Canadian Airport Thread II

[hollywoodcory]

More WS winter route removals:

YYC-YKF
YYC-GDL

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

More WS winter route removals:

YYC-YKF
YYC-GDL

Disappointing to hear about GDL. I know people who used it and really liked it.

[Coldrsx]

YLW may need yet another expansion in the near future.

The recent one is great, but yesterday we had a few flights all arrive/dept around the same time and it was a gong show in there.

-nearly no seating
-lineups for washrooms
-SUBWAY had what, 30 people lined up
-very few other options for quick food options
-desperately needs more than one good coffee option for its lineup was nuts too

Nice to see the parkade nearly ready and the new onsite hotel, but they already have post-security issues but months after expansion.

[Base]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

YLW may need yet another expansion in the near future.

The recent one is great, but yesterday we had a few flights all arrive/dept around the same time and it was a gong show in there.

-nearly no seating
-lineups for washrooms
-SUBWAY had what, 30 people lined up
-very few other options for quick food options
-desperately needs more than one good coffee option for its lineup was nuts too

Nice to see the parkade nearly ready and the new onsite hotel, but they already have post-security issues but months after expansion.

Good news is phase 2 should begin in 2030.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

YLW may need yet another expansion in the near future.

The recent one is great, but yesterday we had a few flights all arrive/dept around the same time and it was a gong show in there.

-nearly no seating
-lineups for washrooms
-SUBWAY had what, 30 people lined up
-very few other options for quick food options
-desperately needs more than one good coffee option for its lineup was nuts too

Nice to see the parkade nearly ready and the new onsite hotel, but they already have post-security issues but months after expansion.

You'd think after the much ballyhood additions they would have thought of all that.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Airboy

You'd think after the much ballyhood additions they would have thought of all that.

The airport has 3 or 4 departures an hour over summer with the only time its above that is between 9-10am when its a whopping 5.

The airport can handle 5 flights an hour. Not sure if there were other issues, but generally the airport can handle that traffic.
Its also a very seasonal airport with traffic falling off pretty quickly outside of summer.

[JonToms]

YHZ June 2026 & YTD Passenger Statistics

Halifax Stanfield International Airport
Passenger Statistics Report - Executive Summary

June 2026

Year over Year

June

Sector / 2026 Actual / 2025 Actual / Variance
Domestic / 366,662 / 323,351 / 13.4%
Other International / 65,983 / 46,667 / 41.4%
Transborder / 40,348 / 25,998 / 55.2%
Total / 472,993 / 396,016 / 19.4%

Year-to-Date

Sector / 2026 Actual / 2025 Actual / Variance
Domestic / 1,566,290 / 1,415,145 / 10.7%
Other International / 299,265 / 271,739 / 10.1%
Transborder / 140,495 / 162,096 / (13.3%)
Total / 2,006,050 / 1,848,980 / 8.5%

June 2026 has brought on another impressive jump in YHZ passenger traffic for all three sectors. Much of this is brought on by the growth in Westjets European and Western Canadian route expansion. They have created a mini hub in YHZ transferring passengers from their Canadian destinations to Europe using their Boeing 737 max 8 aircraft.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

YLW may need yet another expansion in the near future.

The recent one is great, but yesterday we had a few flights all arrive/dept around the same time and it was a gong show in there.

-nearly no seating
-lineups for washrooms
-SUBWAY had what, 30 people lined up
-very few other options for quick food options
-desperately needs more than one good coffee option for its lineup was nuts too

Nice to see the parkade nearly ready and the new onsite hotel, but they already have post-security issues but months after expansion.

Originally Posted by Base

Good news is phase 2 should begin in 2030.

Haven't looked at their master plan, but I wonder if YLW has any plans to increase the distance between their main taxiway and runway. That distance is currently around 100m (taxiway centerline to runway centerline), and the reason why the runway is restricted to "non-precision" status. That distance needs to be at least 122m in order to get a precision designation, which enables lower approach minimums below 250ft.

Originally Posted by Dominion301

@Thenoflyzone, YXY is now publishing monthly passenger statistics, BUT they only publish statistics for deplaned passengers: https://open-data-static-files.service.yukon.ca/tourism-indicators/air-arrivals.html

If we exactly double the deplanements total for enplanements, YXY handled roughly the following number of pax annually since 2016:

Do you want to add them to the wiki page given airports like YYZ and YTZ also never provide exact figures? Their 2025 estimated total would put them in 20th position.

