Halifax Stanfield International Airport Developments

[q12]

FLL is probably to get people to the Cruise port.

Route map updated a few days ago for YHZ:

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by q12

FLL is probably to get people to the Cruise port.[/IMG]

There's a busy cruise terminal in Tampa, for that matter.

[connect2source]

Glad to hear this! I cruise out of Miami often and most always fly out of FLL to, avoid the chaos of MIA and to take advantage of often cheaper fares and more frequency by AC out of FLL ( vs MIA ) through YUL or YYZ and on to YHZ. FLL > YHZ won't be affected too much by the downturn in transborder traffic as many use FLL return from the massive amount of cruises out of Port Miami and Port Everglades.

[Arrdeeharharharbour]

There are non-us owned cruise lines such as MSC and P&O. Cruising out of Barcelona and/or Piraeus is great. MSC will be cruising out of Barbados this winter if the Caribbean is your vibe.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Arrdeeharharharbour

There are non-us owned cruise lines such as MSC and P&O. Cruising out of Barcelona and/or Piraeus is great. MSC will be cruising out of Barbados this winter if the Caribbean is your vibe.

Good to hear. No US based cruising for me until the Orange Abomination and his MAGA acolytes have been beaten into submissions and driven back to Hades.

I saw on the news that there was a cruise ship that boarded in Halifax recently. I wonder what the chances are that this could happen more frequently???

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Good to hear. No US based cruising for me until the Orange Abomination and his MAGA acolytes have been beaten into submissions and driven back to Hades.

I'm of the same mindset.

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I saw on the news that there was a cruise ship that boarded in Halifax recently. I wonder what the chances are that this could happen more frequently???

Here's the story. It sounds like it's something that could be expanded if it proves to be successful.

‘We didn’t have to fly to New York’: Maritime cruise ship passengers set sail from Halifax

“After this one, we actually have nine other opportunities for passengers to get on or off in Halifax, but they are on mostly smaller boutique vessels that are around under 300 passengers,” says the Port of Halifax’s cruise development manager, Robyn Stewart.

Point-of-origin cruise options are good news for the economy. Close to 600 people are boarding the ship in Halifax.

“For us to be able to do this means that people are either staying before or staying afterwards in Halifax and getting to have that economic benefit of the pre-and post-cruise in the city,” Stewart says.

The MSC Meraviglia heads to Portugal from Halifax, and passengers who boarded on Tuesday say they hope to do it again.

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by Arrdeeharharharbour

There are non-us owned cruise lines such as MSC and P&O. Cruising out of Barcelona and/or Piraeus is great. MSC will be cruising out of Barbados this winter if the Caribbean is your vibe.

P&O Cruises are owned by Carnival Corp, hence they are American, MSC is Swiss based and Italian owned. Done three MSC cruises, they're a great experience, prefer them to US lines, crew, food and vibe are much more European.

[JonToms]

Air Canada Reduces YVR - YHZ Frequencies For the Fourth Time

Air Canada have reduced the YVR - YHZ frequencies for the fourth time. They will now operate the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays until the end of August. They will then go down to three weekly flights on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saurdays for September and October. They will operate on an Airbus A220 with 137 seats. These flights will operate from June 20, 2026 until October 24, 2026, barring any further changes.

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by JonToms

Air Canada Reduces YVR - YHZ Frequencies For the Fourth Time

Air Canada have reduced the YVR - YHZ frequencies for the fourth time. They will now operate the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays until the end of August. They will then go down to three weekly flights on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saurdays for September and October. They will operate on an Airbus A220 with 137 seats. These flights will operate from June 20, 2026 until October 24, 2026, barring any further changes.

Frustrating. I've taken this flight many times over the summer months and it's always packed even when it was double daily, one being a 787, in summer 2022. This is a great opportunity for Porter to step-in.

[Arrdeeharharharbour]

Originally Posted by connect2source

P&O Cruises are owned by Carnival Corp, hence they are American, MSC is Swiss based and Italian owned. Done three MSC cruises, they're a great experience, prefer them to US lines, crew, food and vibe are much more European.

Good to know about P&O. Thanks.

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by connect2source

Frustrating. I've taken this flight many times over the summer months and it's always packed even when it was double daily, one being a 787, in summer 2022. This is a great opportunity for Porter to step-in.

