Calgary International Airport II

[Spring2008]

^We'll hit 15M for sure.

Originally Posted by suburbia

August could be the first month to hit 1.5m. The numbers are spectacular, and I can't wait for the added gates later next year to push us to the next level.

I'm thinking WestJet will be key to major gains after the new addition opens up.

I'm thinking WestJet's going quickly expand into the international sector with Calgary and Tor as the hubs.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by Spring2008

^We'll hit 15M for sure.



I'm thinking WestJet's going quickly expand into the international sector with Calgary and Tor as the hubs.

That's pretty much a given once they find some widebody aircraft. They have worked out a deal with their pilots (pending acceptance votes) and have been kicking a lot of tires. Nothing quite yet but if their preferred timeline is going to be met then they will need to finalize a deal soon.

Hawaii out of YYC in the winter and Europe from YYC and YYZ in the summer is the most likely place to begin. Looking at 3-4 aircraft to start.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by lubicon

Hawaii out of YYC in the winter and Europe from YYC and YYZ in the summer is the most likely place to begin. Looking at 3-4 aircraft to start.

3-4 aircraft is not a lot of metal on the long haul. 4aircraft equal about 3 routes in daily basis. Therefore I do not see WS longship being both YYC and YYZ, but rather an "or" situation.

For comparison, the AC flights to NRT, FRA, LHR are about four aircraft commitment (with one aircraft to act as maintenance and spare).

[casper]

Originally Posted by Cage

3-4 aircraft is not a lot of metal on the long haul. 4aircraft equal about 3 routes in daily basis. Therefore I do not see WS longship being both YYC and YYZ, but rather an "or" situation.

For comparison, the AC flights to NRT, FRA, LHR are about four aircraft commitment (with one aircraft to act as maintenance and spare).

I think it makes sense to use both YYC and YYZ for the flights to europe as it builds a few extra hours into the schedule. If they do YYC-London-YYZ-London-YYC, they may require two aircraft for daily service however they build a couple of extra hours on the ground to recover from delays. Doing YYC-London-YYC is going to be what just under 24 hours?

The interesting question is where will they go in Europe. London (likely not Heathrow), perhaps into other Oneworld or Sky team hubs? Berlin? Paris? Madrid? Amsterdam?

[DarthMalgus]

Surprising how close in traffic Calgary now is to Vancouver...about 15 million vs about 18 million, more or less in the same size bracket. Although, I still envy their impressive international connections.

[cyeg66]

Originally Posted by DarthMalgus

Surprising how close in traffic Calgary now is to Vancouver...about 15 million vs about 18 million, more or less in the same size bracket. Although, I still envy their impressive international connections.

You're right, though while YYC will pass 15M this year, YVR appears as though it will pass 19 million quite easily. The gap between the two has narrowed by a couple million passengers in the last 10 years. It would be nice if that trend would continue, if only just to make YVR'ers a bit more nervous (in a friendly inter-provincial rivalry sort of way, naturally )


Oh, who are we kidding? We'd love to trounce them, but that'll never happen.

[yyc_engineer]

Any ideas whether the first flight will be landing 17L or 35R?

Trying to pick a good spotting location.

WS 169 from YYT was first. "Nice runway you got there..." they say.

[Canadian74]

So nothing special?

WS 169 landed, then AC 9. So nothing special, but damn gorgeous from the hill they let us on, everybody does a nice bank to the right after takeoff.

You can get very close to the Romeo bridge. Some nice photos to be had here.

[Cage]

AC 9 takeoff was great. However the main event was seeing parrallel ops. I was surprised by the short length AC851 took on rollout., turned well before the tunnel. I guess we will have to wait for 17 to be active Before shots of airplanes overtop the tunnel.

For spotting locations. The back parking lot of the new Radisson is a good place to park the car.

Funny comment from my four year old daughter, as we got close to the airport she asked me where the busses that take us to the runway had gone. Her highlight from roam the runway was getting a school bus ride. She was a little bummed out the busses were gone.

[Blader]

Originally Posted by Acey

You can get very close to the Romeo bridge. Some nice photos to be had here.

Not sure what you mean, but if I've got it right, it reminds me of small town Saskatchewan where local RCMP officers took great delight creeping to my car after dark and shining their flashlights inside - they had little else to do - early 1960s.

I parked by the Radisson Hotel on 36 St. There were many plane spotters. I missed KLM but did see AC851 777-300ER and an Airtransat 330 land among many others. It's a good spot to watch. Sorry, no camera.

[Canadian74]

Is the parking lot on McCall near the Westjet building now closed for spotting?
https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.119553,-1...1!3m2!1sT5FgFVIapfnvJf3dWATI_g!2e0?hl=en

Looked open to me. Three cars in there. But I'm not sure how much you can really see from there.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by Acey

Looked open to me. Three cars in there. But I'm not sure how much you can really see from there.

We stopped in there for a couple minutes. It's a little far away, and there is a shirt stretch when planes are mostly hidden behind the Taxiway overpass, and whatever building is in the same area.

We also tried the parking lot of the golf course, and the parking lot of the Marriott. At the golf course, the planes were closer to flying right over, but we couldn't really see much of the planes landing.

The Marriott parking lot was a bit far away too.

A great place for a viewing area would be just south of the Taxiway R underpass, on the east side of McCall way. The ground is a bit more elevated there, and you would be fairly close to the touchdown zone.

It looked like all the landing planes were turning directly onto taxiway J. Super fast access right into the terminal area.

We didn't see any planes taking off while we were watching, but as I was driving by on Métis a little earlier in he day, a larger Air Canada was turning into the runway, you have a pretty good view from Métis, immediately north of the bridge over the LRT tracks.

[Johnny Aussie]

Westjet 73W arriving followed by Air Canada 763 departing.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q8zF0eh8jgE

[J-D]

Does anyone have any recent pictures from the terminal expansion? Curious to see how that's coming along but wasn't able to find anything.

Originally Posted by Blader

Not sure what you mean

New bridge that carries taxiway R over McCall Way NE.

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Westjet 73W arriving followed by Air Canada 763 departing.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q8zF0eh8jgE

I was next to that videographer, it is an absolutely perfect spot for 35R arrivals, and it will be an excellent view for 17L departures as they taxi up to the threshold. Apparently with enough petitioning they'll make it a permanent spotting location.

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

The Marriott parking lot was a bit far away too.

Yeah I watched 845 and 851 (the two Air Canada 777's) land from the Marriott. I actually like that spot despite being a bit far, like you say.