YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[trofirhen]

... they show relatively little interest in anything but YYC > Asia flights. Understandably, as they don't have any year-round scheduled service there. We take a lot for granted here in YVR. Just a few more key overseas connections (IST, for example) and we'd have it "licked," so to speak.

I think one main objective for YVR (if not the overarching one) is not to be eclipsed by SEA-TAC or maybe even YYC ..... or BLI for that matter (only on certain flights from there, obviously)

[Hourglass]

YYC has year-round service to Tokyo on Air Canada (announced Feb 2012)

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Hourglass

YYC has year-round service to Tokyo on Air Canada (announced Feb 2012)

Excuse my ignorance (I goofed again), but ... Good stuff! I was looking at the SSP YYC airport page, and they all seemed happy about the upcoming Narita flights, (which connect with Star Alliance ANA there) but seemed to very much want a Hong Kong route as well.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by cornholio

London is always pretty expensive. Anyone know what their landing fees actually break down to?

Sample Itinerary. Now the UK YQ (taxes, fees, surcharges) for Economy class is much much lower than in Business and/or First (it's$215.00+ on a sample flight).

Vancouver Airport Improvement Fee (SQ) CA$20.00 Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax (BC) (RC) CA$2.40 Canadian Air Travelers Security Charge (CA) CA$25.91 United Kingdom Air Passengers Duty (GB) CA$107.50 United Kingdom Passenger Service Charge (UB) CA$57.00
Subtotal per passenger CA$1,462.81 Number of passengers x1
Total airfare & taxes CA$1,462.81

• This ticket is non-refundable.
• Changes to this ticket will incur a penalty fee.

Airfare is never really based on distances (it's a small factor), but on supply and demand and costs of operation.

[SpongeG]

• Video Link

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

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LOL he said .... Vancouverians ... he needs to use WIKI more I thinks.

[SpongeG]

yeah the other press made fun of him

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[SpongeG]

there was a flashmob at the aiport last week apparently

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[Johnny Aussie]

Sichuan hasn't even started their new YVR-SHE-CTU route and they have just extended it to year-round. Originally it was to go to end of October.

http://airlineroute.net/2012/05/29/3u-yvr-w12

[deasine]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Sichuan hasn't even started their new YVR-SHE-CTU route and they have just extended it to year-round. Originally it was to go to end of October.

http://airlineroute.net/2012/05/29/3u-yvr-w12

I guess they are really confident about their route.

[Johnny Aussie]

Another respectable showing.

Overall up 4.8% (YTD up 5.0%)
Domestic up 5.4% (YTD up 4.9%)
Transborder up 4.6% (YTD up 5.4%)
Asia Pacific up 5.0% (YTD up 6.0%)
Europe up 0.7% (YTD up 2.6%)
Misc International up 3.6% (YTD up 3.1%)

Cargo also up 2.0% (but YTD down 1.3%).

And South terminal showing a decent increase of 16% after getting off to a bad start.

[mezzanine]

Hello....

Air Canada is shifting its strategy for launching a discount operation, focusing on locating a new low-cost international carrier in Vancouver in a bid to tap into the potential of Asian destinations.
...
Plans call for the new entity to take over Air Canada's overseas flights in and out of Vancouver on wide-body aircraft. Some pilots and flight attendants will be from Canada and others could be based offshore.
...
Mr. Rovinescu was in Vancouver last week during a meeting of the Star Alliance. He met with a senior B.C. government official to provide a briefing on Air Canada's vision for raising Vancouver's profile as an international aviation hub.
...
Union leaders are upset that Air Canada wants to borrow major elements of the strategy deployed by Australia's Qantas, which runs the low-cost operation Jetstar with airline partners in an array of Asian markets, including service to Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. Qantas has expansion plans slated next year in a Hong Kong-based joint venture with China Eastern Airlines Co. Ltd. for China, Japan and South Korea.
...
Air Canada would like to sign up a partner from China, though it is also possible that the Vancouver-based joint venture could instead involve a European-based carrier such as Virgin Atlantic, which is 51 per cent owned by British billionaire Richard Branson and 49 per cent by Singapore Airlines.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...sia-for-low-cost-airline/article4253877/

[Valley_Refugee]

Just saw this too! Woah! Not sure what to make of it, exactly. I think it could definitely be a good thing and lead to a bump of the list of destinations served from YVR. On the other hand, does it signal Air Canada giving up on business travel? Does the Qantas venture, Jetstar, offer business service? I also have friends who work for AC out of Vancouver, so probably not good news for some of them.

[st7860]

Well I don't think any of the Asian carriers have such high wage costs

[mezzanine]

I dont k now what to make of it either, but if we are able to get a vancouver-based airline that has more labour flexibility that would be huge and bodes well for overall traffic growth to YVR.

The tricky part is where they now to plan to make it fully independent of aircanada and star alliance. i don't know how well that will work, but is see a huge potential upside to that. heck, maybe they'll even name it "Canadian Airlines"...

Jetstar seems to have a business class. If anything, jetstar seems to be doing well, while qantas faces stiff competition and similar rigid restrictions similar to AC. perhaps johnny aussie has more perspective.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

I dont k now what to make of it either, but if we are able to get a vancouver-based airline that has more labour flexibility that would be huge and bodes well for overall traffic growth to YVR.

The tricky part is where they now to plan to make it fully independent of aircanada and star alliance. i don't know how well that will work, but is see a huge potential upside to that. heck, maybe they'll even name it "Canadian Airlines"...

Jetstar seems to have a business class. If anything, jetstar seems to be doing well, while qantas faces stiff competition and similar rigid restrictions similar to AC. perhaps johnny aussie has more perspective.

Yeah for all the good that will do them when they've got 11 months to get that by the BC gov't before Christy and the BC Liberals go down in flames to Adrian Dix and the NDP.

[Gordon]

I don't think a change in government would affect this because the NDP aren't likely to anything to coast B.C. jobs.

[Valley_Refugee]

Naming it Canadian Airlines might actually be a smart move! I think the Canadian name still has goodwill capital to spend with the public...I *still* hear people wishing we had Canadian around.

[ACT7]

Part of the article stated that Vancouver has been an underperforming market for AC on international routes and that AC is trying to figure out how to make Vancouver work, hence the desire to refocus on low-cost alternatives.

I assume that part of the strategy is to free up some of the higher yield aircraft for South America and higher yield routes out of YYZ. So it seems to speak to the fact that Asian traffic out of YVR is predominantly VFR and AC is unable to compete with the likes of Air China, China Eastern, etc.

Will be interesting to see if this materializes.

[incognism]

From a consumer standpoint, AC's pricing for the YVR-HKG route is somewhat bizarre.

They've chosen to basically match CX's pricing, which makes sense on the surface since they're the only two non-stop options on the route.

The price-sensitive travellers are priced-out of AC's offering, and generally will book one-stop options with Air China (PEK), or China Eastern (PVG).

So that leaves AC in direct competition for CX -- and since they aren't competing with CX on price, that pretty much only leaves competing with them on service.

In Economy, it's pretty much a toss-up, although I'd venture to guess that CX has a better brand presence overall. Nonetheless, the two products in cattle class is fairly similar.

However, in Business, AC's product (especially their soft product) is vastly inferior to CX. They are consistently either equal or above Cathay's pricing in Business, and I can't imagine many people opting for AC unless they are Star Alliance diehards.

Long story short, the case for OD passengers to fly AC YVR-HKG is fairly weak. I'm not surprised they are struggling on this route.