Atlantic Canada airport thread

[MonctonRad]

Apparently Cuba is running out of aviation fuel and some airlines (including Air Canada) are suspending flights.

YQM has 5x weekly flights to Cuba in the wintertime (Varadero, Holguin, Cayo Coco). I imagine these will be affected.

[homebody]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Apparently Cuba is running out of aviation fuel and some airlines (including Air Canada) are suspending flights.

YQM has 5x weekly flights to Cuba in the wintertime (Varadero, Holguin, Cayo Coco). I imagine these will be affected.

Can"t imagine... They will most likely cancel the ones from Toronto first. YQM is way too important

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by homebody

Can"t imagine... They will most likely cancel the ones from Toronto first. YQM is way too important

Ignoring homebody's snide little comment, it has been confirmed that both Sunwing and Air Transat are suspending their winter flights to Cuba for the remainder of the season.

Too bad for YQM (and YHZ), but, I imagine homebody is huddled in a corner somewhere chortling with glee........

[Jaskirat]

I m in cuba right now!! Went thru west jet. Will be coming back on Wednesday. Hopefully everything will be fine will be back on time. Resorts are working as normal nothing changes.

[bridgeoftea]

All of the all inclusive packages have been removed off Sunwing, SellOff for Cuba for certain dates. Feb 9th - 25th Sunwing bookings for Cuba have been offered a destination change for no change fee or a "refund" (probably travel credit with Sunwing.)


From people I know that have been and know people there, they are closing off some of the smaller resorts and moving people to them. A lot of the Cayo Coco resorts have been shutdown. Varadero seems to be holding on.

It's a real shame for the people and the workers in Cuba. They really don't have much and do rely on Canadian tourists.

The rumour around Sunwing is that they are going to carry enough fuel to get there and back without needing to refuel in Cuba.

[sailor734]

I wonder if the other economy sun destinations have the capacity to take up the slack. Where else is as cheap as Cuba? Dominican?...... Belize? Generally the rest of the Caribbean is pretty pricey compared to Cuba from what I know.

[J81]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Apparently Cuba is running out of aviation fuel and some airlines (including Air Canada) are suspending flights.

YQM has 5x weekly flights to Cuba in the wintertime (Varadero, Holguin, Cayo Coco). I imagine these will be affected.

Unfortunate for sure but there is a possibility of increasing capacity to the other sun destinations and offer to move the affected Cuba packages to those other destinations like DR, Jamaica and Cancun.

[Taeolas]

Jamaica is still repairing after the Hurricane last summer (Bell's radio stations still have a number of Sunwing vacations to give away from their previous promo; I believe they were supposed to restart the contest Soon(tm) ); but that might be their best opportunity. I'm not sure if the island is recovered enough to fully open, but if Cuba's blocked off, they might be able to get some resorts open enough to pick up the slack and help their own recovery.

[sailor734]

I read that flights from Europe are continuing. The airlines are stopping at a close Caribbean airport to refuel before taking the short hop to Cuba. Places like Nassau or the Dominican Republic are being used. Wonder why Canadian airlines didn't employ this idea rather than cancelling everything? (Cost I assume.....or maybe quiet threats from the US? ...."Nice little route map ya got there between Canada and the USA.....be a cryin' shame if anything happened to it....." )

After Trump deciding he wants 1/2 ownership of the new, about to open Gordie Howe Bridge (which Ottawa paid for) I guess anything is possible.

[Taeolas]

I was wondering why Canadian airlines aren't island hopping as well. I just chalked it up to some Carriage rules in the North American system that might say that a carrier must leave or start the flight from within the Country of origin and not skip across countries. I'm pretty sure Canada and America have regulations like that in place. Europe with more countries in a limited space likely doesn't have that sort of limitation so they can country hop easier.

Maybe NavCanada/Transport Canada could give the airlines a waiver to allow them to skip; but if it's baked into North American regulations (and since it crosses over US airspace) the FAA might need to be involved, and they're not likely to grant a waiver.

*Edit* Apparently I was thinking of "Cabotage" which basically says Canadian airlines cannot have flights that go from and to a Canadian destination by way of an American destination. (American airlines have a similar restriction).

Not sure if there are any restrictions from hopping between different companies; but I wouldn't be surprised if there were similar restrictions for some reason.

