YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion - Page 43

phesto · #**841** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 4:22 AM**

Why was the title of the thread changed from YVR??

Anyway, in YVR news, Oasis has bit the dust: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSHKG17584020080409

Sad to see them go, but not surprising really. Tough times ahead for the airline industry in N.A. with rising fuel costs combined with a recession - Delta and NWA are now talking about announcing a merger as soon as next week...

mr.x · #**842** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 7:01 AM**

^ just to make things a little more uniform.

Yea, sad to see it go...and a bit surprised as well. They seemed to have been doing really well.

deasine · #**843** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 7:10 AM**

Air Canada must be laughing now: they haven't changed their prices since day 1.

Great then Cathay will JACK UP THE PRICES back to normal.

Now my dream trip to Hong Kong looks like it's getting crushed again. I've only been to Hong Kong once in my life.

Sorry I'm getting just a little personal now.

Yume-sama · #**844** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 5:11 PM**

Air Canada can afford not to raise their prices because they have about 30 million people subsidizing them.

In my experience I've usually found Cathay Pacific / Japan Airlines to be cheaper, though. It could be just the days I'm booking, I guess.

Kwik-E-Mart · #**845** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 5:55 PM**

Well it's either JAL or KoreanAir for me when I fly to Hong Kong (via Tokyo and Seoul of course)... I do not want to spend 14 consecutive hours on an airplane (Cathay is out of the question given the length and price of the flight)

I will never fly with China Eastern, China Southern (coming this summer), China Airlines and EVA Air ever again!

phesto · #**846** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 8:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.x2

Yea, sad to see it go...and a bit surprised as well. They seemed to have been doing really well.

Apparently they were taking a loss on pretty much every flight. Cheap long-haul flights combined with rising fuel costs aren't a recipe for success.

excel · #**847** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 9:45 PM**

That really sucks to see them go.

mr.x · #**848** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 10:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kwik-E-Mart

Well it's either JAL or KoreanAir for me when I fly to Hong Kong (via Tokyo and Seoul of course)... I do not want to spend 14 consecutive hours on an airplane (Cathay is out of the question given the length and price of the flight)

I will never fly with China Eastern, China Southern (coming this summer), China Airlines and EVA Air ever again!

I usually fly JAL, but this past winter I flew on Cathay.....terrible service and planes, at least compared to JAL.

My monitor wasn't working, the seats were uncomfortable, the plane ran out of meals (wtf?) and gave out instant noodles instead, and there were very few washrooms (two washrooms for a hundred people).

On JAL, the monitor thing always worked and the seats were awesome. The food was also better, and the stewards were extremely helpful (the Japanese are awesome at this), not to mention a ton of washrooms (6 washrooms for a hundred people).

deasine · #**849** Posted **Apr 9, 2008, 11:23 PM**

That usually doesn't happen... odd. But Cathay has improved their service dramatically since Oasis came. They used to run some of their worst planes on the YVR-HKG flight - now they run much better planes.

Anyway, I heard from a Cathay worker that Cathay Pacific is offering about $350 flights to those who unfortunately were victims of Oasis shutting down, but ONLY if you bought Oasis tickets.

giallo · #**850** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 4:17 AM**

Terrible news about Oasis. I was planning to use them this summer, but I ended up getting a 6 week return ticket from SH to VAN for $750cdn on Air Canada.

Yume-sama · #**851** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 4:18 AM**

I'm surprised to hear that about Cathay, as they are often referred to as being the best airline in the World.

My vote would go to JAL, still, but... I've had no problems with Cathay.

For first class though, I've heard NOTHING beats Lufthansa, Singapore, or Emirates. I'm saving my pennies...

bils · #**852** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 6:57 AM**

Big plans for Sea Island

Lisa Smedman
Special to the Richmond News

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

On the section of the Canada Line that leads to the airport, a station is being built in what looks, at first glance, to be a strange location. Templeton Station, located northeast of Grant McConachie Way and Templeton Street, is currently sitting in the middle of an empty field.

Vancouver International Airport Authority, however, has big plans for the land adjacent to the rapid transit station.

The approximately 24 acres (just over nine hectares) immediately south of Templeton Station is earmarked for development, said Raymond Segat, director of business and land development for Vancouver International Airport.

"We've done preliminary planning on that - density, heights, that kind of stuff," said Segat. "We haven't determined what (will be developed there) but we think it's going to be an office type development with a mix of something else in it."

