YEG - Edmonton Int Airport

[ZiZiPop]

Originally Posted by Jasper and one o nin

I remember seeing a 737 combi a few years back that offered service up north. might have been Air North or Canadian North, I dont know. But, what, if any, carriers use scheduled service with a 747 combi?

First Air (I believe Canadian North does too) uses 737s into the northern communities like Cambridge Bay from Yellowknife. The front half of the plane is cargo with only about 50-60 passenger seats in the back.

[Edmonchuck]

Wow, I remember loading the "igloos" years ago on these things. Those are the old PW planes that got sold to an Israeli compnay and dry leased back to Cdn North if I remember correctly. Old birds, but good birds - and not too many left. It makes me wonder what will replace these gems??.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by Jasper and one o nin

I remember seeing a 737 combi a few years back that offered service up north. might have been Air North or Canadian North, I dont know. But, what, if any, carriers use scheduled service with a 747 combi?

Not that they are around anymore but I think Canadian did, and possibly Air Canada at one time.

[KrisYYC]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Not that they are around anymore but I think Canadian did, and possibly Air Canada at one time.

That's correct, AC inherited Canadian 747 combis after the merger. AC continued to use them up until a few years ago. They even ran the YYC-LHR for a short time one winter which was cool.

Kris

[CanadianCentaur]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Not that they are around anymore but I think Canadian did, and possibly Air Canada at one time.

Canadian never used 747-400 Combis. But Air Canada certainly did. Not only that, it was using 747-100/200 Combis, too. They were normally used for certain transatlantic routes, IIRC.

I belive there are still a few airlines flying 747 Combis, including KLM and Air China.

[LO 044]

Originally Posted by Edmonchuck

Wow, I remember loading the "igloos" years ago on these things. Those are the old PW planes that got sold to an Israeli compnay and dry leased back to Cdn North if I remember correctly. Old birds, but good birds - and not too many left. It makes me wonder what will replace these gems??.

This was talked about somewhere before, not sure if it was a website or what. The 732's have the long skinny engines, for lack of a technical description, and are ideal for landing on gravel runways. All the other 737's cannot land at some of the airstrips Air North needs/wants to land on. I believe Air North was talking with Boeing at one time about how to replace the 732's in terms of modifying the 737NG's. It is either that or buy old 732's from other carriers but i'm not sure how many of those are left in the world.

[Edmonchuck]

There are not too many left. The JT8D's are an old old engine too.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by LO 044

This was talked about somewhere before, not sure if it was a website or what. The 732's have the long skinny engines, for lack of a technical description, and are ideal for landing on gravel runways. All the other 737's cannot land at some of the airstrips Air North needs/wants to land on. I believe Air North was talking with Boeing at one time about how to replace the 732's in terms of modifying the 737NG's. It is either that or buy old 732's from other carriers but i'm not sure how many of those are left in the world.

The difference you are talking about is between high bypass turbo fans (fan jets) and low bypass turbofans. The model used on the 732s was derived from a turbo jet (no bypass). The even small bypass of the engine increased thrust by 25%.

The 737NGs have high bypass engines like this:

From this angle you can see the large area near the front where fan blades are not being used as an internal part of the compressor. That is called the bypass.

I would have to gather that the issue with the high bypass engines on the 737NGs on gravel strips would have to be the lower amount of ground clearance (higher likelihood of rock/dust ingestion) not the technology of the engine per-se.

[Edmonchuck]

That's exactly what we were saying...

[EdmTrekker]

AC Release:
http://micro.newswire.ca/release.cgi?rkey=1602183070&view=13213-0&Start=0

Aviation.ca Release:
http://www.aviation.ca/content/view/5323/117/

News Releases


Attention Business/Financial Editors:

Air Canada's fleet renewal ensures travellers superior comfort when flying this summer season
Enhanced summer schedule offers Canadian communities more service

MONTREAL, Feb. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada announced today that with its
aircraft refurbishment program substantially complete, travellers taking
advantage of the airline's expanded summer schedule will travel in greater
comfort than ever before.
"Air Canada is passing a milestone in its aircraft interior refurbishment
program. The renewal of our regular narrow body fleet will be complete by
June 1 and three quarters of our wide-body aircraft will also be ready for the
summer, meaning we can now guarantee a new or refurbished aircraft on our
major routes. With our new aircraft and refitted interiors, Air Canada
customers will be more comfortable than any armchair traveller, enjoying
lie-flat suites in Executive First on international flights and new seats
throughout all our aircraft, each featuring a personal audio-visual
entertainment system with free access to 36 movies and hundreds of CDs, a
120-volt power plug, a USB port and more," said Ben Smith, Executive Vice
President, Commercial, at Air Canada. "Further enhancing the travel experience
on Air Canada this summer is the consolidation of our operations in a single
terminal at our Toronto hub. With its new Maple Leaf Lounges, conveniently
located gates, and customs pre-clearance to the U.S., travellers can connect
seamlessly with our national, transborder and international network."
Customers booking travel through www.aircanada.com are able to determine
at the time of booking through a red star designator that their chosen flight
will be operated with a new or refurbished aircraft. Recently, Air Canada
upgraded its reservation system to make it easier for travel agents to
identify new aircraft or those with the new interiors.
Air Canada's 142 regular Embraer and Airbus narrowbody aircraft serving
primarily domestic and transborder routes will be either new or refurbished as
of June 1. Forty-five of its 60 long-haul, widebody aircraft will be either
new or have refitted interiors by the same date, allowing Air Canada to
designate key international routes to be served exclusively by these aircraft.
Among these routes are: Ottawa-London, Montreal-Paris, Toronto-Frankfurt,
Toronto-Tel Aviv, Toronto-Munich, Toronto-Zurich, and Toronto-Madrid. All
Toronto-Asia services will be operated using Boeing 777s equipped with the new
interiors as will Vancouver-Sydney.
Air Canada also announced today its schedule for the summer of 2008. The
airline is introducing 13 new routes this summer. Schedule highlights include:

