YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[trofirhen]

Found an article that might clarify the Westjet question somewhat.

Financial Post/ March 26/ 2010
http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=2731968#ixzz0jTVyvC10

[MalcolmTucker]

Yeah, If the economy is going well Vancouver will get Air France with the Euro deal. Calgary might aswell, to try to skim off more traffic that is currently going to London and Frankfurt instead. Especially with the code sharing deals.

With a SkyTeam codesharing deal - WestJet vacations could go head to head with Transat Holidays in Europe. Wouldn't be too long until the benefits of having flights to the UK would be obvious.

[Gordon]

I wonder if Air Canada would consider running their Olympic European services
as seasonal services.

If westJet is going to stay true to it's buisness model( Southwest) they won't have the plames that will allow them to fly trans oceanic.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Sir.Humphrey.Appleby

Yeah, If the economy is going well Vancouver will get Air France with the Euro deal. Calgary might aswell, to try to skim off more traffic that is currently going to London and Frankfurt instead. Especially with the code sharing deals.

With a SkyTeam codesharing deal - WestJet vacations could go head to head with Transat Holidays in Europe. Wouldn't be too long until the benefits of having flights to the UK would be obvious.

Nifty. But if Westjet is going to to that, it will have to invest in a few 777s or such like.

[sacrifice333]

Virgin America Announces Expansion via Twitter

Today, Virgin America announced its forthcoming expansion to Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) not via the travel press, but on the company’s Twitter account.

In addition to using Twitter to make the announcement, Virgin America is also running a 50% off promotion for the first 500 travelers who book flights from LAX or SFO to Toronto using the #VXREDHOT promo code.

Beginning June 23, 2010, Virgin America will start offering daily round-trip flights out of both San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angles (LAX) to Toronto. Noting that “Virgin America is the only airline based in Silicon Valley” and that Toronto has “strong ties to California – most notably in the entertainment and high-tech sectors,” both the expansion and the way the company chose to release the news makes a lot of sense.

Article Link.

Not YVR yet... but hopefully next!

[Zassk]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Looks like NIMBYism is alive and well in Richmond when it comes to the aviation fuel pipeline. Harold Steves makes it sound like Armageddon:

..Take it someplace else," an angry Harold Steves told VAFFC representatives.

"Richmond council has told you over and over again that we reject your project putting a pipeline through Richmond. You're going to be endangering portions of the estuary, endangering the fishery, endangering agricultural land, and endangering the citizens of Richmond...
http://www2.canada.com/richmondnews/news/story.html?id=7d010641-1474-4a7c-b5c9-5fc99d9974db&p=1

This is a strange one. If you are going to custom-build fuel barges and offload them on a custom-built depot on the Fraser River, then why not do all of that on the North Arm AT THE AIRPORT? Why pipe it 15 km across Metro Vancouver from a more distant dock next to Ladner? YVR has never explained why its proposed South Arm depot location justifies the additional risk vs. building the depot at the airport itself.

[zivan56]

Just an FYI: the first flight to land at London-Heathrow after the UK airspace opened was BA 84 from Vancouver. Apparently they only received clearance to enter the airspace after circling the Isle of Man a couple of times. They were forced to descend at 18 m/s through the ash layer apparently.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by sacrifice333

Article Link.

Not YVR yet... but hopefully next!

I hope so !! The way things are going, we need all the airlines we can get !!

[Vanzunator]

There was lots of speculation on this forum that as soon as EU-Canada open skies pact is signed, YVR will get a non-stop Air France flight to Paris (CDG), which obviously hasn't materialized yet; with no announcements from Air France.
I've flown YVR-CDG three times in the last 18 months and going through Montreal or Toronto adds minimum of 6-7 hours plus additional connection fatigue compared to a non-stop flight.
Paris is the most visited city in the world and it is simply unacceptable for YVR not to have a non-stop flight to CDG. I'm in Paris currently, flying back to YVR on Apr. 26th via YYZ wishing a non-stop flight instead.
Currently, the only non-stop YVR-CDG flight is the summer-only weekly AirTransat on their A330-200. YVR needs some good old lobbying to attract a few more European airlines here.

Originally Posted by trofirhen

I wonder if YVR will EVER get that Paris nonstop I harp about? BTW, it isn't just me. In that survey of desired destinations, Paris came out Number One, way ahead of all others. The second, surprisingly, was Rome.

We lost Air France to Seattle thanks to the feds. I wonder if the Open Skies will remedy that?

Most of YVR's ovrseas destinations (not counting charters) are in Asia, which is great. But I'd like to see one or two more scheduled services to Europe, too. ..... and to Dubai, for that matter, although I think that's a dead duck.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Vanzunator

There was lots of speculation on this forum that as soon as EU-Canada open skies pact is signed, YVR will get a non-stop Air France flight to Paris (CDG), which obviously hasn't materialized yet; with no announcements from Air France.
I've flown YVR-CDG three times in the last 18 months and going through Montreal or Toronto adds minimum of 6-7 hours plus additional connection fatigue compared to a non-stop flight.
Paris is the most visited city in the world and it is simply unacceptable for YVR not to have a non-stop flight to CDG. I'm in Paris currently, flying back to YVR on Apr. 26th via YYZ wishing a non-stop flight instead.
Currently, the only non-stop YVR-CDG flight is the summer-only weekly AirTransat on their A330-200. YVR needs some good old lobbying to attract a few more European airlines here.

My sentiments EXACTLY ! ! A senior contact at YVR told me that there won't be any new Vancouver - Europe destinations this year because the airlines already have their schedules in place for this year. However, he did say that next year could be quite different. Remember, the deal was only finalized in May of 2009, in Prague. However next year, when passenger demand becomes more apparent (the recession has depressed flyer numbers a lot this year) we will probably see more destinations from Vancouver to Europe. Someone will pick up the Paris nonstop sooner or later (better sooner than later)!

[Mr.Airport]

So are there any airport news?

Now that the Olympics are over, are there any construction plans for the Airport?
With the employee lot moved to Templeton, what are they going to do with all the parking space?

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Mr.Airport

So are there any airport news?

Now that the Olympics are over, are there any construction plans for the Airport?
With the employee lot moved to Templeton, what are they going to do with all the parking space?

Leave it as is for the moment, I imagine. Vancouver airport growth is rather "on hold" right now, partly because fewer people are flying due to the recession, and partly because it has had its wings clipped (no pun intended) and is thus rather stagnant in terms of expansion. I think it will be a few more years before we see anything really substantial happening there, either in terms of new terminal construction, or in terms of new destinations and more flights. Disappointing

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by Zassk

This is a strange one. If you are going to custom-build fuel barges and offload them on a custom-built depot on the Fraser River, then why not do all of that on the North Arm AT THE AIRPORT? Why pipe it 15 km across Metro Vancouver from a more distant dock next to Ladner? YVR has never explained why its proposed South Arm depot location justifies the additional risk vs. building the depot at the airport itself.

Multiple options were explored as discussed in their briefing doc, including tanker rail service from alberta, rail service from washinton state, and a new jetty on the north arm, or a facility on roberts bank.

http://www.vancouverairportfuel.ca/files/Project_Description_Jan%20_16_2009.pdf

WRT the north arm, I think they decided it would interfere too much with existing shipping lanes, it would be too exposed to bad weather and a new jetty would have to be built. the south arm has an existing warve (warf?) already built, but unused.

And IMO, i think they want to save sea island space for airport services that can't be moved off-island. having the affluent southlands neighbourhood across from the proposed north arm facilioty may also paly a role.

I think they would prefer sea access b/c the wider trend in the near-term is for a shortage of refineries in north america, rather than raw oil itself.

“Helmut Fredrich VP of corporate fuel management for Lufthansa said that fuel prices are not the major problem affecting his airline. He said: “Greater issues are the lack of refineries, cutbacks at existing refineries because of small margins and a fall in demand for gasoline. Oil companies are withdrawing from airports.” Chevron has withdrawn from continental Europe; Conoco has removed itself from Germany and the UK, while both Exxon and BP have also withdrawn from bases in Finland and the UK. Shell, too, is shutting down smaller refineries.

Lufthansa is managing its own fuel supply in many areas, using barges, trucks, trains, and pipelines into Zurich, Munich, and Vienna. Fredrich said: “It is not so easy to put the product through. We don’t like to do that as it is not our core business, but we are increasingly forced to do so.” ”

http://www.aviationtoday.com/regions/usa...om-Fuel-Infrastructure-Crisis_35599.html

[trofirhen]

Would a change in policy, procedure, and infrstructure help YVR develop into a more important hub? Would it attract more airlines? I'm not being cynical, I would simply like to know if the two things are related. Thank you.

[yesheh]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Would a change in policy, procedure, and infrstructure help YVR develop into a more important hub? Would it attract more airlines? I'm not being cynical, I would simply like to know if the two things are related. Thank you.

If the CBSA allowed passengers to transfer international to international without going through customs, there could be a market for South and Central America <--> Asia traffic that could be exploited. Even if the process was improved for International <--> US I think there could be a bit of a boost to YVR's traffic.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by yesheh

If the CBSA allowed passengers to transfer international to international without going through customs, there could be a market for South and Central America <--> Asia traffic that could be exploited. Even if the process was improved for International <--> US I think there could be a bit of a boost to YVR's traffic.

As a connector for Asia > Central & South America, that would be GREAT !!
We've got to do all we can to increase YVR's importance as a hub, otherwise it'll get relegated to a "spoke" with a few branches sticking out from it, by ...... (do I need to say who ?)

[yesheh]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

As a connector for Asia > Central & South America, that would be GREAT !!
We've got to do all we can to increase YVR's importance as a hub, otherwise it'll get relegated to a "spoke" with a few branches sticking out from it, by ...... (do I need to say who ?)

Of course, such a policy would also be implemented on a national basis, so YYZ, YYC, and YUL and all the rest would be getting the same benefit. However, none of them has nearly the ideal geographic location vis-a-vis asia and North America. Now, if only we could get some more direct flights...

[whatnext]

If you're flying this summer, the cold, dark hand of Gordo's grasping claws will add the HST to airline tickets starting May 1

...Thinking of taking a summer vacation? Then you'd be wise to book your airfare this coming week if you are flying after July 1. That's because airline tickets are also PST-exempt, but will get slammed with the HST come July 1. If you pay for those airline tickets before May 1, you will pay only the GST, and save seven per cent....
http://www.theprovince.com/Dodge+collection+period/2941914/story.html

[Yume-sama]

Well, that IS unfortunate. How does this work? EVERY flight out of YVR? Only purchased by people who live in BC? I'm confused

Let's say I buy... Calgary - Vancouver round trip, how do they figure out the HST.

Flying out of YVR will become 7% less competitive than it already is Super.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Well, that IS unfortunate. How does this work? EVERY flight out of YVR? Only purchased by people who live in BC? I'm confused

Let's say I buy... Calgary - Vancouver round trip, how do they figure out the HST.

Flying out of YVR will become 7% less competitive than it already is Super.

Are you asking if this tax applies to out-of-country flights, and that in-country (Canada) flights are exempt? A clarification would be great, Yume. I'm not as up on economic / financial / legal issues as a lot of people are. Seriously.
Thanks.