Calgary International Airport II

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by Cage

Admittedly that section was difficult to write and more difficult to read.

Here s another attempt.

In the USA the FA can make any accusation they want, however in Canada they must have a bonafide reason for their accusation. The problem stems from the section of the aeronautics act that requires passengers to follow crew member instructions. In the USA this is interpreted much more broadly than in Canada, based on legal precedent.

For example the FA tells pax to shut down all electronics immediately. Pax starts the shut down process but not fast enough for the FA. FA threatens to have pax arrested for failure to follow crew member instructions. In the USA the FA is immune from having to justify their actions in the court of law. However in Canada, the pax can ask for judicial review of the FA actions. As soon as the FA actions become a matter/question of law, they must remain in the jurisdiction for an extended period of time.

It is detaining the FA that is consequence for making a false accusation. