Canadian Airport Thread II

[JonToms]

RAM MOVES FORWARD LONG-HAUL INCREASE TO NW26

NW26Oneworld
Written By AeroRoutes - Jim Liu
Published at 0300PDT / 1000GMT 19JUN26

Royal Air Maroc (RAM) in recent schedule update accelerated planned long-haul service increase into Northern winter 2026/27 season, instead of Northern summer 2027 season. Planned frequency increases include the following.

Casablanca – Beijing Daxing eff 29OCT26 Increase from 3 to 4 weekly, 787-9 (Previous: eff 29MAR27)
AT230 CMN1620 – 1155+1PKX 789 x257
AT231 PKX1355 – 2010CMN 789 x136

Casablanca – Sao Paulo Guarulhos eff 28OCT26 Increase from 4 to 5 weekly, 787-8/-9 (Previous: eff 31MAR27)
AT215 CMN1635 – 2225GRU 787 x57
AT216 GRU0025 – 1320CMN 787 x16

Casablanca – Toronto Pearson eff 26OCT26 Increase from 3 to 4 weekly, 787-8/-9 (Previous: eff 28MAR27)
AT210 CMN1630 – 1910YYZ 787 x246
AT211 YYZ2125 – 1045+1CMN 787 x246

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260619-atnw26lh

[JonToms]

Air Service One Article on WestJets European Capacity Increase in 2026

https://airserviceone.com/westjet-has-re...year-serves-26-routes-with-5-new-cities/

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

True but a smaller terminal with possibility of future expansions can be built for way cheaper than the billions poured at YUL. Rest of the infrastructure is there.

Even YMX's old terminal couldn't handle what YUL handles today, much less what is needed 10-20 years from now.

YMX's apron layout is also an old design. No one parks planes like that anymore (akin to CDG T1). ADM will need to invest a significant amount of money at YMX in order for that airport to handle 20 million passengers. Also, YMX's runway layout isn't as optimal as YUL's (parallels).

All of this is a moot point. That ship has sailed. ADM chose YUL, and they will die on that hill if they have to.

Originally Posted by Nicko999

It will not fix a lot of issues. YUL's problem is space and you cannot create it out of thin air. The REM will help but let's get real, it will decrease the car traffic by 10% at most which is far from enough to alleviate things.

I have been the most vocal on here about ADM's shortcomings in the last 10-15 years. This being said, I think they are finally on the right track now. Most of the construction they are doing now should have started 10-15 years ago. They didn't do that, so the next 5-7 years are going to be tough, but like I said, at least the plan is sound.

YUL's land area/layout and runway config is similar to LHR, and that airport handled 84 million pax and over 400,000 movements.

Runway capacity is not an issue. Space (in terms of land area) is not an issue. What is an issue is that the curent terminal layout and access road to the building are inadequate. ADM is tackling that problem, and the solution is the right one. Building a satellite terminal, parallel to the current terminal (See LHR).

Access roads to the terminal building will be expanded 3 fold. (from 2 lanes to 6). Extra drop off points will be built. A new multi level parking at least double the size of the old one will also be built. All of these projects should alleviate road congestion significantly. Couple this with the REM, and YUL's main headache for travellers should go away once these projects are online.

[nname]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

It will not fix a lot of issues. YUL's problem is space and you cannot create it out of thin air. The REM will help but let's get real, it will decrease the car traffic by 10% at most which is far from enough to alleviate things.

Well, Canada Line currently handle 20% of air travelers, and even higher for airport employee. So it had easily reduced car traffic to YVR by 20-25%, if not higher...

So 10% might be under-estimating a bit there?

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by nname

Well, Canada Line currently handle 20% of air travelers, and even higher for airport employee. So it had easily reduced car traffic to YVR by 20-25%, if not higher...

So 10% might be under-estimating a bit there?

