YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[deasine]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Thank you for the timely reprimand, Deasine.
In fact, I wasn't beating a dead horse, since I know folks are sick of my Paris rantings.
I was just adding a touch of cynicism to the page.
However ... you did provide me with a lot of useful insight, and I thank you for that. Nevertheless, what I cannot understand is why Air France flies to smaller cities like Cincinnati and Salt Lake City? It must have to do with connections. Oh ... and as you know Korean Air is a Skyteam Airline, but of course, doesn't have the volume of the Star Alliance group that seems to dominate YVR.

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

CVG (sort of still is for now) and SLC are big hubs for DL hence the SkyTeam connection.

However, out of SEA, there is really not much DL activity to other than their US hubs which pretty much are all covered by numeours CDG flights anyway... other DL flights out of SEA are other European (well.. AMS) and Asian flights (NRT, PEK and KIX).

I don't recall DL every having a hub at SEA. PDX definitely did though when it used to run its Asian network out of there many years ago...

As for YVR skyteam will be limited to KL, KE, DL, the upcoming CZ and perhaps AM if that happens too.

I think I mixed up SEA and PDX, but note there is much more DL activity over at SEA than at YVR. In fact, according to Routes Online, DL is reducing capacity over to YVR now.

Note, AF has codeshare agreements with AS, and AS uses SEA as a hub.

Also note, as you pointed out trofirhen, AF flies to SLC and CVG because those are DL hubs.

As for KE (note they are increasing capacity later this year), there is a demand here! Vancouver has a large Korean base. And even then, KE also caters for many connecting passengers to other Asian destinations. Look at CI, there are often more Indians, Vietnamese, and Filipino passengers than Taiwanese passengers.

[twoNeurons]

I have a flight to Haneda at the end of March. I seriously hope it doesn't change to Narita. I specifically wanted the late take-off time from Vancouver.

The only issue is the late arrival (22:30). You have to make sure you catch a train out of there before 23:30, otherwise, you're waiting for 4 hours before the trains start up again.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

The only issue is the late arrival (22:30). You have to make sure you catch a train out of there before 23:30, otherwise, you're waiting for 4 hours before the trains start up again.

Yeah, and according to news reports *all* of the shops and restaurants close at 9PM, which is very... odd... for a terminal that has flights all night long now.

Supposedly they also have *very few* immigration staff after 9PM, too, so expect a much longer wait.

For as big as Tokyo is they could certainly work on making it more of a 24h accessible city lol. 24h trains would be a start.

Surely a good % of the 30 million people in Metro Tokyo don't go to bed by 11:30PM.

But it's not very Japanese to ask the question of "Why" things are done they way they are lol. That's just the way it is.

[SpongeG]

lots of airports shut up early though - YVR has had most things closed when i have had to pick someone up after 10 pm - 7-11 and a handful of food stuff was open but that was about it

[Yume-sama]

Yeah, but YVR isn't designed to operate primarily (over 30,000 flights per year) between 11PM and 7AM like the new HND terminal.

And only International, too, which means the need for immigration staff is high between those hours It seems to be getting a lot of bad coverage in the Japanese media, and Japanese people still give their (admittedly very tabloid-esque sensationalist media) much more weight on their own opinions than we do in the West, perhaps.

[Gordon]

Yvr has 3-4 flights to Asia between 1- 3am in the morniing during the summer.

Do many American airports run substantial overnight schedules?

[SpongeG]

my brother flew in from newfoundland once and we had to go pick him up at 2 am! and the airport was quite busy considering the time

[Gordon]

Air Canada is delaying the start of it's YVR - HND service until they can get a better departure time & therefore better onward connections ( info on ACs website in press release about the expansion of yyc Nar service.

YvR Nar will be 777.

[Johnny Aussie]

Not really surprised about the dumping of HND. Maybe it will start sometime in the future when they can get a better slot (as Air Canada says).

The NRT flight definitely switching back to 77W. Was wondering about where they were going to get the 77W from. So it looks like the 763 is going to YUL-CDG (to make it a second daily flight to Paris from YUL). But now both of those flights will be 763. So the 77W that was going to be on the YUL-CDG route is going to be the daily YVR-NRT.

So looks like YVR will have 7 daily Air Canada 777 flights next summer:

1 daily 77W to each HKG, NRT, PEK, LHR, YYZ
1 daily 77L to each SYD, YYZ

[Johnny Aussie]

WS is increasing summer 2011 transborder flying out of YVR by quite a few flights (so will be up to 8 daily).