[lirette]

Originally Posted by sailor734

I read that flights from Europe are continuing. The airlines are stopping at a close Caribbean airport to refuel before taking the short hop to Cuba. Places like Nassau or the Dominican Republic are being used. Wonder why Canadian airlines didn't employ this idea rather than cancelling everything? (Cost I assume.....or maybe quiet threats from the US? ...."Nice little route map ya got there between Canada and the USA.....be a cryin' shame if anything happened to it....." )

After Trump deciding he wants 1/2 ownership of the new, about to open Gordie Howe Bridge (which Ottawa paid for) I guess anything is possible.

lol I have basically no doubt that this will become another "USA has allowed Canada to take advantage of it for far too long, if Canada tries to do X we will put a million percent tariff on canada air travel into the US yadda yadda". Probably before the end of the week.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I was wondering why Canadian airlines aren't island hopping as well. I just chalked it up to some Carriage rules in the North American system that might say that a carrier must leave or start the flight from within the Country of origin and not skip across countries. I'm pretty sure Canada and America have regulations like that in place. Europe with more countries in a limited space likely doesn't have that sort of limitation so they can country hop easier.

Maybe NavCanada/Transport Canada could give the airlines a waiver to allow them to skip; but if it's baked into North American regulations (and since it crosses over US airspace) the FAA might need to be involved, and they're not likely to grant a waiver.

*Edit* Apparently I was thinking of "Cabotage" which basically says Canadian airlines cannot have flights that go from and to a Canadian destination by way of an American destination. (American airlines have a similar restriction).

Not sure if there are any restrictions from hopping between different companies; but I wouldn't be surprised if there were similar restrictions for some reason.

I always thought cabotage dealt with a foreign airline carrying passengers between two points in another country.

I can't think of any regulations preventing a Canadian airline flying Toronto-Cuba-Nassau-Toronto with Nassau being a technical (ie fuel) stop.

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I was wondering why Canadian airlines aren't island hopping as well. I just chalked it up to some Carriage rules in the North American system that might say that a carrier must leave or start the flight from within the Country of origin and not skip across countries. I'm pretty sure Canada and America have regulations like that in place. Europe with more countries in a limited space likely doesn't have that sort of limitation so they can country hop easier.

Maybe NavCanada/Transport Canada could give the airlines a waiver to allow them to skip; but if it's baked into North American regulations (and since it crosses over US airspace) the FAA might need to be involved, and they're not likely to grant a waiver.

The logistics of it kill profit. They are better off reallocating their aircraft to other routes. Adding fuel stops on either end adds 1.5-3 hours per round trip, which means fewer trips for that aircraft and they may require additional crew as well.

The European carriers are flying at lower frequencies and are probably not as price sensitive as the Canadian routes are.

Let's face it, the primary reason Canadians choose to go to Cuba at this time of year is because it's relatively cheap.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by OliverD

The logistics of it kill profit. They are better off reallocating their aircraft to other routes. Adding fuel stops on either end adds 1.5-3 hours per round trip, which means fewer trips for that aircraft and they may require additional crew as well.

The European carriers are flying at lower frequencies and are probably not as price sensitive as the Canadian routes are.

Let's face it, the primary reason Canadians choose to go to Cuba at this time of year is because it's relatively cheap.

That's a valid point. You have to imagine that given the price point of these all inclusive vacations these flights are operating on pretty tight margins.

[q12]

I posted this in the Canadian airport thread, but I thought it might be of interest to this thread for those who were not aware of what the schedule out of Moncton looked like back in 1987 on Air Atlantic:

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

[sailor734]

I used them from SJ to Boston many times back in the day. I remember the early Dash 8's but I think they also flew BAe146's on that route sometimes (although more usually to Montreal or Toronto). Neat little high wing 4 engine jet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Aerospace_146

[J81]

I loved the 146. Very cool plane. Air Nova had them as well. Id liked to see an Air Nova schedule for the same time period. It would further illustrate just how much of a connecting airport YHZ was back in those days. A lot of times both airlines had flights to the same destination within minutes of each other.

[Nashe]

You can't help but surmise that air travel has taken several very large steps backwards in the past few decades.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by J81

I loved the 146. Very cool plane. Air Nova had them as well. Id liked to see an Air Nova schedule for the same time period. It would further illustrate just how much of a connecting airport YHZ was back in those days. A lot of times both airlines had flights to the same destination within minutes of each other.

That would be too much like competition. Instead we get Air Canada's and Westjet's cozy little "you focus west and we'll focus east arrangement".

I don't know if Porter is making money or bleeding cash with the rapid and dramatic expansion (I suspect it's the latter). Hopefully they have deep enough pockets to get through the start up phase for a lot of these new routes, build load factors and start to make them pay

[Bishop2047]

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/weve-got-...=ACoAAB8fW_cBIKDfi2w7voLox749X-ftGyP_4Vc

Happy Baker opened in YFC. Both on the arrivals, and departures sides.

Glad to see another local company move in.