YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by vansky

...u r the one

.... hey man, thanks for the backhanded compliment, but I'd much rather just hear from people about the city, the airport, and at this moment in history, where our new destinations in Europe might be, and how this would impact on YVR, and by extension, on Vancouver itself. That's not asking too much, is it? Do YOU have a vision for the airport and the city, by the way?

[jlousa]

trofirhen you need to calm down now. Also stop using so many emoticons and bolding everything especially titles in your posts it makes it very hard to read.

[trofirhen]

You're right. I'll let the experts take over from here ....

[vansky]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

You're right. I'll let the experts take over from here ....

during my flight to calgary, i checked out some yvr service routes in comparison to calgary, montreal, and toronto. anyways, vancouver is an asian gateway because it's close to asia, and its port does most business with asian countries. european travellers would only come here for tourism mostly. this is a small market for europe, both the airport and the city. it makes sense to increase its pacific rim gateway position with more frequent flights to asia, capitalizing on its special location. this is to make a lemonade when you only have lemons.

also, a minor improvement for the airport would be increasing its quality and number of asian stores, such as specialized dumpling shops and noodle houses to attract more asian customers, maximizing traveling experience.

[vansky]

Originally Posted by jlousa

trofirhen you need to calm down now. Also stop using so many emoticons and bolding everything especially titles in your posts it makes it very hard to read.

trofirhen is as passionate as any of us, just that probably like many of us, our visions have no political and economic power to turn things into reality.

[dreambrother808]

Wouldn't it be natural to have so many direct asian flights out of Toronto considering the size of the population back east? Wouldn't those people prefer direct flights as opposed to stopovers in Vancouver?

I don't really know much about the complexity or politics of these issues either way but this is what would make sense to me.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by vansky

during my flight to calgary, i checked out some yvr service routes in comparison to calgary, montreal, and toronto. anyways, vancouver is an asian gateway because it's close to asia, and its port does most business with asian countries. european travellers would only come here for tourism mostly. this is a small market for europe, both the airport and the city. it makes sense to increase its pacific rim gateway position with more frequent flights to asia, capitalizing on its special location. this is to make a lemonade when you only have lemons.

also, a minor improvement would be increasing its quality and number of asian stores, such as specialized dumpling shops and noodle houses to attract more asian customers, maximizing traveling experience.

... but go the the AIR CANADA website, find the interactive route map, and click on Toronto - routes to the Pacific Rim. You'll find out out how "special" we are (or aren't) in regard to flights to Asia. This "Gateway to the Asia Pacific" stuff is half-truth/ half-myth. There are more nonstops from Toronto to Asia than there are from Vancouver to Europe, so don't get sucked into all the hype about the "Gateway to the Asia-Pacific" stuff. It's only because we're a few miles closer geographically that it exists at all, but it feeds Vancouverites' need to feel that they're somehow "apart" and "special" when in fact, all it is is a large branch-plant town on the West Coast. Where's canada's largest Chinatown? TORONTO. Where are the Canadian headquarters for ALL the major Japanese banks? TORONTO. I'm not trying to burst your bubble, man, just wake up and smell the coffee brewing back in Ontario, that's all. Enjoy your noodles.

[vansky]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

... but go the the AIR CANADA website, find the interactive route map, and click on Toronto - routes to the Pacific Rim. You'll find out out how "special" we are (or aren't) in regard to flights to Asia. This "Gateway to the Asia Pacific" stuff is half-truth/ half-myth. There are more nonstops from Toronto to Asia than there are from Vancouver to Europe, so don't get sucked into all the hype about the "Gateway to the Asia-Pacific" stuff. It's only because we're a few miles closer geographically that it exists at all, but it feeds Vancouverites' need to feel that they're somehow "apart" and "special" when in fact, all it is is a large branch-plant town on the West Coast. Where's canada's largest Chinatown? TORONTO. Where are the Canadian headquarters for ALL the major Japanese banks? TORONTO. I'm not trying to burst your bubble, man, just wake up and smell the coffee brewing back in Ontario, that's all. Enjoy your noodles.

man, i'm eating my noodles right now. i see your point, but you gota relax about things like this. there's nothing in canada that could compete with toronto on stuff like this. we r still a sizable gateway regardless of toronto.

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Is that supposed to be comic relief? It isn't funny. "Hot Rod" has a vision, and people are back to making inane and crude remarks. The subject was airports and airlines. The catalyst is the Canada -EU Open Skies agreement. Please peddle your inanities elsewhere, and let serious people with a vision express themselves with some dignity, whether you agree with them or not.