EDIT: According to this recent TC new release for an ACAP project at YXY, it says 'over 475,000' pax, so we know it's at least that much: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/go...rse-international-airport-842226795.html

Neither is good enough, but I guess the TC press release is a more accurate one. I'll add it eventually, when I have time.

[Coldrsx]

Snowbirds just flew over as part of their farewell tour; I will miss them.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Haven't looked at their master plan, but I wonder if YLW has any plans to increase the distance between their main taxiway and runway. That distance is currently around 100m (taxiway centerline to runway centerline), and the reason why the runway is restricted to "non-precision" status. That distance needs to be at least 122m in order to get a precision designation, which enables lower approach minimums below 250ft.



Neither is good enough, but I guess the TC press release is a more accurate one. I'll add it eventually, when I have time.

Sure thing for YXY. The other one worth adding is YDF. They have monthly and as a result full year for 2022, 2023 & 2024. I’ve asked them when they’re going to post 2025 but they haven’t responded.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by JonToms

YHZ June 2026 & YTD Passenger Statistics

Halifax Stanfield International Airport
Passenger Statistics Report - Executive Summary

June 2026

Year over Year

June

Sector / 2026 Actual / 2025 Actual / Variance
Domestic / 366,662 / 323,351 / 13.4%
Other International / 65,983 / 46,667 / 41.4%
Transborder / 40,348 / 25,998 / 55.2%
Total / 472,993 / 396,016 / 19.4%

Year-to-Date

Sector / 2026 Actual / 2025 Actual / Variance
Domestic / 1,566,290 / 1,415,145 / 10.7%
Other International / 299,265 / 271,739 / 10.1%
Transborder / 140,495 / 162,096 / (13.3%)
Total / 2,006,050 / 1,848,980 / 8.5%

June 2026 has brought on another impressive jump in YHZ passenger traffic for all three sectors. Much of this is brought on by the growth in Westjets European and Western Canadian route expansion. They have created a mini hub in YHZ transferring passengers from their Canadian destinations to Europe using their Boeing 737 max 8 aircraft.

What a transborder swing for YHZ from -30% in Q1 to > 50% in June. Must mean the DTW feeder flight is doing well. I figured international would come in at around 65,000. Should break 70k easily in July.

YHZ will almost undoubtedly break the monthly 1/2 million mark for the first time ever in July and/or August. YHZ’s seasonality has got to be the biggest in Canada. It’s like RSW in reverse.

[egb]

Re: YHZ, it’ll be interesting to see what the airport does as the gap between its August peak and its January low keeps rising (assuming the westjet flights stick around). I think their master plan projects expansion around when passenger totals reach 5-6 million annually but if the summer keeps booming while the winter stays stagnant it could get crowded earlier rather than later.

I flew out of YHZ in June and July and it was absolutely jammed (at least by YHZ standards).

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

What a transborder swing for YHZ from -30% in Q1 to > 50% in June. Must mean the DTW feeder flight is doing well. I figured international would come in at around 65,000. Should break 70k easily in July.

YHZ will almost undoubtedly break the monthly 1/2 million mark for the first time ever in July and/or August. YHZ’s seasonality has got to be the biggest in Canada. It’s like RSW in reverse.

Yes, it certainly is a wild swing from the first quarter. I would have assumed the DTW flight is adding a lot to these numbers as well. When I look at the 2027 WestJet lineup though I don’t see it listed yet so that does give me pause on claiming it is a success. Hopefully it will come back in 2027. It certainly feeds their Delta Airlines partnership. Sometimes I question how they come up with their route planning ideas though.

I would say both July and August will break the 1/2 million mark at YHZ. September might even reach that mark.

