestJet have increased their frequency on this route from three daily flights in 2025 to 4 daily flights for the 2026 summer season. Air Canada will fly this route from 8 to 10 times daily depending on the day for the whole 2026 summer season. This is an increase from 2025 when they generally flew 8 times daily on this route. Porter will fly this route four times daily in the summer season for 2026, which is identical to their 2025 schedule. Flair Airlines will fly this route up to three times daily for the summer 2026 season which is an increase over 2025 where they generally flew the route twice daily.

Much of the increased WestJet flights are aimed at tying in with their ever increasing European flights out of Halifax. For the 2026 season, they are adding Lisbon, Copenhagen and Madrid. These new destinations will be added to their current roster, which includes Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh, London Gatwick, Paris and Barcelona. They seem to be creating a model similar to Icelandair with their Reykjavík hub were they funnel passengers through Halifax from Western Canada to Europe. This was aided with the introduction of the new pre-clearance facility built at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

WestJet isn't also bringing back certain Eastern Ontario- Halifax routes. They realized those people will connect in Toronto/Montreal for the most part so gave up on trying to say do Ottawa- Halifax.

Western Canada, which uses WestJet now has a jump off point and someone else they can aim to use over Air Canada in Toronto/Montreal with WestJet really pushing down fares. The model is using Western Canada to feed Halifax. 737 means low cost for WestJet and fairly low risk.

Lisbon, Madrid Copenhagen are 50% cheaper basically all summer from Western Canada on westjet vs Air Canada to same routes via Toronto/Montreal.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

WestJet isn't also bringing back certain Eastern Ontario- Halifax routes. They realized those people will connect in Toronto/Montreal for the most part so gave up on trying to say do Ottawa- Halifax.

Western Canada, which uses WestJet now has a jump off point and someone else they can aim to use over Air Canada in Toronto/Montreal with WestJet really pushing down fares. The model is using Western Canada to feed Halifax. 737 means low cost for WestJet and fairly low risk.

Lisbon, Madrid Copenhagen are 50% cheaper basically all summer from Western Canada on westjet vs Air Canada to same routes via Toronto/Montreal.

I'm not sure how much juice there is left to squeeze out of the YHZ TATL hub, but if it expands, I think bringing back YOW-YHZ at the very least would make a lot of sense, timed for feed even if only operating for peak summer. They added a second YOW-YYZ this summer that is clearly timed to connect to the YYZ TATL flights, but IMO the YHZ destinations are generally more attractive. With limited non-stop Europe options, YHZ could be more attractive than YYZ/YUL connections for Ottawa-based pax and there would still be quite a bit of O/D traffic in the summer as well.

[JonToms]

QUOTE=RomanR27;10551924]I'm not sure how much juice there is left to squeeze out of the YHZ TATL hub, but if it expands, I think bringing back YOW-YHZ at the very least would make a lot of sense, timed for feed even if only operating for peak summer. They added a second YOW-YYZ this summer that is clearly timed to connect to the YYZ TATL flights, but IMO the YHZ destinations are generally more attractive. With limited non-stop Europe options, YHZ could be more attractive than YYZ/YUL connections for Ottawa-based pax and there would still be quite a bit of O/D traffic in the summer as well.[/QUOTE

I would agree with you. Feeding these YHZ European flights with Ottawa passengers is a no-brainer. They always used to operate this route with a De Havilland Dash-8 several times a day before they pulled out of the market completely. Now that these aircraft are only operating in Western Canada they would have to commit a Boeing 737 to this route. Who knows whether this will ever happen.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by JonToms

I would agree with you. Feeding these YHZ European flights with Ottawa passengers is a no-brainer. They always used to operate this route with a De Havilland Dash-8 several times a day before they pulled out of the market completely. Now that these aircraft are only operating in Western Canada they would have to commit a Boeing 737 to this route. Who knows whether this will ever happen.

Pre-pandemic they would upgauge the evening YOW-YHZ that would connect to the then much smaller YHZ transatlantic bank. It’s odd that they haven’t brought this back. YOW’s summer transatlantic demand exceeds supply. By not offering that, WS essentially are handing loads of traffic to AC & TS.

I imagine AC will re-add a second transatlantic route out of YOW for summer 2027 on the XLR, be it BRU, FCO or the return of FRA.

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Pre-pandemic they would upgauge the evening YOW-YHZ that would connect to the then much smaller YHZ transatlantic bank. It’s odd that they haven’t brought this back. YOW’s summer transatlantic demand exceeds supply. By not offering that, WS essentially are handing loads of traffic to AC & TS.

I imagine AC will re-add a second transatlantic route out of YOW for summer 2027 on the XLR, be it BRU, FCO or the return of FRA.