I agree with the Porter suggestion. My only thought here is that the Embraer E195 E2 might have range issues on such a long route. AC seem to want to funnel passengers through their hubs even though this route has been a staple for the last number of years. AC seem to be ceding the route to Westjet. I can’t imagine the rise in jet fuel prices have completely decimated their profits on the route. In contrast Westjet haven’t changed their schedule at all so they must still expect it to be a viable route.

[miniborder]

Originally Posted by connect2source

Frustrating. I've taken this flight many times over the summer months and it's always packed even when it was double daily, one being a 787, in summer 2022. This is a great opportunity for Porter to step-in.

Originally Posted by JonToms

I agree with the Porter suggestion. My only thought here is that the Embraer E195 E2 might have range issues on such a long route.

Porter's E2s have a published range of ~2,500nm and YHZ-YVR comes in at ~2,400nm. A flight that close to max range would very likely have to be payload restricted.

Originally Posted by JonToms

AC seem to be ceding the route to Westjet. In contrast Westjet haven’t changed their schedule at all so they must still expect it to be a viable route.

There's a difference between ceding a city pair and servicing it in a different way.

I like to occasionally remind leisure travelers that in the world of business travel, frequency is king. And from my own personal experience: with or without once daily summer seasonal direct flights, AC wins out on (one stop) itineraries 9 out of 10 times when I need to travel for work to YVR.

WS might have abandoned us in YHZ over the pandemic years, but they've done a decent job of rebuilding a strong leisure network over the past few years.

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by miniborder

Porter's E2s have a published range of ~2,500nm and YHZ-YVR comes in at ~2,400nm. A flight that close to max range would very likely have to be payload restricted.

Upon doing a bit more digging it looks like Embraer have increased the range of their latest E195 E2’s to 3000 nm. I wonder whether Porter will be receiving these aircraft for their future orders or if they will retrofit their existing fleet to have this extra range.

https://www.embraer.com/media/5kybbwea/e195-e2-spec-1.pdf

With this extra range maybe Porter might look at YHZ - YVR in the future. Competition in both the business and leisure markets always seems to force other carriers hands in offering better (aka: more frequent) services in the marketplace.

There's a difference between ceding a city pair and servicing it in a different way.

I like to occasionally remind leisure travelers that in the world of business travel, frequency is king. And from my own personal experience: with or without once daily summer seasonal direct flights, AC wins out on (one stop) itineraries 9 out of 10 times when I need to travel for work to YVR.

WS might have abandoned us in YHZ over the pandemic years, but they've done a decent job of rebuilding a strong leisure network over the past few years.

WestJet certainly do slant more towards leisure than business clients and have come back from their pandemic lows at YHZ to build an impressive network out of the airport. When it comes to taking a non-stop service versus a connecting flight for either business or leisure travel I personally have always gone for the non-stop routing. I am sure AC will come back with more and better timed YHZ - YVR frequencies in the coming year once the current economic headwinds subside. My hope is that Porter might prod them to do better if they offer some decent competition on the route.

[JonToms]

Air Canada Reduces YHZ - EWR Summer Frequency

Air Canada has reduced the YHZ - EWR frequency for the months of July and August from daily service to four flights per week. The flights are scheduled to return to daily service in September. These flights are operated by PAL Aviation on behalf of Air Canada Express on a De Havilland Dash 8 Q400 aircraft. United Express also operates this route double daily during this time frame.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260512-acns26us

[JonToms]

YHZ - LHR Flight Frequency Reductions & Operational Changes

Air Canada is making some major changes to its YHZ - LHR service in 2026/2027. From July 1, 2026 until November 30, 2026 they are switching the aircraft to the 177 seat AC Rouge Boeing 737 max 8 from the 169 seat mainline max 8. During this time the flight will operate daily. The seat pitch on these AC Rouge max 8’s is 29 inches, which is a one inch reduction from the mainline max 8 30 inch seat pitch. That is a long flight for an ever reducing legroom space.

From December 1, 2026 until March 27, 2027 the flight will operate four times weekly on the new 182 seat Airbus A321XLR. It will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays over this time period.

From March 28, 2027 this route will revert back to a daily service. It will continue to be operated by the Airbus A321XLR.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260515-acfy26lhr

Over the December to March time frame AC will be sharing this one Airbus A321XLR aircraft with YOW. AC will operate YOW - LHR on the three days the frame is not used from YHZ. While I am happy to see that AC are introducing the A321XLR to YHZ it is unfortunate that it is only four days a week for four months. AC have operated this route for decades on a daily basis year round with only a few exceptions over the winter months. It will be interesting to see how their scheduling develops for the winter 2027/2028 season.