Segat said the development would likely take the form of "tilt-up" office structures like those at Crestwood Corporate Centre in Richmond, which will soon be home to Microsoft Canada Development Centre. Tilt-up construction involves creating walls on the ground in slabs, then tilting them vertically into place.

"We're not prepared to go out to the market (yet)," said Segat. "We've been talking to the market, and we want to make sure that our organization agrees to how we want to go out to the market... But that's one of the uses we're looking at, because it's complementary to the (Canada) Line."

The Airport Authority, Segat added, is still discussing details of the exact form development will take.

"We have to determine whether we want partners in it, we have to determine a lot of things - the timing of it, the timing of the market, as far as development goes, because it's a fairly big parcel to develop," said Segat. "All that has to be considered."

Currently, the area north of Templeton Station is being used for overflow airport parking.

Templeton Station is being built on the 32-hectare (79-acre) Grauer Lands, a section of Sea Island named after Jacob Grauer, a German immigrant who established a farm there in the 1890s.

As federal land, the airport is not subject to local zoning requirements, such as those in place in the rest of the City of Richmond. With the federal government's approval, the Airport Authority can develop the land as its board sees fit.

Two other stations are under construction on the airport section of the Canada Line. One is at the airport itself. The second, Sea Island Centre Station, is on Grant McConachie Way, adjacent to buildings that house MTU Maintenance and Air Canada.

Vancouver International Airport Authority manages the 1,340 hectares (approximately 3,300 acres) of land that make up the airport - approximately 87 per cent of Sea Island. Only 15 per cent of this land is currently suitable for sub-lease or development, according to a YVR Land Management Guidelines report published in 2001.

deasine · #**853** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 7:05 AM**

Offices there? I was thinking they would have a parking lot LOL

Nutterbug · #**854** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 10:29 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by deasine

That usually doesn't happen... odd. But Cathay has improved their service dramatically since Oasis came. They used to run some of their worst planes on the YVR-HKG flight - now they run much better planes.

Anyway, I heard from a Cathay worker that Cathay Pacific is offering about $350 flights to those who unfortunately were victims of Oasis shutting down, but ONLY if you bought Oasis tickets.

Cathay banned Oasis (Liam and Noel) from their planes for refusing to comply with the smoking ban on board. Anybody remember that?

excel · #**855** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 5:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by deasine

Offices there? I was thinking they would have a parking lot LOL

From what i remember, they are putting the employee lot and extended parking lot near that station as well.

twoNeurons · #**856** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 9:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.x2

I usually fly JAL, but this past winter I flew on Cathay.....terrible service and planes, at least compared to JAL.

My monitor wasn't working, the seats were uncomfortable, the plane ran out of meals (wtf?) and gave out instant noodles instead, and there were very few washrooms (two washrooms for a hundred people).

On JAL, the monitor thing always worked and the seats were awesome. The food was also better, and the stewards were extremely helpful (the Japanese are awesome at this), not to mention a ton of washrooms (6 washrooms for a hundred people).

My wife usually flies JAL or Air Canada and says JAL is consistently good, AC is hit n' miss and said the one time she flew Cathay to HK the flight personnel wasn't bad but unfortunately a few of the Chinese passengers on the flight made her flight miserable and gave Chinese people a bad name. (Naturally, Cathay pacific's customers have more Chinese personnel)

Changing a baby's poopy diaper in front of you in your seat, for example.

Of course, this is a general statement and what's acceptable as polite varies between cultures, but it certainly didn't give her a GOOD impression.

SpongeG · #**857** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 9:23 PM**

that would be some loud office uner landing airplanes

jlousa · #**858** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 9:38 PM**

I'm pretty sure they could build office space where you couldn't hear the planes. Can you hear the planes while you walk around inside YVR? now that I'm thinking about it I can't recall every hearing them inside.
I'm also pretty sure any officespace would only be related to airport business like cargo/customs. Maybe a 500,000sqft new home for Canada Post...

Yume-sama · #**859** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 10:03 PM**

You can't really hear planes in the Fairmont, so, sound proofing isn't all that hard.

deasine · #**860** Posted **Apr 10, 2008, 11:53 PM**

I just think it's an odd location to put these "business parks." Like Yume-sama said, Fairmond does pretty good sound proofing, same with VanCity tower ontop of the SkyTrains [the conference room is right over the SkyTrains but you cannot hear a thing].