YVR & Sea Island Developments Discussion II

[Johnny Aussie]

Fiji Airways upauging YVR back to the 359 effective early September

https://www.fijiairways.com/en-us/media-...and-connectivity-while-adjusting-network

[Johnny Aussie]

AC increasing Manila next winter

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260430-acnw26mnl

Air Canada during Northern winter 2026/27 season schedules service increase on Vancouver – Manila route, with the addition of 5th weekly flight from 07DEC26. The 5th weekly flight was briefly served during March 2026.

AC017 YVR0130 – 0645+1MNL 789 x46
AC018 MNL1025 – 0710YVR 789 x57

[RedArbutus]

Emails went out to Aeroplan status members, the second AC Cafe at YVR is now "officially" open, though I think it's been welcoming people in for a few weeks.

[s211]

Originally Posted by RedArbutus

Emails went out to Aeroplan status members, the second AC Cafe at YVR is now "officially" open, though I think it's been welcoming people in for a few weeks.

Anybody here been to the local Cafes yet? I'm curious how they feel versus the always over-body main lounge. Or I just go ahead and check for myself!

[nname]

Next round of AC cut

YVR-YHZ reduce to 3x weekly from Sept
YVR-YQB suspended from Sept
YVR-RDU suspended from Aug

Surprisingly, YVR-AUS survived through all these without a single cut, as even YUL-AUS did not survive in this round of cuts. Given the latter is a year-round route, perhaps there is a chance for YVR-AUS to eventually go year-round?

So for all the routes that are sub-daily after the cut, I'll rate the chance of them making into next year's summer schedule as
YMM < RDU < YQB < BNA < MIA < YHZ < ANC < SMF < AUS

But then, even YYZ-SLC, which was cut much earlier and operated an even shorter season than YVR-RDU/YQB is slated to come back in 2027... maybe all except YMM could come back as well...?

[whatnext]

There was a direct flight from YVR to Raleigh, NC? That seems like a tenuous route.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by whatnext

There was a direct flight from YVR to Raleigh, NC? That seems like a tenuous route.

Last time was in the status checkin line for AC, there were eight business class folks just ahead heading to RDU via Toronto checking in. Loads might not be good (couldn’t say either way) but if that is at all indicative, yields could be pretty good.

[WarrenC12]

Lots of tech in that area of NC.

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

[RedArbutus]

Originally Posted by s211

Anybody here been to the local Cafes yet? I'm curious how they feel versus the always over-body main lounge. Or I just go ahead and check for myself!

I haven't been to the YVR ones at all yet, but I did visit the YYZ one a couple summers ago and was very impressed.

[LeftCoaster]

The YVR cafe by C50 is fantastic. It makes the main lounge look like a dump (which it is).

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by s211

Anybody here been to the local Cafes yet? I'm curious how they feel versus the always over-body main lounge. Or I just go ahead and check for myself!

I was at the YUL cafe today as the main lounge is closed for renovations. While it is not terribly large I found the overall food and drink selections very good and high quality. They packed a lot into a small space.

[nname]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

The YVR cafe by C50 is fantastic. It makes the main lounge look like a dump (which it is).

I think the cafe is intended for temporary replacement of the main lounge as renovation is planned after this upcoming summer season.

======================

Recent schedule updates:

QF now increase YVR-SYD to 4x weekly through most of the summer
KE increase YVR-ICN to 2x daily in W26, so the route is now 2x daily year-round
TW reduce YVR-ICN to 2-4x weekly from June
PD resume YVR-PHX from Nov, 4x weekly increase to 6-7x weekly by mid-December

Way into the future for S27, AC plan for sub-daily Rouge routes:
YVR-AUS increase to 5x weekly
YVR-BNA increase to 4x weekly
YVR-RDU resume 3x weekly
YVR-MIA restore to 4x weekly
YVR-YQB restore to 5x weekly
YVR-YHZ restore to 1x daily

Schedule checked after all the current cut were applied, so at least as of now the cuts were temporary.

YVR-YMM is fully removed from W26 and S27 schedule.
YVR-TPA is also long gone, it was the worst performing transborder route out of entire AC network in term of LF when it operated last summer. YVR-BNA was #10 (when both AC and WS operated). No other YVR route was in the top 10.
Source

[s211]

Originally Posted by JonToms

I was at the YUL cafe today as the main lounge is closed for renovations.

I suspect that the AC lounge on the domestic side will get closed soon also. It's end-of-life, if not beyond.

[nname]

Flair updated schedule for W26, seems like there are a few reductions at YVR as it trimmed about 14x weekly flights, mostly on routes with multiple frequencies a day.

More notable changes:
YVR-GDL reduce to 3x weekly, with 4th weekly operated during peak season
YVR-YUL now year-round, 3-4x weekly during winter
YVR-LAX/SFO increase to 4x weekly, while LAX becomes year-round (no more suspension Jan-Feb)
YVR-YWG becomes 2-4x weekly over the winter

YVR base will no longer operate any flight to YYZ, it will all handled by YYZ base. But YVR base will operate all flights from YUL and all of the new CUN flights using the pattern YVR-YYC/YEG/YUL-CUN-YYC/YEG/YUL-YVR. Hence the reduction in YVR schedule. YYC/YEG base will handle all flights to YVR, except for the ones above and a few flights on Sunday.

Plane assignment is still the same
YYZ - 9 (5 operates red-eyes, 4 of them are red-eye domestic transcon from YVR/YYC/YEG/YXX)
YVR - 5 (3 operates red-eyes, 1 used mostly for YUL)
YYC - 3 (no red-eye, 1 used mostly for YKF, 2 have no flights scheduled for Tues/Wed)
YEG - 2 (no red-eye, full schedule)
Spare - 1

The schedule for YYZ and YVR based planes are very full. I guess F8 isn't interested with MBJ and PUJ flights from YVR as well (which they both operates from YYZ). Seems like no one is interested after TS abandoned them with their retreat from the west and WG dropped it after merger with WS, as WS prefer to route passengers through their YYC base rather than operate direct from YVR...

And F8 rather park their YYC-based planes for 62 hours at YKF from Monday night to Thursday afternoon than resume the YVR-YKF route, guess that tells how bad the route was...

============================

TK increase YVR-IST to daily for a single week in June. Not sure if this is intended to be the beginning of daily service on the route or just temporary, now the bilateral had been increased...
AC restored 3x weekly YVR-YQB service back to mid-Oct
4N slowly increasing YVR-YZF, from 1-2x weekly in Aug/Sept, to 4x weekly by early next year

[trofirhen]

Will YVR ever get Melbourne back? No? If yes, is there an estimated time? Would it be AC or QF?

[RedArbutus]

We can only hope.

[VancityAvgeek33]

Guess who’s cutting more capacity in routes from yvr once again??!!! AIR CANADA!!! Love that they will do anything to protect there eastern Canada hubs but keep cutting capacity from yvr! It’s always been there safest area to cut and it makes me a little bit mad!!!! It’s not even that there routes don’t perform, sure Tampa was a absolute failure but the politics between America and Canada didn’t help… anyways seems like T’Way is also reducing yvr to 3 weekly for most of the summer - that makes sense to me as Korean is double daily on the 781 and air Canada is daily on the 789 - already a lot of competition on the route so makes sense to see T’Way cut capacity - I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if T’Way cut yvr entirely, as there load factor hasn’t been the greatest!

[nname]

Every airline is cutting flight all over the places, even without the fuel price issue, AC always trimming and reducing flights a few months before the flight date in previous season as well. So this is actually nothing new (except maybe the magnitude is somewhat bigger this summer).

I can tell you that AC's operation at YYZ and YUL is equally affected, if not more, than the YVR cuts. YVR/YYZ/YUL each have one permanently suspended destination, while both YYZ/YUL have more (and more important) temporary suspended routes.

The airline that's disproportionately cutting flights at YVR is WS, which cut more than 50% of transborder flights and some important domestic routes from YVR this upcoming summer. Otherwise for AC and F8 the cuts are pretty much in line with other bases.

[LeftCoaster]

Apparently Turkey may have negotiated 21xPW flight rights into Canada, allowing them to potentially go daily at YYZ, YUL and YVR. I guess we'll see over the next couple of weeks if that is true and if Turkish chose to deploy their rights that way.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by nname

Every airline is cutting flight all over the places, even without the fuel price issue, AC always trimming and reducing flights a few months before the flight date in previous season as well. So this is actually nothing new (except maybe the magnitude is somewhat bigger this summer).

I can tell you that AC's operation at YYZ and YUL is equally affected, if not more, than the YVR cuts. YVR/YYZ/YUL each have one permanently suspended destination, while both YYZ/YUL have more (and more important) temporary suspended routes.

The airline that's disproportionately cutting flights at YVR is WS, which cut more than 50% of transborder flights and some important domestic routes from YVR this upcoming summer. Otherwise for AC and F8 the cuts are pretty much in line with other bases.

People take things personally when it's business in horrible business conditions.

Westjet is cutting 4-6 % of seats this summer including Calgary. If they are cutting there big hub you know its bad.

Everyone is taking it this year.