Who the F%^& are you man? I only said that because I don't have an emoticon where the dude splurges 4 litres of cum all over his keyboard. If I didn't like the idea i just would have put this up:

And why all the hate against me and my chicken periods (that was Vid, actually)? reminds me of some other member I used to spar with.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

Wouldn't it be natural to have so many direct asian flights out of Toronto considering the size of the population back east? Wouldn't those people prefer direct flights as opposed to stopovers in Vancouver?

I don't really know much about the complexity or politics of these issues either way but this is what would make sense to me.

distance is favourable to Vancouver - its another 4000+ km to toronto

did you know its the same distance form Saudi Arabia To London England as it is from Vancouver to Toronto!

[p78hub]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Where's canada's largest Chinatown? TORONTO.

I lurk A LOT here (considering the date I registered and this being my first post), but I couldn't let this slide. Canada's largest Chinatown is, in fact, in Vancouver, since in North America it has the second largest area after SF and third largest population after NY and SF.

In response to this thread, I personally hope to see more of both European and Asian routes to and from YVR. The International Terminal tends to look rather empty most of the time. After spending more than eight hours (after Air Canada overbooked three consecutive flights to SFO, of course) at the airport, I saw one KLM, one Air Transat, and one British Airways parked at the terminal. Glad to see an open skies agreement finally take shape; maybe we'll see some more air traffic.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

Who the F%^& are you man? I only said that because I don't have an emoticon where the dude splurges 4 litres of cum all over his keyboard. If I didn't like the idea i just would have put this up:

And why all the hate against me and my chicken periods (that was Vid, actually)? reminds me of some other member I used to spar with.

.... I like you, too. In fact, there's no hate against you or your "chicken periods," except that talking about that, splurging cum all over the keyboard, and so forth is the kind of thing one might expect to find on some punk chat room, and not on a (supposedly) adult site about a (hopefully) adult topic: YVR. But if adolescent "shock" behaviour gives you your jollies, and if, as it seems, you need someone to 'spar' with,' then go right ahead. Hey, maybe I'm uptight and over-zealous in trying to pull Vancouver away from being an overgrown, provincial town with big-city pretensions, and that speaks for itself. To those I've offended, my apologies. Your thing seems to be doing the adolescent kick-ass, out-grossing people trip. To each his own. What we write is like what we wear; it reflects our personalities in and of itself. I bow to your profound sensiblities and innate classiness, and regret there aren't more folks like you in the world. It would be such a finer, more dignified place if there were.

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

.... I like you, too. In fact, there's no hate against you or your "chicken periods," except that talking about that, splurging cum all over the keyboard, and so forth is the kind of thing one might expect to find on some punk chat room, and not on a (supposedly) adult site about a (hopefully) adult topic: YVR. But if adolescent "shock" behaviour gives you your jollies, and if, as it seems, you need someone to 'spar' with,' then go right ahead. Hey, maybe I'm uptight and over-zealous in trying to pull Vancouver away from being an overgrown, provincial town with big-city pretensions, and that speaks for itself. To those I've offended, my apologies. Your thing seems to be doing the adolescent kick-ass, out-grossing people trip. To each his own. What we write is like what we wear; it reflects our personalities in and of itself. I bow to your profound sensiblities and innate classiness, and regret there aren't more folks like you in the world. It would be such a finer, more dignified place if there were.

So it's not that you don't like me, you just don't like what I post. Big deal, suck it up. If you are incapable of ignoring it then why don't you report my posts as offensive?

And yes, this so called adolescent "shock" behaviour, which equates to crude internet humour, does give me the jollies. just as much as your overuse of emoticons and sarcasm must give you the jollies.

Now, back on topic...




With regards to the distance between toronto and Vancouver from asian destinations, it isn't all that different. while on a map toronto may appear to be 4000 km away, bby the nature of the geometry of a sphere, Toronto is actually only about 2000km further out which considering the distances already travelled, isn't that much of a difference.

What Vancouver needs, both the airport, the city, and the region as a whole, is to sell themselves to the world as a place you want to come to do buisness, travel, raise your kids, retire, and all the other jolly reasons why people travel. Olympics will help, alot, so we should spare no expense to make the most of them, then pursure other avenues to make Vancouver very public and visible on the world spotlight.