NEW daily flight to Orange County (SNA)
HNL and OGG both increasing to daily
LAS going to double daily

However, domestically, gone are London (YXU) and Kitchener/Waterloo (YKF). This is being offset by YYZ going up to 9 daily (up from 7 daily last summer). Also slight reductions to YXE and YQR going down to 3 weekly only each.

Overall YVR flying will be up about 2 flights per day compared to summer 2010.

[deasine]

What I don't understand, and I wasn't aware of this, is why did AC change their redeye YVR-HKG flights and moved it to the afternoon!

[phesto]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

WS is increasing summer 2011 transborder flying out of YVR by quite a few flights (so will be up to 8 daily).

NEW daily flight to Orange County (SNA)
HNL and OGG both increasing to daily
LAS going to double daily

However, domestically, gone are London (YXU) and Kitchener/Waterloo (YKF). This is being offset by YYZ going up to 9 daily (up from 7 daily last summer). Also slight reductions to YXE and YQR going down to 3 weekly only each.

Overall YVR flying will be up about 2 flights per day compared to summer 2010.

Great news. Ultimately the more WS loads up west-coast transborder will benefit YVR.

[Gordon]

When did UA go to 3X daily on it's YVR ORD route?

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by Gordon

Air Canada is delaying the start of it's YVR - HND service until they can get a better departure time & therefore better onward connections ( info on ACs website in press release about the expansion of yyc Nar service.

YvR Nar will be 777.

Have you got a link to this news release?

[usog]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

Have you got a link to this news release?

http://aircanada.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=409

What were the time restrictions on the international flights for HND again? Surely they can do better than midnight.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by Gordon

Air Canada is delaying the start of it's YVR - HND service until they can get a better departure time & therefore better onward connections ( info on ACs website in press release about the expansion of yyc Nar service.

YvR Nar will be 777.

Unfortunate to see I wasn't crazy this time!

International flights at HND are primarily between 11PM and 7AM. There are *no* domestic connections during those hours.

No shops open, and no trains / buses running. So, there's very little point of actually flying in to HND unless you have people picking you up. It's also not attractive to tourists because who wants to pay for a night at a hotel when you don't get in until 2AM? HND will begin offering international day-time flights (mostly to Korea, China, and Hawaii). AC could try to get a slot there but the landing fees will be extra, extra, pricey!!!

There have been more complaints in the Japanese media about the new runways causing a lot of flight delays now, something which Japanese people are just not used to. If you've ever been on a JAL, ANA, etc. flight you'll know how PROFUSELY the pilot apologizes if they're even 5 minutes late. It throws off the whole schedule! Trains! Everything!

Many people are wondering why a new airport wasn't built. Even though KIX was a huge white elephant

[Gordon]

Why would ac not have either waited for a better landing slot at HND or if they are really serious about about increasing capacity from YVR to Tokyo investigate a 2nd slot at Narita?

[Yume-sama]

Overnight landing fees aren't as expensive, so I'm guessing they thought they'd try to make a go of it, until nobody booked the flights because of the times. NRT is also the most expensive airport in the World to land at, so, I suppose they thought they'd try HND before coughing up the money to NRT. With the announcement of 5x weekly YYC - NRT now, I do believe they are serious in increasing their Canada - Japan connections~

It's economics. Same reason they abandoned KIX. Astronomical landing fees there!

And they could have foresaw YVR - HND, with domestic connections to KIX. Unfortunately there aren't any connections overnight.

[SpongeG]

Hawkair moving to Vancouver's main terminal

Company says move means more choice for customers

Tyler Noble
1/25/2011

Major changes are coming to Hawkair's operations at Vancouver International Airport this spring.

After operating out of YVR's south terminal for more than 10 years, Hawkair is moving over to the main terminal as early as the beginning of April.

General Manager Rod Hayward says easier access to Canada Line trains -- which reach downtown Vancouver in just 25 minutes -- is one of the biggest factors in the decision to change terminals.

"I know I've seen many times where half the flight gets off the airplane, hops on the shuttle bus and then goes over to the main terminal, and takes the SkyTrain to Vancouver or downtown."

Hayward says the move will also allow Hawkair to expand relationships with other carriers that currently operate out of the larger main terminal.

...

http://www.cftktv.com/News/Story.aspx?ID=1351753

[DKaz]

Flying to Haneda would be awesome, especially for cheap@$$es like me who doesn't want to spend more than 1,000 yen on a train fare, Haneda to Shinjuku takes half the time as Narita to Shinjuku on the regular trains... but the last train out of Haneda leaves at just after midnight and doesn't run again until after 5am. The flight would either have to arrive at Haneda by 10pm or after 3am, it wouldn't make sense if the trains arrived between those hours.

I prefer JAL anyway...