Canadian Airport Thread - Page 26

davidivivid · #**501** Posted **Mar 21, 2013, 9:42 PM**

Video of the future parkade to be built this year, in advance of the new international terminal whose construction is set to begin in january 2014.

• Video Link

Another nice video of some construction work which was shot aboard an helicopter.

• Video Link

big T · #**502** Posted **Mar 21, 2013, 10:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Yeah, I'm quite impressed with the breadth of infrastructure improvements going on nation-wide.
...
Montreal ?

Like the other airports you listed YUL went through some pretty extensive enhancements since 2005:
- brand new intl arrivals hall
- new US preclearance with streamlined check-in (you no longer need to go through US immigration with your luggage, they get pictures of it and can have them recalled as needed)
- new Marriott integrated with the US terminal
- currently ongoing international terminal expansion to add new gates, including a second A380 gate
- underground rail terminal for the hypothetical downtown rail link
- ongoing work on the roadway linking the terminal to A20/A520

Of course if this all sounds great, you have to factor in the inevitable Montreal complications: the rail link has gone through 3 competing proposals by the city, the AMT (transit authority) and the airport itself with no clear decision in sight, the road work is overdue and over budget by a factor of times 3 or 4, etc. to their credit, the airport terminal improvements which were financed directly by the airport seem to have been going well so far. But traffic growth has slowed pretty dramatically in 2012, down to about 1%, and the lack of direct links to many destinations (mainly Asia) is hurting future prospects.

rbt · #**503** Posted **Mar 21, 2013, 10:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by big T

- currently ongoing international terminal expansion to add new gates, including a second A380 gate

Does this mean the Air France Montreal <-> Paris run is a regular one?

big T · #**504** Posted **Mar 22, 2013, 12:18 PM**

That was scaled back to one daily 777 (or 340?) and one daily 747 late last year I believe. It seems air france would rather use their 380s on higher yield markets like asia, where increasing frequencies is likely a lot more expensive than at YUL. So for now there is no regular 380 service, but obviously they're bound to come back at some point and having 2 gates ready is probably good planning.

rbt · #**505** Posted **Mar 22, 2013, 1:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by big T

That was scaled back to one daily 777 (or 340?) and one daily 747 late last year I believe. It seems air france would rather use their 380s on higher yield markets like asia, where increasing frequencies is likely a lot more expensive than at YUL. So for now there is no regular 380 service, but obviously they're bound to come back at some point and having 2 gates ready is probably good planning.

So the once in a blue moon Emirates Toronto <-> Dubai trip is the only regularly scheduled A380 to Canada?

Still seems like a lot of effort to build a backup gate to attract an aircraft that doesn't want to come here.

casper · #**506** Posted **Mar 22, 2013, 1:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by big T

That was scaled back to one daily 777 (or 340?) and one daily 747 late last year I believe. It seems air france would rather use their 380s on higher yield markets like asia, where increasing frequencies is likely a lot more expensive than at YUL. So for now there is no regular 380 service, but obviously they're bound to come back at some point and having 2 gates ready is probably good planning.

I would asume the gates are not used exclusively for A380s and at that point it is quite resonable to design a few gates for the largest aircraft you expect to see.

casper · #**507** Posted **Mar 22, 2013, 2:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbt

So the once in a blue moon Emirates Toronto <-> Dubai trip is the only regularly scheduled A380 to Canada?

Still seems like a lot of effort to build a backup gate to attract an aircraft that doesn't want to come here.

I believe Vancouver also has some gates that can handle the A380. The A380 has also made medical emergency landing in either Calgary or Edmonton.

Honestly if you need to add more gates to the airport anyway you might as well make one or two extra wide. These generally are not A380 exclusive use gates, they are gates that can handle aircrafts upto the size of the A380.

As airlines that regularly service Canadian airports (Korean Airlines, British Airways, Air Frances, Lufthansa) start to actually take delivery of A380s in quantity we will probably see them more often.

Airboy · #**508** Posted **Mar 22, 2013, 3:28 PM**

I believe the reason the A380 did not pull up to the terminal here in YEG was there was no hitch available for the Tugs so they could not push it away. Interesting Iqaluit has all the gear because of all the cold weather testing for Airbus.

big T · #**509** Posted **Mar 22, 2013, 4:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by casper

I would asume the gates are not used exclusively for A380s and at that point it is quite resonable to design a few gates for the largest aircraft you expect to see.

Exactly. One thing to remember is that Montreal traffic is quite different in nature from other major Canadian airports, being skewed much more heavily towards international traffic than domestic (transborder being about the same):

Code:

          domestic  US        Intl
YYZ       43%       27%       30%
YVR       54%       24%       22%
YUL       39%       23%       38%
YYC       70%       20%       10%

The above are from 2009 (latest available but unlikely to have varied much percentage wise), easily found on Wikipedia. In raw numbers, Montreal got 4.4 million international passengers that year, vs 8.7 for Toronto and 3.4 for Vancouver.

The takeaway being that as the second international gateway into Canada (the only flights where we are likely to see A380s), it is totally justified to have 2 gates that can handle the type. These things need to be planned years in advance, and in the meantime they can easily handle other large jets for little added cost.

halifaxboyns · #**510** Posted **Mar 29, 2013, 6:40 PM**

A new video released by the Halifax Stanfield International Airport Authority - I thought it was quite well done!

kora · #**511** Posted **Apr 2, 2013, 8:51 PM**

2012 North American Airport Traffic Summary (Top 50 Airports - Passengers)

14. Toronto: 34,912,456
28. Vancouver: 17,747,297
32. Montreal: 13,791,928
33. Calgary: 13,534,798

Airports Council International (preliminary results)

Coldrsx · #**512** Posted **Apr 3, 2013, 2:35 PM**

^full link?

Edmonton's new control tower by Hilman on C2E

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BGY1Z71CMAAy55w.jpg:large)

SkydivePilot · #**513** Posted **Apr 30, 2013, 5:12 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Yeah, I'm quite impressed with the breadth of infrastructure improvements going on nation-wide.

Vancouver recently fully reno-d their airport, built a new skytrain line to their airport
Calgary doubling the size of their airport, built a new LRT line, and proposed an LRT connection to the airport
Edmonton vastly increasing the size of their airport, building new LRT line
Saskatoon vastly increasing the size of their airport, ring road nearly complete, council starting to talk about a future LRT system
Regina ?
Winnipeg vastly increased the size of their airport, constructed first leg of a dedicated BRT
Toronto building a link between airport and Union Station
Montreal ?
Quebec City's gorgeous addition to their airport, council starting to talk about a future LRT system
Halifax increasing size of their airport, council starting to talk about a future LRT system

basically every major city is doing something. When was the last time this happened? The 60s?

For Regina:

The western portion of the new super Ring Road under construction. (Other phases are being planned); new football stadium; Global Transportation Hub; and a $100-150-million-dollar airport expansion within a few years.

Black Star · #**514** Posted **Apr 30, 2013, 6:18 AM**

^^^ So basically the population of Canada went through The Big Smoke....Wow!

^^ The control tower and new airport in Edmonton are very sexy

SignalHillHiker · #**515** Posted **Apr 30, 2013, 11:55 AM**

Wow, Edmonton's looks GREAT!

SignalHillHiker · #**516** Posted **Apr 30, 2013, 11:57 AM**

A couple pictures of ours, which is currently being expanded:

And the plan:

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeddy1989

I think it has 5 gates

They're gonna turn her into this (doubled in size and capacity 10 years ahead of projections):

http://www.stjohnsairport.com/index/index.cfm?id=190

small but perdy and growing

Two major concerns of mine:

1. We have no parkade, only ever-expanding surface parking lots.
2. We have no hotel on site.

We need to get rid of that main, central parking lot (the one linked by a covered walkway). Replace that with a large parkade with a hotel on top. Then we'll be good to go for a few more years.

SkydivePilot · #**517** Posted **Apr 30, 2013, 9:56 PM**

Impressive-looking airport at St. John's!!!!

(I'll bet that there'll be a parkade in the future.)

Coldrsx · #**518** Posted **May 1, 2013, 1:59 PM**

A few longer term plans for YEG

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8265/8693223462_4d00e026ba_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8265/8692106055_c6fc63ccb5_b.jpg)

Tropics · #**519** Posted **May 5, 2013, 2:37 AM**

Seeing what many of the cities in Canada that are medium size are building I cannot help but feel Fort McMurray is doing their normal thing and underbuilding their new airport expansion to barely serve the city as of right now, not what it will be in 5 years time or even at the time when the current expansion is actually completed.

The population of Fort McMurray is skyrocketing and is expected to pretty much double in the next 15 years, which will make Fort McMurray very possibly the 3rd largest city by population in Alberta. They should be building the expansion with that in mind and the gigantic amount of traffic that the airport has due to workers who travel in and out for work.

I am guessing Fort McMurrays new airport will be underserving the community very shortly after it is built and residents of Fort Mac will continue to get fleeced for the most expensive short haul flights (by a huge margin) in North America for the forseeable future.

isaidso · #**520** Posted **May 5, 2013, 6:50 AM**

The oil sands is going to continue expanding even if we vastly increase our use of alternative fuels. I wouldn't be surprised to see 500,000 people living there 40 years from now. They need to recognize that Ft. Mac is going to be a significant Canadian city one day and stop building like its some temporary mining site.