Canadian Airport Thread

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Policy Wonk

WestJet on the other hand has destroyed more luggage than any airline I have ever seen, absolutely astonishing. Apparently their bag smashers aren't "owners".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C-e96m4730

You actually check your bags!!!

If you can't live off of carry on luggage for at least a week, then you aren't a real man......

[SkahHigh]

YUL's six-gate expansion in the International section will start in 2014 and be completed in 2016. Two of them will be able to have wide-body planes such as A-380s. This will bring the number of gates to 19 for the International section.

[craneSpotter]

Originally Posted by SkahHigh

YUL's six-gate expansion in the International section will start in 2014 and be completed in 2016. Two of them will be able to have wide-body planes such as A-380s. This will bring the number of gates to 19 for the International section.

How is YUL doing with International/trans-border route expansion?

I see the following announcements for 2013:

San Francisco was bumped by AC to daily year-round
AC up gauged daily service to Paris (458 seater 777-300ER)
Year-round service to Geneva was also up gauged by AC?
Air Algerie increased summer 2013 frequency to Algiers to 6x weekly
Seasonal winter service (13/14) to Aruba & Ixtapa added by SunWing
2014 summer service to Nice and Barcelona are to be added by Rouge.
2014 summer service to Rome will be bumped to daily by AC

Any more?

[SkahHigh]

Originally Posted by craneSpotter

How is YUL doing with International/trans-border route expansion?

I see the following announcements for 2013:

San Francisco was bumped by AC to daily year-round
AC up gauged daily service to Paris (458 seater 777-300ER)
Year-round service to Geneva was also up gauged by AC?
Air Algerie increased summer 2013 frequency to Algiers to 6x weekly
Seasonal winter service (13/14) to Aruba & Ixtapa added by SunWing
2014 summer service to Nice and Barcelona are to be added by Rouge.
2014 summer service to Rome will be bumped to daily by AC

Any more?

Nope, all I know is yearly passenger statistics going up to 14 million for YUL.

[AuxTown]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

You actually check your bags!!!

If you can't live off of carry on luggage for at least a week, then you aren't a real man......

Have a kid and try to say that. I went from traveling with a duffle bag to traveling with multiple large suitcases. It's not possible for me to not check bags!

[YYCspotter]

Originally Posted by craneSpotter

How is YUL doing with International/trans-border route expansion?

I see the following announcements for 2013:

San Francisco was bumped by AC to daily year-round
AC up gauged daily service to Paris (458 seater 777-300ER)
Year-round service to Geneva was also up gauged by AC?
Air Algerie increased summer 2013 frequency to Algiers to 6x weekly
Seasonal winter service (13/14) to Aruba & Ixtapa added by SunWing
2014 summer service to Nice and Barcelona are to be added by Rouge.
2014 summer service to Rome will be bumped to daily by AC

Any more?

TK to IST 3x weekly A333

[MTLskyline]

Originally Posted by craneSpotter

How is YUL doing with International/trans-border route expansion?

I see the following announcements for 2013:

San Francisco was bumped by AC to daily year-round
AC up gauged daily service to Paris (458 seater 777-300ER)
Year-round service to Geneva was also up gauged by AC?
Air Algerie increased summer 2013 frequency to Algiers to 6x weekly
Seasonal winter service (13/14) to Aruba & Ixtapa added by SunWing
2014 summer service to Nice and Barcelona are to be added by Rouge.
2014 summer service to Rome will be bumped to daily by AC

Any more?

AC press release regarding European flights: http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20131008-908134.html

Air Canada:
YUL-LHR: Aircraft upgauged from Airbus A330-300 to Boeing 777-300ER service featuring new international Premium Economy cabin, in addition to Executive First and expanded Economy cabins, from June 15 -September 30, 2014.

YUL-BRU: Aircraft upgauged from Boeing 767-300ER to Airbus A330-300 service featuring choice of Air Canada Executive First and Economy cabins, from March 29 - October 25, 2014.