Oh, right, I remember that now that you mention it. WestJet really seem to be sticking to their east west flights rather than offering YOW/YUL – YHZ flights to connect to their mini European hub in YHZ. I am very curious to see how their new Detroit (DTW) – YHZ flights will do. I wonder if they are trying to connect those flight to the bank of European flights from YHZ much like they are doing with the western Canadian flights to Halifax. If so I expect they are offering a very low price point in order to draw new customers in.

Yes, I certainly imagine AC will be offering more European flights from YOW in 2027 once they have a few more XLR’s added to the fleet. Surely they will at least return FRA.

[ColDayMan]

Thank you all for your comments. I truly appreciate it and am looking forward to flying my second Canadian airline (first is Air Canada)!

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by JonToms

Oh, right, I remember that now that you mention it. WestJet really seem to be sticking to their east west flights rather than offering YOW/YUL – YHZ flights to connect to their mini European hub in YHZ. I am very curious to see how their new Detroit (DTW) – YHZ flights will do. I wonder if they are trying to connect those flight to the bank of European flights from YHZ much like they are doing with the western Canadian flights to Halifax. If so I expect they are offering a very low price point in order to draw new customers in.

Yes, I certainly imagine AC will be offering more European flights from YOW in 2027 once they have a few more XLR’s added to the fleet. Surely they will at least return FRA.

I get various groups fed to me on Facebook that I don't belong to (like we all do) and one was a DTW group. Saw a post the other day mentioning the new DTW-YHZ flights and the European connection and there seemed to be a lot of positive response to it. Fares are very reasonable on that as well, at least the base economy fares. I looked up a day in August, DTW-YHZ-CPH and it was $367 one way. It was a little over $400 from Toronto connecting in Halifax. And the YHZ-CPH leg itself that those flights connect to was over $800. Delta from Detroit had no non-stop options and the cheapest option was $567 US, connecting at AMS and total travel time from Detroit on either airline was 5 minutes difference and both leave Detroit within a few minutes of each other. Of course the Delta flight is on a KLM A330 for the overseas part so that might be worth something to some as well, but no doubt, if it comes down to dollars, Westjet will hopefully be able to get the word out in that market and expand to other US markets to capitalize on this.

[J81]

Originally Posted by JonToms

I have just been doing this manually by going through Google flights https://www.google.com/travel/flights and looking at the schedules for each of those markets. I regularly follow the schedules so I already have an idea of what they looked like in 2025 in order to compare them to 2026.

Vancouver (YVR) - WestJet have gone from offering no flights in 2025 to offering a daily flight for most of the 2026 summer season. Air Canada have a daily Vancouver flight from early May to the end of October which is similar to the 2025 season. Air Canada did offer double daily service in September and October in 2025, but this was an add-on later on in the season. This doesn’t currently look like it is offered for 2026, although it was announced very late in the season in 2025 so who knows if it may happen again

Edmonton (YEG) - WestJet have gone from offering one flight a day in 2025 to offering double daily service throughout the 2026 summer season. Air Canada don’t fly this route.

Calgary (YYC) - WestJet fly this route four times daily for 2026, which is identical to their 2025 season. Air Canada no longer fly this route.

Winnipeg (YWG) - WestJet have increased their frequency on this route from one daily to double daily for the majority of the 2026 summer season. Air Canada do not fly this route.

Toronto (YYZ) - WestJet have increased their frequency on this route from three daily flights in 2025 to 4 daily flights for the 2026 summer season. Air Canada will fly this route from 8 to 10 times daily depending on the day for the whole 2026 summer season. This is an increase from 2025 when they generally flew 8 times daily on this route. Porter will fly this route four times daily in the summer season for 2026, which is identical to their 2025 schedule. Flair Airlines will fly this route up to three times daily for the summer 2026 season which is an increase over 2025 where they generally flew the route twice daily.

Much of the increased WestJet flights are aimed at tying in with their ever increasing European flights out of Halifax. For the 2026 season, they are adding Lisbon, Copenhagen and Madrid. These new destinations will be added to their current roster, which includes Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh, London Gatwick, Paris and Barcelona. They seem to be creating a model similar to Icelandair with their Reykjavík hub were they funnel passengers through Halifax from Western Canada to Europe. This was aided with the introduction of the new pre-clearance facility built at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

How does a US pre clearance facility in YHZ aid in funnelling western Canadian passengers to TATL flights to Europe.?

