YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion - Page 71

Locked In · #**1401** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 2:47 AM**

This one's for you, trofirhen:

Quote:

Air Canada to launch daily summer Vancouver-Paris flights

By Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun - March 25, 2009 6:02 PM

The iconic Eiffel Tower, an architectural jewel of Paris, is bathed in blue light last summer to help celebrate France's six-month presidency of the European Union. Air Canada will have daily service between Paris and Vancouver this summer.
Photograph by: Mal Langsdon, Reuters files

Air Canada will launch a daily summer service between Vancouver and Paris starting July 1 this year, the airline is to announce Thursday.

The one-stop, same-plane, Vancouver-Montreal-Paris service will operate until Sept. 29 to meet strong seasonal demand for a Vancouver connection to the French capital.

French government and tourism officials will be in Vancouver Thursday to help launch the new service that will operate with a refurbished 211-seat Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

“We are delighted to offer Vancouver and Western Canada the only daily service to Paris,” Air Canada vice-president of sales Claude Morin said in a statement.

Air Transat operates a twice-weekly service between Vancouver and Paris from May through October. One is a direct flight while the other stops in Calgary.

John Korenic, Vancouver International Airport Authority's director of aviation marketing, said airport officials are pleased with the new Air Canada service.

“We see it as another option for passengers to access France, which is really one of our larger unserved markets,” Korenic said in an interview.

Current air agreements between Canada and the European Union allow Canadian carriers to fly to France from any point in Canada, but French carriers that fly to Montreal and Toronto cannot fly to Vancouver.

Korenic said a new agreement expected to be ratified this year will give more European carriers the option of flying directly to Vancouver. He said YVR has done a lot of work on the demand for a non-stop, year-round service linking Vancouver with Paris.

“From what we understand of the marketplace and from the data we have, it certainly seems to be viable,” Korenic said.

The number of French visitors to B.C. rose by more than 19 per cent last year to 21,000.

[email protected]
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Source: Vancouver Sun

Yume-sama · #**1402** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 3:48 AM**

Nice! Too bad no Air France with a 747

Too bad not the new 777, and too bad it's not direct.

BUUUT, hate to admit I have been impressed with the new interior of Air Canada recently. Enough to buy a flight pass.

Though I did have possibly the worst flight attendants in the World last time, who were joking about the plane crashing. During takeoff...

bbeliko · #**1403** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 4:31 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Nice! Too bad no Air France with a 747

..

If it was air france, it wouldn't be a 747 anyway, probably B-777, or A-330/340

Yume-sama · #**1404** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 4:35 AM**

Hmm, really? They still have 13 of them. It's a shame most major airlines, including JAL, are planning to retire them all soon.

SpongeG · #**1405** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 5:22 AM**

theres a few other charters who do the paris route in the summer - i think they are direct too

trofirhen · #**1406** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 7:15 PM**

First of all, thanks to "Locked In" for being thoughtful enough to dedicate the Paris - Vancouver article to me - a loudspeaker for the service. (Living in Paris helps) I think that when the results are in, Vancouver will have year-round service to Paris, in about two or three years. It doesn't matter to me if it's not a 747, 777, or the latest of the latest. I took Lufthansa to Vancouver three years back (an awkward transfer included in the routing) and the plane was an Airbus 340. Very nice. The washrooms are one level down, and as a result, people aren't embarassed by a planeload of people observing them lining up for the facilities, which always happens after a meal is served.
*
Anyway, back to the subject. This is a modest breakthrough, but a breakthrough nevertheless. Paris is a great, central place to land if you're visiting Europe, and the city itself (the most visited in the world) is a huge attraction. Vive le décollage ! (Hurray for takeoff)

Gordon · #**1407** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 8:09 PM**

Unfortunatley Air Canada has sold most if not all of their A340s & their 777s are either based out of the East or assigned to asian routes ib Vancouver.

The 787s are a couple of yaers away.

Coldrsx · #**1408** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 8:17 PM**

nice catch van... good route for you

Yume-sama · #**1409** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 9:58 PM**

Pictures by ME from my crappy Blackberry.

The JAL Sakura Lounge...