YUL-GVA: Aircraft upgauged from Boeing 767-300ER to Airbus A330-300 service year-round featuring choice of Air Canada Executive First and Economy cabins.

YUL-FRA: Addition of a second non-stop flight five times weekly from May 16 - October 12, 2014. The Air Canada codeshare flight will be operated by Star Alliance partner, Lufthansa, and will complement Air Canada's daily Airbus A330-300 year-round non-stop service,

Air Canada Rouge
All Air Canada rouge flights to Europe are operated with Boeing 767-300ER aircraft

YUL-NCE: New three times weekly service from June 5 to October13, 2014, subject to government approval. Departing Montréal on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and from Nice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

YUL-BCN: New twice weekly service from June 4 to October 11, 2014, subject to government approval. Departing Montréal on Wednesday and Friday, and from Barcelona on Thursday and Saturday.

YUL-FCO: Up to daily service from May 23 to October 19, 2014.

YUL-ATH: For the summer 2014 season, Air Canada rouge will continue to operate Montreal-Athens after their successful inaugural season in 2013.

A few others announced recently:

British Airways
YUL-LHR: Aircraft upgauged from Boeing 767 to Boeing 777 (a 45% capacity increase)

Air Transat:
YUL-PRG: New weekly service starting June 17.

Sunwing
YUL-AUA: Weekly serivce, Boeing 737.
YUL-FPO: Weekly serivce, Boeing 737.

[SkahHigh]

There's also Turkish Airlines with 3 weekly lights for a connection with Istanbul.

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by esquire

Agreed. It's a bit ironic that one of Canada's sleekest, most urbane looking air terminals will be in a small city that most people consider to be on the edge of the wild frontier. It's appointed like the lobby of a huge office building... it's a great look and very distinctive.

At first I thought it looked rather small given Fort Mac's explosive growth, but the interior spaces are deceptively cavernous. Very impressive.

The growth of YMM is amazing. I lived up there for a few years and when the first flight to YYZ came; it sold out so fast. I'm amazed to see that now both AC and WJ have two or three flights a day to Toronto. AC has upgauged one of those flights to an A321 on some occasions, which is great!

I think the fact the airport has all that wood in the rough is a good tie in with the fact that YMM is in the middle of the boreal forrest.

[SignalHillHiker]

Facebook status update:

St. John's International Airport
Orlando is our #1 U.S. destination but did you know Houston (IAH) is #2? Thanks to our lucrative oil and gas industry, traffic to Houston increased by 74% over the previous year.

[craneSpotter]

Originally Posted by MTLskyline

Air Canada:
YUL-LHR: Aircraft upgauged from Airbus A330-300 to Boeing 777-300ER service featuring new international Premium Economy cabin, in addition to Executive First and expanded Economy cabins, from June 15 -September 30, 2014.

YUL-BRU: Aircraft upgauged from Boeing 767-300ER to Airbus A330-300 service featuring choice of Air Canada Executive First and Economy cabins, from March 29 - October 25, 2014.

YUL-GVA: Aircraft upgauged from Boeing 767-300ER to Airbus A330-300 service year-round featuring choice of Air Canada Executive First and Economy cabins.

YUL-FRA: Addition of a second non-stop flight five times weekly from May 16 - October 12, 2014. The Air Canada codeshare flight will be operated by Star Alliance partner, Lufthansa, and will complement Air Canada's daily Airbus A330-300 year-round non-stop service,

Air Canada Rouge
All Air Canada rouge flights to Europe are operated with Boeing 767-300ER aircraft

YUL-NCE: New three times weekly service from June 5 to October13, 2014, subject to government approval. Departing Montréal on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and from Nice on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

YUL-BCN: New twice weekly service from June 4 to October 11, 2014, subject to government approval. Departing Montréal on Wednesday and Friday, and from Barcelona on Thursday and Saturday.

YUL-FCO: Up to daily service from May 23 to October 19, 2014.

