YVR & Sea Island Developments Discussion II

[Orcair]

Originally Posted by 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.

At least for the summer, it does look like there will be an increase, albeit 1 flight per week so far, not daily (bolded flight is the increase):

TK075 IST1500 – 1715YVR 789 7
TK075 IST1500 – 1715YVR 77W 246

TK076 YVR1910 – 1710+1IST 77W 246
TK076 YVR1910 – 1710+1IST 789 7

Source:https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260515-tk3q26yvr

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Orcair

At least for the summer, it does look like there will be an increase, albeit 1 flight per week so far, not daily (bolded flight is the increase):

TK075 IST1500 – 1715YVR 789 7
TK075 IST1500 – 1715YVR 77W 246

TK076 YVR1910 – 1710+1IST 77W 246
TK076 YVR1910 – 1710+1IST 789 7

Source:https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260515-tk3q26yvr

Oh well, every little bit extra counts. (I'm waiting for the day when there will be major additions: South America, ME3, Rome, Athens, Madrid .....

[Johnny Aussie]

Decent bump in service levels as LH changes YVR-FRA from A340s to their much newer 789 Dreamliners over winter.
More J pods over the Atlantic. Last winter we flew YVR-FRA in J and let’s just say the 789 experience would be much preferred!

Meanwhile YVR-MUC remains 3 weekly 359s over the winter

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260520-lhnw26inc

Frankfurt – Vancouver eff 25OCT26 787-9 replaces previously filed A340-300, 1 daily

Also, AF showing daily CDG on 359s from 17 DEC right through the winter schedules - of course subject to change as always

And, AC going daily 789 to CUN this winter as well

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260519-acnw26yvrcun

AC1314 YVR0915 – 1655CUN 789 D
AC1317 CUN1835 – 2300YVR 789 D

[xd_1771]

Per an ANA interview in traffic news (Japanese) today https://trafficnews.jp/post/667235

The existing YVR-HND route apparently is one of their most successful Canada/US routes with 80%+ load factors throughout the year (described as "200 out of 239 seats"). This is why there is a 100% capacity increase this summer with the additional YVR-NRT flight.

The YVR-NRT flight will time well with connections to Osaka-Itami (ITM) and Nagoya Centrair (NGO), but apparently, they expect that it will be mostly driven by Japan-originating demand to visit Vancouver in the summer. Already, a part of the HND demand is the midday arrival time in YVR resulting in essentially no immigration lines

I feel like based on that load factor info, an upgauge to 787-10 during the rest of the year isn't out of the question. Especially since the upcoming "Room FX" business class reconfig will reduce 787-9 overall capacity to 206 seats.

[LeftCoaster]

Pretty surprised we have not seen Chinese carriers increase capacity so far.

They carried the lions share of the traffic pre-covid at roughly 3x the capacity of Air Canada from mainland China to YVR, but today Air Canada actually has more capacity to China than all the mainland carriers combined. I assume the point of sale for China-YVR is predominantly Chinese so I am really surprised that the Chinese carriers are so hesitant to return.

I don't expect it to jump back up to pre-covid levels too quickly but it's quite surprising its stayed this suppressed for this long, especially with the war in Iran limiting transit to India/SE Asia through that side of the world.

[nname]

No additional passenger right had been given so far. It will come... very slowly and gradually...

It remain to be seen if the additional capacity to China will affect non-stop routes to SE Asia, especially SIN and BKK, or the potential routes to SGN and DPS. SIN is an important route for AC, but it doesn't seems to be performing that well as AC trimmed it to the bare minimum of 3x weekly through most of the summer, even going down to 2x weekly for a couple of weeks.

But even with the service to China so much suppressed, YVR hits an all-time high for passengers to/from APAC in March 2026, beating the previous high achieved in August 2018 by a few hundred passengers.

I think the question you should ask is TK. They keep asking for more service to Canada, and even tried to bypass the limitation by applying for extra-bilateral right every year. But when it actually given the right, it did almost nothing other than a seasonal extra 1x weekly flight to each of YYZ/YUL/YVR.

EK is another one... but at least you can blame that on the airspace restrictions...

[jollyburger]

They're sponsoring the PGA tournament in Toronto

https://www.travelpulse.ca/news/airlines-airports/turkish-airlines-raising-profile-in-canada

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by nname

No additional passenger right had been given so far. It will come... very slowly and gradually...

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstori...e-in-direct-flights-to-china/ar-AA21k4Ec

So this was just an announcement that they intend to increase the rights, but it has not actually formally happened yet?

Ya EK is no surprise, it's a mess over there right now. I would think a big part of their interest in YVR was connecting the Persian diaspora to Iran... I think it's going to be a while before they can get that traffic back.

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

They're sponsoring the PGA tournament in Toronto

https://www.travelpulse.ca/news/airlines-airports/turkish-airlines-raising-profile-in-canada

TK has to diversify its influence now that Mayor Eric Adams is out.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Pretty surprised we have not seen Chinese carriers increase capacity so far.

They carried the lions share of the traffic pre-covid at roughly 3x the capacity of Air Canada from mainland China to YVR, but today Air Canada actually has more capacity to China than all the mainland carriers combined. I assume the point of sale for China-YVR is predominantly Chinese so I am really surprised that the Chinese carriers are so hesitant to return.

I don't expect it to jump back up to pre-covid levels too quickly but it's quite surprising its stayed this suppressed for this long, especially with the war in Iran limiting transit to India/SE Asia through that side of the world.