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by JonToms

YHZ - LHR Flight Frequency Reductions & Operational Changes

Air Canada is making some major changes to its YHZ - LHR service in 2026/2027. From July 1, 2026 until November 30, 2026 they are switching the aircraft to the 177 seat AC Rouge Boeing 737 max 8 from the 169 seat mainline max 8. During this time the flight will operate daily. The seat pitch on these AC Rouge max 8’s is 29 inches, which is a one inch reduction from the mainline max 8 30 inch seat pitch. That is a long flight for an ever reducing legroom space.

From December 1, 2026 until March 27, 2027 the flight will operate four times weekly on the new 182 seat Airbus A321XLR. It will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays over this time period.

From March 28, 2027 this route will revert back to a daily service. It will continue to be operated by the Airbus A321XLR.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260515-acfy26lhr

Over the December to March time frame AC will be sharing this one Airbus A321XLR aircraft with YOW. AC will operate YOW - LHR on the three days the frame is not used from YHZ. While I am happy to see that AC are introducing the A321XLR to YHZ it is unfortunate that it is only four days a week for four months. AC have operated this route for decades on a daily basis year round with only a few exceptions over the winter months. It will be interesting to see how their scheduling develops for the winter 2027/2028 season.

These changes over the December to March time frame will take the weekly seat count per direction from 1183 to 728. That is a reduction of 455 seats or 38.46%. This is a major service reduction.

[miniborder]

It's clear that AC has very little confidence in the timeliness of their XLR deliveries which is really messing with their network planning for NW26. They were supposed to receive 10 frames in 2026, with the first originally scheduled to arrive in Q1. It's the middle of May and they are in possession of one (FIN301) which hasn't entered revenue service yet. FINs 302-305 don't seem anywhere close to delivery (haven't been spotted yet) and when you combine that with the oil crisis and LHR being a heavily slot restricted airport...

On a tangentially related note, I heard some rumblings a while back from insiders that AC wants to run an XLR daytripper from YYZ that could see the YHZ service move to into a redeye slot. These types of changes make you think a bit...

[connect2source]

Originally Posted by JonToms

YHZ - LHR Flight Frequency Reductions & Operational Changes

Air Canada is making some major changes to its YHZ - LHR service in 2026/2027. From July 1, 2026 until November 30, 2026 they are switching the aircraft to the 177 seat AC Rouge Boeing 737 max 8 from the 169 seat mainline max 8. During this time the flight will operate daily. The seat pitch on these AC Rouge max 8’s is 29 inches, which is a one inch reduction from the mainline max 8 30 inch seat pitch. That is a long flight for an ever reducing legroom space.

From December 1, 2026 until March 27, 2027 the flight will operate four times weekly on the new 182 seat Airbus A321XLR. It will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays over this time period.

From March 28, 2027 this route will revert back to a daily service. It will continue to be operated by the Airbus A321XLR.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260515-acfy26lhr

Over the December to March time frame AC will be sharing this one Airbus A321XLR aircraft with YOW. AC will operate YOW - LHR on the three days the frame is not used from YHZ. While I am happy to see that AC are introducing the A321XLR to YHZ it is unfortunate that it is only four days a week for four months. AC have operated this route for decades on a daily basis year round with only a few exceptions over the winter months. It will be interesting to see how their scheduling develops for the winter 2027/2028 season.

Did AC provide a reason for this, was it due to fuel costs? This is a huge loss for YHZ as we could always count on year round daily service to LHR. Only positive is that the XLR should be a far superior ride and product to either MAX configuration especially the Rouge MAX.

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by connect2source

Did AC provide a reason for this, was it due to fuel costs? This is a huge loss for YHZ as we could always count on year round daily service to LHR. Only positive is that the XLR should be a far superior ride and product to either MAX configuration especially the Rouge MAX.

I have not seen or heard anything from AC explaining their reasoning for this change. My educated guess would be that they are reeling from the major rise in jet fuel costs so this will help to mitigate that. The loads on this route over the winter are also lighter than during peak season so this could give them an excuse to cut services and save some money by constricting supply. No it certainly is not ideal for YHZ. It is a 38.46% reduction in seat capacity over this time frame. Hopefully this war can be ended in the not too distant future so that fuel costs can return to a more stable level and this service and many others can be restored.

[Keith P.]

The announcement means anyone planning to travel from YHZ to LHR should not travel via AC and find a different carrier. I cannot imagine the agony of a 737 MAX in Rouge configuration.