Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW/CYOW)

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 85

Today's cancellation count (so far): 0

AF 327 on gate 15A, AC 345 on 28 & AC 888 on 14A

A belated note but last Thursday's LHR was on the Olympic 330.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 87

Today's cancellation count (so far): 0

[RomanR27]

AC888/889 this week

Monday: AC889 23/31 J, 17/24 PY; AC888 29/31 J, 22/24 PY
Wednesday: AC889 24/31 J, 15/24 PY; AC888 30/31 J, full PY, full Y
Thursday: AC889 15/31 J, PY 11/24; AC888 31/31 J, 23/24 PY
Saturday: AC889 28/31 J, full PY, full Y; AC888 full J/PY/Y

[Dominion301]

Solid AC 888/889 loads this week.

Today’s departure count: 90

Today's cancellation count (so far): 0

[Rhb]

Here’s an interview from OpenJaw with Air Transat CRO Sebastian Ponce on codesharing and adapting. Some of you might find of interest.

https://openjaw.com/videos/tv-room/codesharing-and-adapting-air-transats-sidestep-strategy/

[Rhb]

Ottawa Airport Authority just released their passenger numbers for August 2026.

https://www.yow.ca/business/passenger-volume

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Rhb

Ottawa Airport Authority just released their passenger numbers for August 2026.

https://www.yow.ca/business/passenger-volume

That August international number will yield a much higher seat factor vs June & July. Transborder returns to negative territory - coincidence with no World Cup vs the prior two months?

Sector / Aug-25 / Aug-26 / % Change
Dom: 372,765 / 389,021 / +4.4% - 3rd highest ever monthly count
TB: 55,804 / 54,405 / -2.5%
Int'l: 27,343 / 35,665 / +30.4% - 4th consecutive record summer season month
TTL: 455,912 / 479,091 / +5.1%

Sector / YTD 2025 / YTD 2026 / % Change
Dom: 2,434,439 / 2,553,878 / +4.9%
TB: 513,705 / 503,766 / -1.9%
Int'l: 336,764 / 420,552 / +24.9%
TTL: 3,284,908 / 3,478,196 / +5.9%

August % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / August / YTD % recovered
Dom: 99.7% / 95.3%
TB: 107.1% / 104.0%
Int'l: 137.4% / 134.0%
TTL: 102.6% / 100.0%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2024
Dom: 3,773,723 / +10.0%
TB: 716,372 / -3.4%
Int'l: 569,429 / +31.2%
TTL: 5,059,524 / +9.8%

[RomanR27]

I think overall TB capacity increased from July to August since PD added the third weekly MCO back.

International seat factor was 90.8%: 35,665 pax in 39,282 seats.

AF had 21,424 total seats with 26 772s, 4 high density 77Ws and a premium heavy 77W. At worst, AF had an 81.7% seat factor (assuming every other carrier was going out 100% full).

AC had 17 round trips on the 330 and one on the 788 for 10,608 seats.

Transat's 13 round trips gives 5,174 seats, and PD's 9 CUN round trips add another 2,376.

Originally Posted by Rhb

Here’s an interview from OpenJaw with Air Transat CFO Sebastian Ponce on codesharing and adapting some of you might find of interest.

https://openjaw.com/videos/tv-room/codesharing-and-adapting-air-transats-sidestep-strategy/

Ottawa wasn't mentioned here at all, but the couple tidbits that could be applied to YOW are that they have found the Porter codeshare to be beneficial, and have found that there is a willingness to pay a premium for direct flights to avoid connecting. This was mentioned in the context of them serving secondary European cities from YYZ/YUL to avoid a transfer in Europe (Toronto to Valencia was the example) -- could that logic also be flipped for YOW-based pax wanting to avoid a YYZ or YUL connection to have service to primary European cities? Time will tell.

[Rhb]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

I think overall TB capacity increased from July to August since PD added the third weekly MCO back.

International seat factor was 90.8%: 35,665 pax in 39,282 seats.

AF had 21,424 total seats with 26 772s, 4 high density 77Ws and a premium heavy 77W. At worst, AF had an 81.7% seat factor (assuming every other carrier was going out 100% full).

AC had 17 round trips on the 330 and one on the 788 for 10,608 seats.

Transat's 13 round trips gives 5,174 seats, and PD's 9 CUN round trips add another 2,376.



Ottawa wasn't mentioned here at all, but the couple tidbits that could be applied to YOW are that they have found the Porter codeshare to be beneficial, and have found that there is a willingness to pay a premium for direct flights to avoid connecting. This was mentioned in the context of them serving secondary European cities from YYZ/YUL to avoid a transfer in Europe (Toronto to Valencia was the example) -- could that logic also be flipped for YOW-based pax wanting to avoid a YYZ or YUL connection to have service to primary European cities? Time will tell.

Nice to see the local market response to additional transatlantic capacity this summer.

In my opinion Air Transat could do itself a favour with more meaningful codeshare partners in Europe.
If Air Transat has any more aspirations for YOW we won’t know until we see the news release.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 79

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1

[G650ER]

United has an A319 loaded to EWR tomorrow as UA676. Coming in as UA1811 from ORD. Seems to be a one off?

Edit- Seems there’s some event on Sunday involving many wheelchairs. AC is sending an A333 on a rapidair flight to accommodate them.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by G650ER

United has an A319 loaded to EWR tomorrow as UA676. Coming in as UA1811 from ORD. Seems to be a one off?

Edit- Seems there’s some event on Sunday involving many wheelchairs. AC is sending an A333 on a rapidair flight to accommodate them.

Yes, world wheelchair basketball championships have been in town for the last week. Finals was today.

[RomanR27]

First Jetz charter of the season today as the Sens are off to YRQ (Trois Rivieres) to play the Kraft Hockeyville preseason game tomorrow against Montreal. Apparently JetBlue has converted a couple 320s to enter the NHL charter game, so hopefully we'll get some visits from them this year.

The United 319 is delayed from Chicago -- just left O'Hare and currently is set to land around 2:30pm local. Likely the only chance to see it in the daylight unless another one-off like this happens.

The 333 on the Rapidair is due in at 1615 and due to depart at 1810.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

First Jetz charter of the season today as the Sens are off to YRQ (Trois Rivieres) to play the Kraft Hockeyville preseason game tomorrow against Montreal. Apparently JetBlue has converted a couple 320s to enter the NHL charter game, so hopefully we'll get some visits from them this year.

The United 319 is delayed from Chicago -- just left O'Hare and currently is set to land around 2:30pm local. Likely the only chance to see it in the daylight unless another one-off like this happens.

The 333 on the Rapidair is due in at 1615 and due to depart at 1810.

Today’s departure count: 88

Today's cancellation count (so far): 2 - including the 1810 swap from rouge to the 333 as AC 463, which is delayed until 1845 (so now) and this didn't show up on the YOW FIDS.

AF 327 on gate 15, AC 463 on 17 and TS 382 on 13 - first time ever for a transatlantic departure from 13?

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 89

Today's cancellation count (so far): 2

AF 327 on gate 17B, AC 345 on 28 and AC 888 on 15B

[Dominion301]

Porter’s June transborder numbers weren’t good.

Route, # flts, # pax, LF
YOW-FLL, 18, 1637, 69%
YOW-MCO, 16, 1319, 62%
YOW-BOS, 60, 2690, 57%
YOW-EWR, 94, 4345, 59%

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Porter’s June transborder numbers weren’t good.

Route, # flts, # pax, LF
YOW-FLL, 18, 1637, 69%
YOW-MCO, 16, 1319, 62%
YOW-BOS, 60, 2690, 57%
YOW-EWR, 94, 4345, 59%

Again, no connections. They need to beef that up AND increase frequencies from more than 2-3x weekly to make this work. Or at least keep frequencies the same but use both YOW and YYZ to go to and from.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Porter’s June transborder numbers weren’t good.

Route, # flts, # pax, LF
YOW-FLL, 18, 1637, 69%
YOW-MCO, 16, 1319, 62%
YOW-BOS, 60, 2690, 57%
YOW-EWR, 94, 4345, 59%

Full numbers from June.

Porter
FLL: 1637/2376 = 68.9%
MCO: 1319/2112 = 62.5%

EWR: 4345/7332 = 59.3%
BOS: 2690/4680 = 57.5%

United
EWR: 10097/12368 = 81.6%
ORD: 13522/16412 = 85.1%*
IAD: 10951/13960 = 78.4%

Jazz
DCA: 3024/3952 = 76.5%

* Overall, the E75 had 87.6% loads, and the mainline 319 turns were 76.4%. Directionally, the morning YOW-ORD was 72.6% full, and the evening ORD-YOW was 80.1% full. There were also a handful of 320 turns, those had 69.0% loads, so probably more for operational reasons rather than needing capacity.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Full numbers from June.

Porter
FLL: 1637/2376 = 68.9%
MCO: 1319/2112 = 62.5%

EWR: 4345/7332 = 59.3%
BOS: 2690/4680 = 57.5%

United
EWR: 10097/12368 = 81.6%
ORD: 13522/16412 = 85.1%*
IAD: 10951/13960 = 78.4%

Jazz
DCA: 3024/3952 = 76.5%

* Overall, the E75 had 87.6% loads, and the mainline 319 turns were 76.4%. Directionally, the morning YOW-ORD was 72.6% full, and the evening ORD-YOW was 80.1% full. There were also a handful of 320 turns, those had 69.0% loads, so probably more for operational reasons rather than needing capacity.

Will be interesting to see if a mainline turn returns next summer.

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

Again, no connections. They need to beef that up AND increase frequencies from more than 2-3x weekly to make this work. Or at least keep frequencies the same but use both YOW and YYZ to go to and from.

Yeah this is partially the result of mostly 0700 Florida departures.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Will be interesting to see if a mainline turn returns next summer.



Yeah this is partially the result of mostly 0700 Florida departures.

A couple of things from me:

I have used the ORD flight recently, but have colleagues who use it more than me, and the front of the cabin is often full on the morning YOW dep. and evening YOW return. If UA is making more money this way, even with empty seats in economy, it might return next year. It's decent utilization for the A319 and is also one of the only UA flights (Express included) that turns back to the same city (ORD-YOW-ORD). UA being in Star A helps this I am sure.

I used the airport a lot in August. On a Monday morning Porter to YYJ flight, I was number 109 to check in, so the plane was decently full and Porter reserve was booked out in advance (I fly on freedom tickets so usually check if reserve is available). This flight is amazing for flying to Vancouver Island. Especially since it leaves YOW at ~8:45 am instead of a connection via YYC on WS where you need to leave on a 6 am flight.