YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[Hourglass]

Originally Posted by Gordon

One reason for the decrease in the number of Asian Nonstops is that massive recession over the last year or so.

With the range on the new jets an Pacific gateway is not as necessary as it once was.

Roughly how many Asian non stops does Seattle have?

Yes, part of it is the recession, and part of it is the withdrawal of services due to restrictions on air services -- perceived or otherwise (eg Singapore Airlines). The increase in Asian nonstops to Seattle is probably due to the fact that Seattle is under-served relative to main West Coast gateways such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver,

As far as I can tell, Seattle currently has around 35 weekly nonstops to Asia, of which 21 are to Japan (compared to YVR which has 14 weekly nonstops to Japan but over 90 weekly Asian flights overall).

Overall SEA still has far fewer Asian flights than YVR, but if the new flights ex-Seattle are successful, I can see airlines such as Delta building further Asian hub operations there -- which will definitely impact Vancouver.

[red-paladin]

The fact that Canada is getting normalized tourist status in China should lead to more flights from there right?

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Thank you for that!!
It's time more people woke up and smelled the coffee. Vancouver is losing its prominence as a hub for the Pacific, and this will be eroded even further. A YVR marketing official contact told me that senior YVR staff are concerned about YVR being relegated to a "spoke."

People who sanguinely think otherwise are kidding themselves. Thanks again.

Vancouver as the Pacific Hub disappeared the day Canadian Airlines was taken over by Air Canada. From that point on every decision was Toronto-centric.

A friend who started with Wardair, lived through that merger with Canadian and then Air Canada before retiring has nearly-daily contact with 'her kids' still flying and says the Canadian vs. Air Canada staff gulf is still as deep & wide as the day of the takeover. Some ex-Canadian cabin crew prefer to fly with 'our' ex-Canadian pilots because 'their' AC pilots treat ex-Canadian crews like shit. This will get resolved only when staff of CA and AC retire and the younger staff won't have the historical animosity about the takeover.

[mr.x]

^ How vital was Canada 3000 to the Canadian airline industry back in the day? or even to Vancouver? Same question for Canadian Airlines.

[MistyMountainHop]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ How vital was Canada 3000 to the Canadian airline industry back in the day? or even to Vancouver? Same question for Canadian Airlines.

Canadian Airlines focused much more on YVR than Air Canada does. I was quite disappointed when they were bought out.

[whatnext]

A break from the regularly scheduled Air Canada bashing (I believe there are forums for that) to actually discuss some YVR infrastructure:

For almost two decades, Vancouver International Airport has bucked a Transport Canada recommendation for safety buffers that would help aircraft land safely in the event of a runway overshoot or undershoot.

But with the federal government now threatening to mandate such buffers, YVR says it has the available space to implement them, even though it could cost tens of millions of dollars...

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/good+sh...ficials/3198921/story.html#ixzz0rzmkXD3S

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ How vital was Canada 3000 to the Canadian airline industry back in the day? or even to Vancouver? Same question for Canadian Airlines.

Canada 3000 was a charter airline

Canadian Airlines was a scheduled airline like Air Canada is today

it was great from what I recall using it

I also remember PWA and CP Air

[SFUVancouver]

The name Ward Air is still spoken with reverence among many flyers of a certain age. Its customers service was simply unequalled in Canada. If I recall correctly Canadian Airlines bought them out and attempted to adopt their standard of customer service with pretty good results. When Air Canada bought Canadian it was Air Canada's lower level of customer service that was extended to the new acquisition.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

The name Ward Air is still spoken with reverence among many flyers of a certain age. Its customers service was simply unequal led in Canada.

I only flew once with WardAir to Hawaii and back again on a DC-10. It was the best flight I've ever had. Nothing since has equaled it. I was very sad to see them go.

[trofirhen]

Care to see an nteresting connection between open skies and lower air fares? If so, the please click on the link.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Want+cheap+airfares+Europe/3207898/story.html

[trofirhen]

Hate to be a repetitive bore, but many people complain that our airfares are so much higher in Canada than the USA. Read the above link and you'll find out all of that, and more .........

[SpongeG]

we know we are getting screwed but being canadians we just take it

[jlousa]

Don't know about that, I just booked flights to Paris, Madrid and Barcelona and only paid $599 plus the barrage of taxes they came in at just over $900 each. That's pretty damn cheap if you ask me, I still remember paying $2000 a ticket in the mid eighties. I looked and I couldn't get anything out of Seattle for that price not to mention wasting hours of my time. I have no doubt you can save money on some flights out of Seatac but in my situations I've never found that.

[Yume-sama]

Airfares have gotten cheaper over the years. But, people want to have their lard butts and every personal belonging flown across the Country in a couple of hours for little more than the price of a bus ticket

Which is nice...

I'm planning to fly across Europe next Summer from city to city and was pleasantly surprised at how stunningly cheap the flights are between cities.

It never ceases to amaze me the stupid things people do to save a few dollars, too. Like, connecting at a place 4 hours out of the way when a direct flight is available for $40 more.

[flight_from_kamakura]

yvr has some pretty good bargains for some places, and less good for others. traveling from yul to narita, for some reason was always a few bucks cheaper than going via yvr. flying anywhere in the us will almost always be cheaper from sea-tac, though sometimes not enough to warrant the trip. i recently popped over to hawaii for a couple weeks from sfo and it came in at ~$260 roundtrip, a fare you'd never find out of yvr. actually, now that i think of it, i can't think of anything (other than maybe newfoundland or calgary) that would be cheaper out of yvr viz. sfo. but i guess for most folks, that's sort of academic.

[giallo]

^ ^I know. I'll always go for the direct flight every time (if it's available), even if it's a $100+ more than a connecting flight.
Another thing that dictates prices is the time of year of course. Vancouver is quite a popular destination out of Shanghai in the summer, and the ticket prices at PVG reflect that. I'm coming back at the end of July, and my ticket was about $1450CDN return. Compare that to if I left before June 13th; $750CDN.

[SpongeG]

how did u get a flight to paris?

it must be a charter flight not a regular airline flight since YVR isn't served by a regular flight there

[jlousa]

Air Transat reintroduced Paris this summer, they also introduced Barcelona and Madrid flights this year so I did my part, I'm a little worried if the demand is there for the service long term because when picking my seats on the flights I had almost carte blanche.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Air Transat reintroduced Paris this summer, they also introduced Barcelona and Madrid flights this year so I did my part, I'm a little worried if the demand is there for the service long term because when picking my seats on the flights I had almost carte blanche.

Was that going to Spain? Or to Paris? I ask this simply because I hear that the regularly scheduled Seattle-Paris service on Air France is doing very well, making money, flying full year round ........

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

we know we are getting screwed but being canadians we just take it

You're right ... but there MUST be a way to change that. What could we do to get those f---heads in Ottawa to allow Total Open skies, as the article says we should?