Of course there's a lot of Chinese traffic, but a lot of the traffic was actually transiting to other places in Asia as well. A lot of Japan-bound or Thailand-bound or Phillipine-bound travelers were traveling via Chinese gateways as they were cheaper.

These days, there are more cheap options to Japan and other options via Seoul and direct flights to Singapore (SE Asia) so I don't think the Chinese carriers can compete as much on price as they could before.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by xd_1771

Per an ANA interview in traffic news (Japanese) today https://trafficnews.jp/post/667235

The existing YVR-HND route apparently is one of their most successful Canada/US routes with 80%+ load factors throughout the year (described as "200 out of 239 seats"). This is why there is a 100% capacity increase this summer with the additional YVR-NRT flight.

The YVR-NRT flight will time well with connections to Osaka-Itami (ITM) and Nagoya Centrair (NGO), but apparently, they expect that it will be mostly driven by Japan-originating demand to visit Vancouver in the summer. Already, a part of the HND demand is the midday arrival time in YVR resulting in essentially no immigration lines

I feel like based on that load factor info, an upgauge to 787-10 during the rest of the year isn't out of the question. Especially since the upcoming "Room FX" business class reconfig will reduce 787-9 overall capacity to 206 seats.

Would have been nice to see YVR-KIX on NH but I guess they don't think there's enough demand and AC already runs their planes there.

[nname]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

Would have been nice to see YVR-KIX on NH but I guess they don't think there's enough demand and AC already runs their planes there.

If you think AC is YYZ-centric, then check out JL and NH at any other Japanese airport outside of HND/NRT. JL have a sole long-haul route out of KIX to LAX; NH fly no further than PEK (or SIN if you include their LCC subsidiary Peach).

At the very least they even bother to fly internationally out of KIX. Try any other Japanese airports...

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

Words is that DL is launching YVR-LAX from Nov 21 with 2x daily A319. No press release yet. But it's in the news all over the places by now.

Maybe they are tired of WS keep cutting services out of YVR. This summer YVR-LAX is down to just 5x weekly, from up to 2-3x daily a couple of years ago.. and yes this is during World Cup where other airlines like AA are adding more capacity the route...

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

AC upgauged one of the daily YVR-SAN flight to mainline 223 over the summer with flight number AC1582/1583. This flight number range was originally used for Rouge, but seems like it is now assigned to transborder flights - the fifth one after 5xx, 7xx, 10xx, 12xx

[ninjakafi_81]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

Would have been nice to see YVR-KIX on NH but I guess they don't think there's enough demand and AC already runs their planes there.

For me personally before thinking about NH adding KIX flights, I would like to AC do year round flights to KIX.

Also it would be cool to see additional flights to other secondary cities in Japan such as Fukuoka, Nagoya, or even Okinawa.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by nname

Words is that DL is launching YVR-LAX from Nov 21 with 2x daily A319. No press release yet. But it's in the news all over the places by now.

Flights now loaded:

DL3192 LAX 0740 - 1140 YVR 319 D
DL3184 LAX 1410 - 1610 YVR 319 D
***
DL3192 YVR 1250 - 1452 LAX 319 D
DL3184 YVR 1930 - 2132 LAX 319 D

Flights times look odd but then I realised the daylight savings thing happening/not happening

AA also going daily effective 18 Dec (for what looks like) the entire winter season - so year round

YVR-LAX will have six airlines on it with AC UA WS AA F8 and now DL operating

That is some decent competition!

[Johnny Aussie]

Also 3 of the 10 busiest Transborder routes based on frequencies are YVR routes

https://simpleflying.com/busiest-us-canada-transborder-summer-2026/

YVR-SEA #3
YVR-SFO #5
YVR-LAX #7

YYZ has 4 of the top 10 and YUL 3 as well

[nname]

LAX was YVR's top international route in term of passengers. Wonder if that's being overtaken by SFO now...

And it seems like the DL schedule lies exactly half-way between the WS flights. So if there's no further cut from WS, seems like DL/WS will combined to operate 3-4x daily flights.

AC/UA still have the most market share with 5x daily combined. Wonder if AA/AS/PD going to do anything more than the 1x daily flight

And surprisingly, F8 currently intended to run LAX through the entire winter. Previous years there were seasonal suspension from mid-Jan to late-Feb.

[Johnny Aussie]

^ DL will be 10-11 daily this winter with the LAX adds

Also AS maintaining PDX for the winter too so it’s also back to year round. AS all up 6 daily this winter

And AM is returning the second daily flight on YVR-MEX this winter

[Johnny Aussie]

Zipair winter scheds

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260604-zgnw26yvr

ZIPAIR Tokyo this week opened reservations for service on Tokyo Narita – Vancouver route for Northern winter 2026/27 season, effective 25OCT26. For the moment, the airline schedules 5 weekly flights with 787-8.

ZG022 NRT1600 – 0830YVR 788 x24
ZG021 YVR1030 – 1245+1NRT 788 x24

This increase appears to be for the entire winter schedule as showing 5 weekly right through the end of March

YVR-TYO continues to have 4 carriers on it. AC JL NH ZG

[Johnny Aussie]

Lufthansa moving forward its 744 retirement plans.

They will be phased out end of 2027 with New York to be the final flight

So, will YVR see the 744 next summer or not?

Will be exciting to see the next chapter in Lufthansa’s YVR ops.

[trofirhen]

Alaska Airlines and Delta are offering direct flights SEA><FCO coming up. I wonder if or when YVR will add FCO to its roster. It might be a great addition. There is a large Italian population in Vancouver.