Western Canada:
---------------

Air Canada is increasing frequencies or capacity on 17 intra-Western
Canada routes as well as on routes to eastern Canada. The changes include a
new daily non-stop between Saskatoon and Ottawa and adding a second daily
frequency between Vancouver and Regina, a third daily flight between Vancouver
and Prince Rupert, a third daily flight between Kamloops and Calgary, a fourth
daily flight each between Calgary and the cities of Fort McMurray and
Victoria, and a fifth daily flight between Edmonton and Fort McMurray and
between Calgary and Montreal. In addition, Air Canada will expand to year
round the recently added second daily flight from Edmonton to Ottawa and a
third daily flight from Calgary to Ottawa introduced with the winter schedule.

Central and Eastern Canada:
---------------------------

Air Canada is adding new routes and increasing frequencies or capacity on
eight routes within Ontario and Quebec and on two routes in Atlantic Canada,
as well as adding additional service to Western Canada. The changes include
new non-stop daily service between Ottawa and the cities of Saskatoon, Thunder
Bay, and Charlottetown. There is also an added daily frequency between Toronto
and Sarnia. Other enhancements include a sixth daily frequency each between
St. John's, Nfld. and both Halifax and Toronto.

Transborder:
------------

Air Canada is adding four new transborder routes with daily service this
summer and increasing frequencies or capacity on 14 other routes. The new
routes are Toronto and Austin, Toronto and Richmond Va. (twice daily), Ottawa
and Washington (National Airport) and Calgary and Chicago. In addition to
these new routes, Air Canada is increasing service on other routes, including
adding a second daily frequency between Montreal and San Francisco, a third
daily frequency between Toronto and Charlotte, a second frequency between
Toronto and Kansas City and a second weekly frequency between Vancouver and
Maui. Finally, Air Canada is adding a 13th daily flight between Toronto and
New York. This brings to 24 the number of daily flights Air Canada operates to
three New York airports from Toronto (13 to La Guardia, seven to Newark and
four to Westchester County), providing customers the best choice for travel to
the area.

International:
--------------

Air Canada is launching this summer the new international non-stop routes
of Toronto-Madrid and Ottawa-Frankfurt. As well, it is improving capacity or
frequencies on other routes and these include increasing the number of flights
between Vancouver and Seoul to ten a week from seven (pending government
approval), boosting service between Toronto and Tel Aviv to daily from five
times a week and increasing flights from Toronto to Buenos Aires/Santiago to
daily, up from five a week.

Montreal-based Air Canada provides scheduled and charter air
transportation for passengers and cargo to more than 170 destinations on five
continents. Canada's flag carrier is the 14th largest commercial airline in
the world and serves 32 million customers annually with a fleet consisting of
335 aircraft. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, providing the
world's most comprehensive air transportation network.

[Coldrsx]

the ottawa flight is great news, but nothing overly exciting here

[Rocket252]

Lots of news from Air Canada but very little for Edmonton.

No transborder - again.

[Coldrsx]

come on Westjet

[Jasper and one o nin]

big f**king deal. Why would AC not boost its fastest growing airport?
on other news, over the weekend the value park and daily parkade was full. They had to open the overflow lot.

[dansk]

This is old news. The main article is to highlight the new interiors of the aircraft. All the rest is old.

[JAH]

The Chinese delegation has been here for a week now.. I demand some news or updates!

[Jasper and one o nin]

^fist banging on table...

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by JAH

The Chinese delegation has been here for a week now.. I demand some news or updates!

For delegations, it is usual to leave the signing of deals (if there are any) until the last day so a big signing ceremony can be done.

However, it is also possible that even with all the positives they saw for the airport, when they got a briefing on labour availability and construction costs they are making sure the business case still exists.

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by dansk

This is old news. The main article is to highlight the new interiors of the aircraft. All the rest is old.

I agree - nothing new. But it does kind of beg the question as to why AC is regurgating this old route news at this time - when at this time (February) most airlines would announce "new" flights for the summer. Perhaps what we have seen announced is all there is for AC this year. If so any hope for YEG to FRA would be out for 2008. Also its been pretty quiet from the folks at EAA. I don't feel a breeze blowing at all in fact. This whole China thing is pretty slippery and I will not put much stalk in it - until I see CN or CP wanting to build an over/under pass to EAA lands and/or Walmart buying up land for a North Western Distribution Centre at EAA or adjacent. 2 years ago Walmart was looking for a Western Distribution Centre - not sure where they ended up on that one though - Calgary??. As Walmart is a primary focus customer for Jade, I would put my money on what Walmart does - not Jade. Something like HDTV versus BlueRay - and Walmart sure put the final nails in the coffin on that one!.

[MalcolmTucker]

Wal-mart's distribution centre is in Calgary. I can't imagine any Wal-Mart type good that would need just in time shipping enough to justify a scheduled cargo flight.

Possibly a shipment every once in awhile of a good to catch up on a lag in the supply line but otherwise no.