[trofirhen]

I'm not offended by your imagery to any great extent, and found it interesting what you had to say about Toronto, given the curvature of the Earth, not being all that much further from Asia than Vancouver - airwise, that is. Conversely, as Vancouver is more northerly, it isn't a whole lot further from Europe than Toronto is (or Montreal for that matter) To give you an example, I remember flying from London to Montreal some years ago, and it took over six hours, which is only about two hours less than a London -Vancouver flight. What irks me is the lack of accessibility to most European cities from Vancouver. It's true we don't have the market that Toronto has (it's a whole lot bigger) but, especially with this new Open Skies deal with the EU recently concluded - it seems to me that YVR, or more precisely, the passengers flying out of it, could and should have a slightly larger range of direct European destinations to choose from, without being forced to change planes in Toronto. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Paris is a "gap" missing from our destination roster. Marketing officials at YVR will tell you that. (They've told me that when I've spoken to them). So Paris CDG would be one nonstop I'd add, first and foremeost, being the major city of Continental Europe. There are probably one or two other air markets with high yield factors. Berlin might be one of them, to serve Central Europe and to connect to countries in Eastern Europe from where many recent immigrants to the city have come to live. Interesingly, although Vancouver has a large Italian community, the YVR official I spoke with said that given that it is now largely a "second-generation" community, with only the older generation born in Italy, the demand factor for flights to Rome is surprisingly lower than might be expected.
Vancouver is not a large enough market to warrant the smorgasbord of European destinations that exist out of Montreal and Toronto, but it IS underserved regarding Europe. Adding Paris, and one or two other high-yield destinations is in order, and will probably come about in a year ot so under the new agreement. Travelling back to Vancouver on a holiday from Paris, where I live, back in 2006, I went on Lufthansa via Frankfurt. The connecting time added four hours to the journey, and the plane was packed with people who had come not only from Paris to get to Vancouver, but from Germany, Sweden, and other countries as well. This seems to indicate that the Vancouver market warrants one or two more European destinations. The 2010 Olympics will put the city on the map and will probably spark interest and more demand. Even now, there are a number of French people who visit Vancouver every year - more than you'd expect - and several of them have expressed consternation and surprise that there is no direct flight.

[SpongeG]

sounds like YVR is a big mess with the snow storm

something like 50% of the flights are cancelled

a friend in montreal was waiting for his friend to come from vancouver today and his flight was cancelled and was not sure if he would get there

seattle is also in a big mess and portland - only 7 flights landed on sunday and onlt 13 flights departed! something like 400+ arrivals and departures is typical for a sunday at portland

[Yume-sama]

Hopefully the FedEx planes get out. I'm expecting my Christmas presents in Calgary tomorrow from Vancouver

[trofirhen]

In the Swedish industrial city of Norrkoping, as well as central parts of Stockholm, hot water pipes are placed under the roads and sidewalks to keep them snow and ice-free, in a country known for cold, icy winters. Although it might be a costly investment, what about the idea of placing similar heated piping under the main runways and principal taxiways at Canada's major airports? Even in cold weather, the heating could be left shut off if there was no precipitation forecast, then switched on during snowstorms or after a heavy snowfall to melt the snow, clear the runways, and keep the taxiways open for the planes to manoeuver. Maybe this sounds impractical, especially in cities like Victoria, which seldom see snow, but at most major Canadian airports, even at Vancouver, which gets infrequent but heavy periodic snow, such infrastructural investment might facilitate the ongoing flow of air traffic and air cargo, and simplify life for everyone.

(If this sounds too costly, remember that notorious white elephant named Mirabel Airport. Surely the cost of this idea couldn't be any higher)

[jlousa]

The problem isn't the runways. They are more then capable of plowing the runways effectively. The reason they had the south runway closed was due to not enough traffic to warrant it being open. The reduced traffic is due to planes not arriving here, or not arriving ontime, and the biggest factor is deicing of the planes everywhere across the continent. That is what needs to be worked on at all airports.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by jlousa

The problem isn't the runways. They are more then capable of plowing the runways effectively. The reason they had the south runway closed was due to not enough traffic to warrant it being open. The reduced traffic is due to planes not arriving here, or not arriving ontime, and the biggest factor is deicing of the planes everywhere across the continent. That is what needs to be worked on at all airports.

Yeah... not to mention that when it's snowing heavily, it can be difficult to land.

[Gordon]

The north runway is the primary runway used in times of extremely low visibility because it has the the best ILS equiptment.