The assumption that Canada line reduced car traffic by 20-25% on the basis that it carries that percentage of aurport visitors is a bit of a leap. It assumes the starting point is 0% but there are always people who don't arrive by car even when there's no rail connection. Most major airports have one or more deducted bus route if they don't have rail. For instance Trudeau has the well-known 747 express bus that I've used myself on several occasions.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

The assumption that Canada line reduced car traffic by 20-25% on the basis that it carries that percentage of aurport visitors is a bit of a leap. It assumes the starting point is 0% but there are always people who don't arrive by car even when there's no rail connection. Most major airports have one or more deducted bus route if they don't have rail. For instance Trudeau has the well-known 747 express bus that I've used myself on several occasions.

The pre-skytrain bus route was crappy. It left New Westminster and travelled down SW Marine drive to the airport. While it did have passengers it was not heading to the right place for most travelers.

Sea Island (where the airport is located also has a large outlet mall that likely results in high traffic as well.

[nname]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

The assumption that Canada line reduced car traffic by 20-25% on the basis that it carries that percentage of aurport visitors is a bit of a leap. It assumes the starting point is 0% but there are always people who don't arrive by car even when there's no rail connection. Most major airports have one or more deducted bus route if they don't have rail. For instance Trudeau has the well-known 747 express bus that I've used myself on several occasions.

Yes 0% is a fair estimate. The 424 service ran with 4 bus/hr, and up to 6-7/hr during peak hours, with mini-bus off peak. It can't hold many passenger even if all the buses are full (which are definitely not the case). I can't imagine there's that much user using the bus for such setup...

Originally Posted by casper

The pre-skytrain bus route was crappy. It left New Westminster and travelled down SW Marine drive to the airport. While it did have passengers it was not heading to the right place for most travelers.

Sea Island (where the airport is located also has a large outlet mall that likely results in high traffic as well.

That was the old setup, where the 100, 404, 620 runs directly to the airport. But due to low ridership and to facilitate transfer to the new 98 B-Line, all the routes to the airport then terminated at a new "Airport Station", and a shuttle bus 424 was created. But the issue is that the 424 created not only an additional transfer in the middle of nowhere, but it provided much less capacity than the previous routes combined...

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by nname

Yes 0% is a fair estimate. The 424 service ran with 4 bus/hr, and up to 6-7/hr during peak hours, with mini-bus off peak. It can't hold many passenger even if all the buses are full (which are definitely not the case). I can't imagine there's that much user using the bus for such setup...

There are too many people in a major city who don't have cars and who can't afford or don't want to fork out for a taxi for transit use to have been as non-existent as this implies. The percentage would have been much lower than now but that's a lot different than being a rounding error toward zero.

[MonctonRad]

Water salute for the inaugural YHU/YQM route via Porter.



I see the WestJet flight to Edmonton has started up again for the summer as well.

Current Active Destinations from YQM:

- Deer Lake/St, John's (PAL)
- Mont Joli/Wabush (PAL)
- Montreal Trudeau (Air Canada)
- Montreal Metropolitan (Porter)
- Ottawa (Porter, Air Canada)
- Toronto Pearson (Flair, Air Canada)
- Toronto Billy Bishop (Porter)
- Edmonton (WestJet)
- Calgary (WestJet)

Note that in the winter you can subtract YEG and YHU from this list, but add in about a half dozen sun destinations in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica and (God willing), Cuba.

[nname]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

There are too many people in a major city who don't have cars and who can't afford or don't want to fork out for a taxi for transit use to have been as non-existent as this implies. The percentage would have been much lower than now but that's a lot different than being a rounding error toward zero.

Ok, maybe 0% is too low... the exact number was 3% of airport passenger arrived by transit before Canada Line opened.

(Source: https://buzzer.translink.ca/2010/06/apta-rail-2010-canada-line-session/)

So slightly more than a rounding error, but it's super low no matter which way you look at it.

Now the ratio stands at 21%, so 600% growth since Canada Line opened.

In addition, YVR passenger number itself grew 66% since the opening of Canada Line.. So combining them result in about 1065% growth in transit ridership.

[thenoflyzone]

IB launched YYZ last week. Their corporate director hinted that YUL is being looked at, but not until YYZ builds up to daily service and year round ops.