You can only see Air Canada planes from the Sakura Lounge >.>

I wanted to get better pictures of the terminal area, and the Olympic rings outside... but.... yeah, I need a point and shoot camera. I can't be taking my DSLR out everywhere

metroXpress · #**1410** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 10:24 PM**

Oh..thanks. I think the second one is clear enough. It must be very sunny out there.

Yume-sama · #**1411** Posted **Mar 26, 2009, 10:26 PM**

The Sakura Lounge is extremely lacking compared to the ones in Japan. I've never been in any other lounges in YVR though, I wonder if they are similar.

nova9 · #**1412** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 1:10 AM**

I'm glad for the new Paris connection too. I just got back from Paris. I took the United through Chicago. I'd definitely prefer to give Canadians my money.

Did not particularly enjoy the experience with United, not because of United but because of the passengers - should have upgraded to eco plus or business.

metroXpress · #**1413** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 1:16 AM**

^ I hoped you had a great time in Paris though!!

nova9 · #**1414** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 1:56 AM**

unbelievable time. i had never seen my friend's apartment before but the view was amazing. without giving away his address, we stayed right on the seine in the 16th with an unobstructed view of le tour eiffel.

I saw all the main things and i visited Mumm Champagne!!

And by the by, I realized I going through the US part of YVR so there weren't many interesting things to take photos of. And I left in the morning so there weren't that many planes on the tarmac. Sorry all.

I did take some of O'Hare but here's not the right place for them.

metroXpress · #**1415** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 2:18 AM**

^ Great! Can't wait to see your wonderful pics on flickr or something else you use!

Chikinlittle · #**1416** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 2:44 AM**

Vancouver-Paris one-stop service via Montreal? LAME! Why even bother?

I would much prefer to fly with Air Transat then if it's summer-only service, as they offer both non-stop and onestop via Calgary flights, depending which day of the week.

Also, since I find it unlikely that AC would fly a half-empty plane 5 hours across the country from Montreal-Vancouver on the way back, I would assume that this portion would be operated as a domestic service. That means that all Paris originating passengers would have to disembark in Montreal, pick up their bags, clear customs/immigration, drop of their bags and board the flight again. PLUS the extra flying time routing via Montreal (several hours) makes this a major non-event for me.

Yume-sama · #**1417** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 2:54 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chikinlittle

Vancouver-Paris one-stop service via Montreal? LAME! Why even bother?

I would much prefer to fly with Air Transat then if it's summer-only service, as they offer both non-stop and onestop via Calgary flights, depending which day of the week.

Also, since I find it unlikely that AC would fly a half-empty plane 5 hours across the country from Montreal-Vancouver on the way back, I would assume that this portion would be operated as a domestic service. That means that all Paris originating passengers would have to disembark in Montreal, pick up their bags, clear customs/immigration, drop of their bags and board the flight again. PLUS the extra flying time routing via Montreal (several hours) makes this a major non-event for me.

That would be extremely dis-honest...

eemy · #**1418** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 11:45 AM**

Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Flights like this are hardly unusual; Air Canada already does it with flights such as Toronto-Vancouver-Sydney and Montreal-Toronto-Santiago off the top of my head. It's also really no different than international flights that stop at an intermediate destination, such as the short lived Qantas flight through San Francisco. I suppose it was dishonest for them to advertise flights to Sydney from Vancouver as well.

In the US, they advertise flights as being the same flight number, but that require a change in plane. Now that is dishonest.

twoNeurons · #**1419** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 4:03 PM**

It shouldn't be considered NON-STOP if it stops and you have to disembark. Seems like this is just adding to the flights going into and out of Montreal.

The only benefit is that on the outbound flight you don't need to get off the plane, right?

trofirhen · #**1420** Posted **Mar 27, 2009, 5:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

It shouldn't be considered NON-STOP if it stops and you have to disembark. Seems like this is just adding to the flights going into and out of Montreal.

The only benefit is that on the outbound flight you don't need to get off the plane, right?

I know that a long, overseas flight, which would be several hours shorter, and with a stop in Montreal just to get to Paris, does seem like a modest offering. However, other than charter airlines, this is the first NO CHANGE OF PLANE service from vancouver to Paris. Changing planes is pain. Trust me.

Also, if this works out, it will probably evolve into an "over-the-pole" nonstop in two years or so, similar to the daily Seattle -to Paris flight (on an AIRBUS 340) This one is worth keeping an eye on, to see how it works out.