YEG - Edmonton Int Airport

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by itom 987

I'm a dirty Canuck supporter.

And I am a dirty anybody but...YYC.

[LO 044]

Anyone notice flyeia.com is down? That storm coming through must be causing some real problems. I have read that the airport is closed, a very rare occurence for YEG. I am curious if aircraft is currently circling or heading to YYC.

Also, yesterday evening i noticed a big vertical X on Runway 30 in the late evening. Was the runway closed? Is there some kind of construction / maintenance going on on that runway?

[Jasper and one o nin]

Departures were effected by the storm. Planes were not authorized to depart. Server was/is overloaded.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by tuffyy

International numbers still grew last month while YYC's plummeted. So they do have a handy tool to sell the city to "another" airline.

Yes, but what is the breakdown of those international figures?

YYC's decline is based mainly on reductions in overseas flights offset somewhat by increased sun destination flying.

YEG's increase (and it is only 0.5% YTD through April) is based mainly on a few additional Sunwing/Transat flights. In fact for the first 2 months of the year International was down. Part of this would be the reduction in AC's LHR route.

I do not believe these figures would necessarily be a "handy tool" to sell to another airline when we are talking about a new international airline or service.

[tuffyy]

Originally Posted by LO 044

Anyone notice flyeia.com is down? That storm coming through must be causing some real problems. I have read that the airport is closed, a very rare occurence for YEG. I am curious if aircraft is currently circling or heading to YYC.

Also, yesterday evening i noticed a big vertical X on Runway 30 in the late evening. Was the runway closed? Is there some kind of construction / maintenance going on on that runway?

Not as rare as you would think, YEG goes into "ground stops" several times a year. Most occasions are when thunderstorms are in the immediate vicinity simply for the safety of ground crews working in the area.

Runway 30 was just re-paved and is closed until everything settles.

[tuffyy]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Yes, but what is the breakdown of those international figures?

YYC's decline is based mainly on reductions in overseas flights offset somewhat by increased sun destination flying.

YEG's increase (and it is only 0.5% YTD through April) is based mainly on a few additional Sunwing/Transat flights. In fact for the first 2 months of the year International was down. Part of this would be the reduction in AC's LHR route.

I do not believe these figures would necessarily be a "handy tool" to sell to another airline when we are talking about a new international airline or service.

Hey Johnny! I didnt mean to offend you! LOL...

Someone needs to lighten up. No one can deny the reductions in YYC-Europe flying that has become apparent. And as for the YYC- sun spot flying the growth was still pretty minimal.

Growth is growth. A decline is a decline...

[YegFan]

Originally Posted by tuffyy

Hey Johnny! I didnt mean to offend you! LOL...

Someone needs to lighten up. No one can deny the reductions in YYC-Europe flying that has become apparent. And as for the YYC- sun spot flying the growth was still pretty minimal.

^ in my experience, those numbers do not mean a whole lot because they are driven by supply.

I have done the EWR-YEG three time already in the past 5 weeks and I can tell you that there were quite a few passengers coming from other overseas flights (mainly Europe). Now that makes only trans-border numbers look better on paper. But I am sure the airport is getting more data that tell them about the where pax initially come from and where they ultimately end up (More comprehensive O&D reporting).

So whether YYC is down by a bit or YEG is up by a bit, really mean nothing. It's the O&D data that determine that.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by tuffyy

Hey Johnny! I didnt mean to offend you! LOL...

Someone needs to lighten up. No one can deny the reductions in YYC-Europe flying that has become apparent. And as for the YYC- sun spot flying the growth was still pretty minimal.

Growth is growth. A decline is a decline...

By no means was I offended. And no need to get upset.. Perhaps you misinterpreted my "tone" this is just a discussion and I was only questioning these stats as a "tool."

I don't believe a major international airline would just look at an airport's international figures and make a decision based on "growth."

They will want to know where that growth is and whether it is higher yielding or not. That is why I was hoping YYC would break down their international figures a bit more (eg what YVR does).

[LO 044]

Originally Posted by tuffyy

Not as rare as you would think, YEG goes into "ground stops" several times a year. Most occasions are when thunderstorms are in the immediate vicinity simply for the safety of ground crews working in the area.

Runway 30 was just re-paved and is closed until everything settles.

tuffy do you know when Rwy 30 will reopen? This might be a good time for some plane spotting at YEG since only one runway is open. There used to be a nice gravel road parallel to Runway 02/20. Does anyone know if this road is still accessible?

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by LO 044

Anyone notice flyeia.com is down? That storm coming through must be causing some real problems. I have read that the airport is closed, a very rare occurence for YEG. I am curious if aircraft is currently circling or heading to YYC.

Also, yesterday evening i noticed a big vertical X on Runway 30 in the late evening. Was the runway closed? Is there some kind of construction / maintenance going on on that runway?

Was the airport actually closed? That indeed would be a very rare occurrence. Most times when weather is the issue the airport is not actually closed, rather aircraft just cannot arrive or depart due to the weather for various reasons. But the airport itself is not closed and nothing is stopping a plan from taking off or landing if it wants to.

[Jasper and one o nin]

^ not closed, departures were just delayed.

[Xelebes]

Operations were suspended at worst.

[LO 044]

Hey tuffy, it looks like LOT will be flying 787 charter flights to Cancun this winter. Enjoy.

You'll need to translate this link: http://www.pasazer.com/in-13980-czartery,wracaja,do,lask,lotu.php

Perhaps LOT would be willing to fly some 787 summer charters to YEG. Rumors also have it that LOT will be leasing out two of it's 787's as part of its restructuring. Maybe AC would be willing to lease the birds although i imagine the 787 may be a hot commodity price wise.

[tuffyy]

We expect a few 787's at CUN this year with Thomson starting service from several cities in the U.K. In the very near future.

It will be nice to see LOT again! I recall the 762's and 763's at YEG back in what seems many moons ago... CUN is growing in popularity with Eastern Europeans in recent years and we now see Aeroflot and TransAero routinely from Moscow and more recently OrenAir from St.Petersburg.

[haljackey]

I'm flying in next week... wondering what's the best way to get downtown since the airport pretty far from the city centre.

I see that there's a bus that connects the airport with the LRT but it doesn't run all hours. Same goes for the shuttle bus to some hotels.

Maybe I should have picked flights that didn't arrive super late and leave super early

[hilman]

Edmonton International Airport
Passenger Statistics for May 2013

Highlights
Overall 573,654 passengers* (2,834,170 year-to-date)
Domestic 449,494 passengers* (2,042,133 year-to-date)
Transborder 98,768 passengers* (566,149 year-to-date)
International 25,392 passengers* (225,888 year-to-date)
Rolling 12 Month 6,770,925

*May Record

Growth%
Overall 4.5% (3.4% year-to-date)
Domestic 3.8% (3.0% year-to-date)
Transborder 6.1% (5.8% year-to-date)
International 11.3% (1.6% year-to-date)
Rolling 12 Month 4.8%

[EdmTrekker]

Originally Posted by haljackey

I'm flying in next week... wondering what's the best way to get downtown since the airport pretty far from the city centre.

I see that there's a bus that connects the airport with the LRT but it doesn't run all hours. Same goes for the shuttle bus to some hotels.

Maybe I should have picked flights that didn't arrive super late and leave super early

When hours are you arriving and departing - also which area are you staying in?

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Rocket252

My question is what will be required for us to land that FRA flight - passenger loads /freight volumes/metal/population size/perceived competition from another source?

My personal opinion is nothing will happen untill AC is pushed by competition.

For YEG to land the FRA route an airline (lets be realistic its oinly AC or LH) would have to get a viable slot pair. Currently there are no slot pairs at FRA at viable times. Even AC844/845 slot times are getting a little out of hand (leaves a little too early for anything but Western Europe connection points).

In this instance LH holds the appropriate slots but AC holds the appropriate aircraft (763 or 788). The two airlines would have to make YEG-FRA a priority among all other North American options, so LH would have to discontinue an FRA-North America flight with no other possibilities for UA or AC to use the slot elsewhere. This is essentially how YYC got their LH frequency, the airline decided to give YYC a try because another American city lost its second daily service (IIRC BOS was sacrificed on the bean counter alter). In the YYC instance LH did not have the right aircraft to service the market as the 343 had too much front cabin (First and Business) product.

If AC got a hold of an extra slot pair that could work for Western North American departures, their first choice is to launch YVR-FRA (as stated to me be their current Chief Commercial Officer), second choice betwen a second YYC-FRA and YEG-FRA. I believe YYZ-FRA and YUL-FRA are well handled. As for a tie breaker between second choice, my guess would be to go with a second YYC-FRA as the market size is known to be able to handle 2 daily flights, plus 2 dailies 2-4 hours appart would solve the current issue of 844/845 not having good connections in FRA.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Cage

If AC got a hold of an extra slot pair that could work for Western North American departures, their first choice is to launch YVR-FRA (as stated to me be their current Chief Commercial Officer), second choice betwen a second YYC-FRA and YEG-FRA. I believe YYZ-FRA and YUL-FRA are well handled. As for a tie breaker between second choice, my guess would be to go with a second YYC-FRA as the market size is known to be able to handle 2 daily flights, plus 2 dailies 2-4 hours appart would solve the current issue of 844/845 not having good connections in FRA.

That may explain the YVR-FRA potential route indicated on their recent investor presentation slides.

I suppose there is always the hope of Air Transat attempting YEG again... but that never seems to last one season.

Perhaps Condor or Icelandair (via KEF) might work.

[LO 044]

Originally Posted by Cage

Even AC844/845 slot times are getting a little out of hand (leaves a little too early for anything but Western Europe connection points).

...plus 2 dailies 2-4 hours appart would solve the current issue of 844/845 not having good connections in FRA.

If these slot times are getting out of hand then it's AC's own doing and not the lack of available slots at FRA. YYC-FRA flights used to arrive around 11am in FRA and depart at around 1:30pm in the afternoon back to YYC. Now it looks like the 330 is flown in this fashion: YYC-FRA-YYZ-FRA-YYC. In the end this helps YEG's LHR-YEG connection as the 10:30am FRA-YYC flight becomes useless for most people connecting.

Air Transat's YEG-FRA flights have always been useless. Their FRA-YEG flights departed something like 8:00am. Gee i wonder why that flight time didn't work. FRA is a great airport for connections but not much else unless you want to catch an ICE to somewhere near by. Air Transat is a stand alone airline with no viable connecting partners.