A bit weird that AC and TS can make YUL-MAD work year round, but AC or IB aren't year round on YYZ-MAD at the moment, and that TS doesn't even serve YYZ-MAD.

https://www.democrata.es/en/economy/iber...ajara-as-the-next-destination-in-mexico/

King of Spain was in Toronto last month, meeting airline execs, among other things. Some interesting numbers were mentioned.

https://www.travelpress.com/king-of-spai...-celebrate-two-countries-one-connection/

In 2022, there were only 8 routes, while in 2026 there will be 17 direct flights between Canada and Spain. The number of seats has nearly tripled over the past four years – from 202 K to 537 K.

[thenoflyzone]

What a shitshow at YUL yesterday. Relenteless barrage of thunderstorms from 2pm onwards. It's lining up to be a similar story today, by the looks of it.

In other news, TS started YUL-Agadir and YUL-Dakar a few days ago. 5th and 6th African destinations for YUL. Dakar is the first sub-Saharan African destination not only for YUL, but also for a Canadian carrier. Nice to see our own airlines get into that market, which is vastly underserved.

TS723 DSS-YUL airborne time on the inaugural westbound flight was 8h24 min, in a A321LR. Pretty impressive stuff.

[Dominion301]

PD launch YHM-YOW today: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/2...stop-Service-Between-Ottawa-and-Hamilton

[Dominion301]

FI will be using the 321LR to YVR starting next summer: https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/260620-fins27yvr

[hollywoodcory]

YYC May 2025 Stats

Domestic: 1,258,913 +8.2% (YTD: 4,977,174 +5.2%)
Transborder: 293,711 -4.8% (YTD: 1,285,696 -8.5%)
International: 209,219 +2.8% (YTD: 1,143,616 +7.3%)

May 2026 total: 1,761,843 +5.2%
2026 YTD: 7,406,486 +2.9%

[Dominion301]

Following in Kenora's footsteps, Fort Frances are on 06JUL26 will regain scheduled air service as North Star Air will begin PC-12 flights to YQT: https://www.wingsmagazine.com/july-to-se...NXCD260610010&oly_enc_id=5001D3490978J5J

Also:

Dryden is also working out a contract with intentions of having the airline begin service in the future

[Dominion301]

@Thenoflyzone, I found YTZ's approximate 2025 pax count: 1.7 million. That puts YTZ in 12th last year. That'll grow a lot the next two years with all the new AC services.

Source: https://airserviceone.com/massive-change...-with-air-canadas-international-flights/

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

@Thenoflyzone, I found YTZ's approximate 2025 pax count: 1.7 million. That puts YTZ in 12th last year. That'll grow a lot the next two years with all the new AC services.

Source: https://airserviceone.com/massive-change...-with-air-canadas-international-flights/

Updated. Thanks.

That's a 15% drop from 2024 and almost 40% from the airport's peak of nearly 2.8 million passengers in 2019.

[JonToms]

YHZ May 2026 & YTD Passenger Numbers

Halifax Stanfield International Airport
Passenger Statistics Report - Executive Summary

May 2026


Sector / 2026 Actual / 2025 Actual / Variance
Domestic / 331,773 / 287,573 / 15.4%
Other International / 61,806 / 41,769 / 48.0%
Transborder / 19,231 / 13,779 / 39.6%
Total / 412,810 / 343,121 / 20.3%

Year-to-Date

Sector / 2026 Actual / 2025 Actual / Variance
Domestic / 1,199,628 / 1,091,794 / 9.9%
Other International / 233,282 / 225,072 / 3.6%
Transborder / 100,147 / 136,098 / (26.4%)
Total / 1,533,057 / 1,452,964 / 5.5%

Domestic - This 9.9% increase was brought on by the increase in WestJet flights from YVR, YEG, YQR, YWG and YXE.

International - This 48% increase was brought on mainly by the introduction of the new WestJet flights to CPH (Copenhagen), MAD (Madrid) and LIS (Lisbon). WestJet now serve nine European destinations nonstop from YHZ.

Transborder - This 39.6% increase was brought on by the introduction of WestJet’s daily flight to DTW (Detroit) as well as the re-introduction of the second daily United Airlines EWR flight.

[Dominion301]

WS unveil a Blue Jays logo jet. 7M8, FIN 386: