YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by deasine

Berlin is their hub...

They actually have more flights out of their hub in Düsseldorf than out of Berlin. Their seasonal fight to Vancoucer is from Düsseldorf.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Hourglass

Don't just think in terms of LH, Trof. The new Berlin airport is potentially a significant opportunity for Air Berlin to set-up a hub (assuming they don't go bust...), providing an alternative to Star Alliance.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
might that mean extension and/or expansion of theîr current summer YVR - Düsseldorf service?

[bils]

outlet mall officially moved to templeton station as per richmond review

[Klazu]

In Berlin the new airport will replace not just one or two, but three existing airports. Tempelhof was already shut down and Tegel and Schönefeld will follow once new the BER opens. All of those airports were so old that renovating or expanding them to meet today's standards was just not viable option.

The new BER is definitely a great thing for Berlin and will be amazing airport once they finally complete it. I remember reading that Lufthansa plans adding more long-distance flights from the new airport and at least for Air Berlin it will be a key-hub.

Berlin's problem has been that despite being one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, it has lacked on non-stop connections outside of Europe. Inside Europe you can get anywhere non-stop, many times even very cheaply, thanks to several low-cost airlines operating to/from Berlin. However anywhere else one always needs to transit through another airport. Hopefully with BER this will change.

[Jebby]

Originally Posted by Klazu

In Berlin the new airport will replace not just one or two, but three existing airports. Tempelhof was already shut down and Tegel and Schönefeld will follow once new the BER opens. All of those airports were so old that renovating or expanding them to meet today's standards was just not viable option.

The new BER is definitely a great thing for Berlin and will be amazing airport once they finally complete it. I remember reading that Lufthansa plans adding more long-distance flights from the new airport and at least for Air Berlin it will be a key-hub.

Berlin's problem has been that despite being one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, it has lacked on non-stop connections outside of Europe. Inside Europe you can get anywhere non-stop, many times even very cheaply, thanks to several low-cost airlines operating to/from Berlin. However anywhere else one always needs to transit through another airport. Hopefully with BER this will change.

The thing about Berlin is it's in the middle of nothing. It's an island of population with nothing really within a 2-3 hour drive. Frankfurt, on the other hand, is positioned where within 2-3 hours drive/train you hit a large amount of Germany's population.

Replacing Tempelhof isn't of much consequence, by the time it closed it was handling about 300,000 passengers per year out of over 20 million using Berlin's airports. I only used it a handful of times flying from Friedrichshafen to go home for the weekend while I was at boarding school in southern Germany.

My favorite airport ever, though, is Tegel. I loved being able to arrive half an hour before my flight would leave, check in and have the gate right behind the check-in desk. I imagine it was a mess for people transferring, especially on international routes where you'd have to go through customs to get into Germany, then go through customs again before boarding another flight, but I doubt those passengers made up more than 1% of people using the airport, especially since Schengen.

BER looks amazing, but it's been an endless money pit.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by Jebby

My favorite airport ever, though, is Tegel. I loved being able to arrive half an hour before my flight would leave, check in and have the gate right behind the check-in desk. I imagine it was a mess for people transferring, especially on international routes where you'd have to go through customs to get into Germany, then go through customs again before boarding another flight, but I doubt those passengers made up more than 1% of people using the airport, especially since Schengen.

Reminds me of Helsinki, where the minimum check-in time for a domestic flight is 20 minutes; and minimum international-domestic flight connection is 40 minutes, which is pretty astonishing for an airport that size. I think next steps for improvement at YVR should be reducing connection times and a faster baggage system to allow for this.

Now that YVR is moving the outlets to Templeton, perhaps they can begin considering to add facilities for check-in services and baggage drop-off there to encourage more people to shop at the outlet.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by deasine

Reminds me of Helsinki, where the minimum check-in time for a domestic flight is 20 minutes; and minimum international-domestic flight connection is 40 minutes, which is pretty astonishing for an airport that size. I think next steps for improvement at YVR should be reducing connection times and a faster baggage system to allow for this.

Now that YVR is moving the outlets to Templeton, perhaps they can begin considering to add facilities for check-in services and baggage drop-off there to encourage more people to shop at the outlet.

In what I hope is a related context, could I ask your perception of plans for a new transborder terminal at Templeton. This is years off, I know, but do you have any information to share about it? Thank you.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by deasine

Reminds me of Helsinki, where the minimum check-in time for a domestic flight is 20 minutes; and minimum international-domestic flight connection is 40 minutes, which is pretty astonishing for an airport that size.

I don't consider HEL a very large airport, as most of the traffic from it is just by Finnair. But I agree that for transiting it's great thanks to great arrangements and small distances.

I think it has a lot to do with Finnair's strategy to connect Europe and Asia thanks to Helsinki's location on the shortest flight path (just like Vancouver is located between North America and Asia). The airport has been largely built with this strategy in mind. Also, the airport is the only major airport out of Finland, which means that almost all domestic flights connect through HEL.

[trofirhen]

Never flown through it, but I looked up Helsinki's destination roster, and it surely is impressive and far-reaching for a relatively small, seemingly remote airport. But the factors of short polar distances and connectivity, as stated, are what give it an advantage.

On a tangent, checking in Wikipedia again, Emirates, spring 2013, apparently starts service to Warsaw. WAW has fewer than 10m pax per year. Warsaw appears very well-connected with a lot of range also, it seems.

I wonder what their marketing strategy is? Poland has 35m people let's not forget. Maybe that's it, the Polish air market, in and of itself.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I don't consider HEL a very large airport, as most of the traffic from it is just by Finnair. But I agree that for transiting it's great thanks to great arrangements and small distances.

Yes it isn't large by any means at all, but achieving such connection times for the capacity it handles is impressive. I haven't transferred myself, but I know people who have and they enjoy how compact everything is at the airport, especially since a lot of other European airports require a lot of walking.

@trofirhen, what transborder terminal are you referring to? I never heard of them developing anything near there, and frankly with the developments that will be taken place there, I can't see them develop a terminal there.

Did you mean an expansion of the Transborder terminal? If so, it's just a new wing/pier to the East of the current airport check-in area, and it will be a long ways away especially since YVR has so many other plans. Transborder traffic really isn't that much at YVR, and nor has international traffic grown that much to justify a need for another expansion (note the current configuration allows for flexible change of gates between international and transborder since they share the same arrival procedures and infrastructure).

[Hourglass]

@trofirhen - are you referring to the new terminal outlined in the 2027 strategic plan? That would be built to the east of the existing ITB.

If so, best to check the YVR website as the documents are there, I think under future developments.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by deasine

Yes it isn't large by any means at all, .......

@trofirhen, what transborder terminal are you referring to? I never heard of them developing anything near there, and frankly with the developments that will be taken place there, I can't see them develop a terminal there.

Did you mean an expansion of the Transborder terminal? If so, it's just a new wing/pier to the East of the current airport check-in area, and it will be a long ways away especially since YVR has so many other plans. Transborder traffic really isn't that much at YVR, and nor has international traffic grown that much to justify a need for another expansion (note the current configuration allows for flexible change of gates between international and transborder since they share the same arrival procedures and infrastructure).

I think I got my locales mixed up.
Was confusing Templeton Station with Terminal 3 station.
I thought this retail, with the possible check-ins and baggage cheques you mentioned, was a perhaps a precursor for the eventual transborder terminal- years off, yes I know - but got confused about it. Sorry

Originally Posted by Hourglass

@trofirhen - are you referring to the new terminal outlined in the 2027 strategic plan? That would be built to the east of the existing ITB.

If so, best to check the YVR website as the documents are there, I think under future developments.

Yes, I had looked at the 2027 master plan, and had seen the plan for the transborder terminal to be built in 10 or 15 years. In the YVR Master Plan, this terminal pland has oval structures predominating.

In another render I saw somewhere here, (?) I saw the proposed new transborder terminal with five straight piers prodtrucing parallel.

I just wondered about the future of the airport, is really all. Just a question as to where it's headed, etc.

[Bigtime]

Let me just say that if this is indeed true you guys in YVR suck, you suck suck suck!



On the bright side this will be yet another A388 flight that may divert to YYC one of these days...

[Spork]

Excellent. Heading to Europe around that time. Unfortunately Vancouver->Munich round trip is about $1400. Munich->Vancouver is $1000. How does that work.

[LeftCoaster]

A380 Munich to Vancouver? I'd be surprised if there was that much demand.

[Bigtime]

Update, according to the thread on airliners.net this was a mistake by the folks at Lufthansa. The MUC flight remains an A333.

[teriyaki]

Don't see why they would send an A380 over to YVR on their first A380 out of MUC. Although I surely hope its true (747's are dropping like flies already at YVR), i'm not holding my breath on this one.

Side note. Do we have gates that can fully accomodate 2-level boarding for the A380?

[moosejaw]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

Side note. Do we have gates that can fully
accommodate 2-level boarding for the A380?

There are currently two gates capable but none fly there currently



Only YYZ and YUL regularly see A380s

• YUL- Air France
• YYZ -Emirates

[LeftCoaster]

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before YVR sees its first regular service A380, I was just very surprised it was Munich.

Turns out my surprise was well founded.

[Gordon]

I thought Lufthansa had discontnued it's service to Calgary so it would likely be a while before they would start a new service to Calgary.