[JonToms]

It is not a US pre clearance facility, it is an International Connections Facility where passengers on a connecting flight from an international destination (Europe) pass through customs while still staying in the secured area of the terminal. Basically they go through customs in this facility and don’t have to go out of the secure area to recheck their bags and go through security again. It speeds up connecting time.

https://halifaxstanfield.ca/news-rel...X0JMHgpnd--ozA

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by JonToms

It is not a US pre clearance facility, it is an International Connections Facility where passengers on a connecting flight from an international destination (Europe) pass through customs while still staying in the secured area of the terminal. Basically they go through customs in this facility and don’t have to go out of the secure area to recheck their bags and go through security again. It speeds up connecting time.

https://halifaxstanfield.ca/news-rel...X0JMHgpnd--ozA

Yes, you are correct. When YHZ first built this facility, I was confused, as Halifax Stanfield has always been more of a terminal destination rather than an airport where connections were made. This became even more true during COVID when all the intra-Maritime flights on Air Canada were cancelled.

Now it all makes sense. I wonder if WestJet went to the HIAA with a plan to make YHZ a trans-oceanic connector and the airport thought this a good business opportuntiy and said yes to the construction.

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Yes, you are correct. When YHZ first built this facility, I was confused, as Halifax Stanfield has always been more of a terminal destination rather than an airport where connections were made. This became even more true during COVID when all the intra-Maritime flights on Air Canada were cancelled.

Now it all makes sense. I wonder if WestJet went to the HIAA with a plan to make YHZ a trans-oceanic connector and the airport thought this a good business opportuntiy and said yes to the construction.

Yes, YHZ has in recent history being more of a terminal destination rather than a connecting airport. Many years ago when Air Atlantic and Air Nova were flying YHZ was a connecting airport for most of Atlantic Canada. I am looking forward to the new Atlantic Canadian regional routes restarting from YHZ to YFC/YQM/YYG/YQY. This facility will be a real driver in building up more connecting passengers at YHZ.

I am not sure whether HIAA and WestJet spoke before this facility was built, but I imagine some conversations must’ve been had. I give a lot of credit to Joyce Carter, HIAA CEO, and her team in building up a robust route network.

[zahav]

Las Vegas must be livid with the decimation of the Canadian market. The fact that WS cut back so much on Vegas flights is really interesting. The fact that they cut or severely reduced routes like RDU, BNA, TPA from Western Canada is not really surprising, they would have been the most challenging to make economical. Cutting big markets like SFO and LAX is a bit more surprising, but not that hard to fathom. But Vegas has kind of been WS's stronghold, linked to so many cities, and steady frequencies. So to have no service from eastern Canada at all, and then sub daily from YVR and YEG is jarring. YYC obviously still at high frequency, but I'm surprised to see the drop from secondary bases.

[hollywoodcory]

Vegas has been basically begging for Canadians to come back, right down to a few properties even offering to accept CAD at par with USD.

I see WS also cut back Florida too. I’m kinda surprised that YYC-TPA even survived.

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by JonToms

Yes, YHZ has in recent history being more of a terminal destination rather than a connecting airport. Many years ago when Air Atlantic and Air Nova were flying YHZ was a connecting airport for most of Atlantic Canada. I am looking forward to the new Atlantic Canadian regional routes restarting from YHZ to YFC/YQM/YYG/YQY. This facility will be a real driver in building up more connecting passengers at YHZ.

I am not sure whether HIAA and WestJet spoke before this facility was built, but I imagine some conversations must’ve been had. I give a lot of credit to Joyce Carter, HIAA CEO, and her team in building up a robust route network.

Indeed, YHZ was a connecting airport for Atlantic Canada. Took many YYT-YHZ-YFC trips in the day on both Air Nova and Air Atlantic. Some of the YHZ-YFC flights even included a stop in YSJ. YHZ still serves as a connecting airport for flights to/from Newfoundland (YYT/YQX/YDF/YYR)

[q12]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

as Halifax Stanfield has always been more of a terminal destination rather than an airport where connections were made.

Yeah this statement is incorrect. Halifax for many decades has been a hub for Atlantic Canadian flights.


Source:
https://www.visionairimages.com/Airp...ld/i-MjbNdq7/A

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by q12

Yeah this statement is incorrect. Halifax for many decades has been a hub for Atlantic Canadian flights.

An occasional hub for connecting flights. 90% of the time I am flying in North America for work or pleasure, I make my connections in Toronto or Montreal. Within the last 20 years, I have used YHZ precisely four times.

[q12]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

An occasional hub for connecting flights. 90% of the time I am flying in North America for work or pleasure, I make my connections in Toronto or Montreal. Within the last 20 years, I have used YHZ precisely four times.

Here's an example from 1987:

A quote from the cover of Air Atlantic's Timetable from 1987:

Air Atlantic flies daily to all major centers in Atlantic Canada and in conjunction with our partner, Canadian Airlines International, we can connect you at our Halifax hub to Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and the world.

They had 6 flights a day from Moncton to Halifax back in that day on Air Atlantic alone.

1987 Timetable from Moncton. Notice all the YHZ connections.




An Air Atlantic Commerical promoting the Halifax Hub from 1987 when it was competing with Air Nova/Air Canada.
• Video Link