[Dominion301]

Contrast YHZ's wild seasonal swings with the much lower seasonal fluctuations at YOW as here's YOW's June numbers:

Sector / Jun-25 / Jun-26 / % Change
Dom: 352,161 / 356,593 / +1.3%
TB: 46,325 / 50,458 / +8.9% - World Cup traffic perhaps? Ditto some of YHZ's?
Int'l: 24,899 / 32,927 / +32.2% - seasonal May-October record, but 1/2 of YHZ
TTL: 423,385 / 439,978 / +3.9%

Sector / YTD 2025 / YTD 2026 / % Change
Dom: 1,702,152 / 1,799,331 / +5.7%
TB: 406,786 / 396,769 / -2.5%
Int'l: 280,103 / 352,168 / +25.7%
TTL: 2,389,041 / 2,548,268 / +6.7%

June % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / June / YTD % recovered
Dom: 98.0% / 93.8%
TB: 104.9% / 102.7%
Int'l: 142.6% / 133.8%
TTL: 101.2% / 99.2% - 2nd month in a row ahead of pre-pandemic topping the 2018 record by just over 2K pax

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2024
Dom: 3,751,463 / +9.3% - still 257K behind 2018's record - probably almost entirely due to YOW-YTO O&D
TB: 716,294 / -3.4%
Int'l: 557,706 / +28.5%
TTL: 5,025,463 / +9.1% - 12 month rolling gap is now down to about 75K off 2018's record (71K off 2019)

[JonToms]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Contrast YHZ's wild seasonal swings with the much lower seasonal fluctuations at YOW as here's YOW's June numbers:

Sector / Jun-25 / Jun-26 / % Change
Dom: 352,161 / 356,593 / +1.3%
TB: 46,325 / 50,458 / +8.9% - World Cup traffic perhaps? Ditto some of YHZ's?
Int'l: 24,899 / 32,927 / +32.2% - seasonal May-October record, but 1/2 of YHZ
TTL: 423,385 / 439,978 / +3.9%

Sector / YTD 2025 / YTD 2026 / % Change
Dom: 1,702,152 / 1,799,331 / +5.7%
TB: 406,786 / 396,769 / -2.5%
Int'l: 280,103 / 352,168 / +25.7%
TTL: 2,389,041 / 2,548,268 / +6.7%

June % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / June / YTD % recovered
Dom: 98.0% / 93.8%
TB: 104.9% / 102.7%
Int'l: 142.6% / 133.8%
TTL: 101.2% / 99.2% - 2nd month in a row ahead of pre-pandemic topping the 2018 record by just over 2K pax

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2024
Dom: 3,751,463 / +9.3% - still 257K behind 2018's record - probably almost entirely due to YOW-YTO O&D
TB: 716,294 / -3.4%
Int'l: 557,706 / +28.5%
TTL: 5,025,463 / +9.1% - 12 month rolling gap is now down to about 75K off 2018's record (71K off 2019)

Yes it certainly does showcase the wild seasonal swings that YHZ has. I find that the seasonality is extending a bit more into the shoulder months though with companies like Discover running their Frankfurt flights from late March to late November and with WestJet starting their transcon and European routes earlier in late April.

This really shows what a strong leisure market YHZ has compared to YOW which has a much stronger business market. In other words YHZ has a strong summer seasonal leisure market while YOW has a strong year round business market.

[Nouvellecosse]

I hadn't even heard of "Pearson Lift" so that is pretty interesting. And hopefully successful!



• Video Link

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I hadn't even heard of "Pearson Lift" so that is pretty interesting. And hopefully successful!



• Video Link

Was that video AI?
Pearson Lift is a massive project and been big news for a few years. Its part of the reason there is large talk of privatization; it helps with the debt markets.

Pearson has been going to the debt/bond market for almost 3 years and really has been being planed for longer. Its why Flint is CEO, she knows Multi billion dollar capital projects.

https://www.torontopearson.com/en/pearson-lift/why-lift

If you go through the year end summary, I think it was 2024 but may have been 2023 they talk about it in great length. Theres a very detailed video from that era as well. Every Major engineering, finance, insurance firm in canada has a tender out right now to Pearson for it.

[Nouvellecosse]

I don't know if it's AI but I didn't notice any obvious inaccuracies which is what I'm concerned about. I don't follow the air industry that closely though so someone else might be a better judge.

[hollywoodcory]

New WS winter routes loaded tonight;

YYC-MID
YWG-BZE

[WayneShuster]

WS also adding one weekly YWG-PUJ this winter, likely in direct response to ACs PUJ add as well.

YWG-ATL increases to 3x weekly from two.