YUL-ATH: For the summer 2014 season, Air Canada rouge will continue to operate Montreal-Athens after their successful inaugural season in 2013.

A few others announced recently:

British Airways
YUL-LHR: Aircraft upgauged from Boeing 767 to Boeing 777 (a 45% capacity increase)

Air Transat:
YUL-PRG: New weekly service starting June 17.

Sunwing
YUL-AUA: Weekly serivce, Boeing 737.
YUL-FPO: Weekly serivce, Boeing 737.

Nice! So you guys should be adding to your 5.25 million+ International passengers per year.

[SignalHillHiker]

I'm going.

WestJet to go transatlantic with flights to Dublin

Calgary-based WestJet is spreading its wings across the Atlantic for the first time with flights to Dublin.

The airline announced on Friday it will start offering daily non-stop service from St. John’s to the Irish capital next June.

The flights will be aboard WestJet's Boeing Next-Generation 737-700 series aircraft.

Daily same-aircraft flights will also be offered from Toronto with one stop-over, as well as daily flights between Ottawa and St. John's connecting to Dublin, the airline said.

And the airline will add connecting flights to Dublin from Ottawa, Halifax, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and other cities in the airline’s network.

One-way flights from St. John’s to Dublin will start at $199.

The service will be seasonal, operating from June 15 to Oct. 15.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/westjet-to-go-transatlantic-with-flights-to-dublin-1.2427850

[MTLskyline]

$199 each way for a transatlantic flight! I would guess that it is probably much more expensive to reach mainland Canada than that. Great news for St. John's.

[SignalHillHiker]

I don't understand how much of a ticket price is the result of fees, etc., but I've personally never flown to mainland Canada for less than $700 return. It can be done, especially if you book early or are only going to the Maritimes, but it's never happened for me.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I don't understand how much of a ticket price is the result of fees, etc., but I've personally never flown to mainland Canada for less than $700 return. It can be done, especially if you book early or are only going to the Maritimes, but it's never happened for me.

Looks like it will soon be cheaper for you to fly to Europe than another province in Canada.

[SignalHillHiker]

I think the St. John's-London flights are cheaper too. They were really cheap a few times, I remember just hearing chatter from family/friends rushing to head over for a weekend because the deals were so good.

And Porter's St. John's-Halifax flights are cheap. You can get to Halifax and then just buy a flight wherever you're going from there. Once you're off the island, everything is less expensive. Seems unfair, really. When I moved home from Winnipeg, most of the cost of having my belongings shipped home by truck was for the Halifax to St. John's portion. If I had the patience, I would have just met the driver in Hali and did the rest by U-haul. But driving across Newfoundland makes me want to kill myself so I didn't.

[Coldrsx]

Hello St. Patrick's day in Dublin

[SignalHillHiker]

I'm so glad they picked us. It could have just as easily been any city in the Maritimes. I have such a soft spot for WestJet. They really treat us well. I bet Air Canada wouldn't have picked us.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I'm so glad they picked us. It could have just as easily been any city in the Maritimes. I have such a soft spot for WestJet. They really treat us well. I bet Air Canada wouldn't have picked us.

Srsly!? Is Air Canada making you guys by far the smallest city in Canada with a transatlantic flight (to London) not enough?

[SignalHillHiker]

Oh it's wonderful to have that flight available. I doubt it'll survive, though. You'll be able to fly to Dublin and back 3-5 times, or more, for what Air Canada wants to fly you from here to London. And, once you're in Europe, you can take RyanAir anywhere for pocket change.

Air Canada's rate is fair - it only costs about what it would to fly a similar distance into mainland Canada. But WestJet's coming out swinging.

As for what's enough/not enough... my displeasure with Air Canada isn't really about things. I hate how expensive air travel is for us generally, but that's not one particular airline's fault. I've just had enough uncomfortable, upsetting experiences with Air Canada - there's just a tone, a fascade, a snobbery... I can't quite explain it. Pretentious, maybe?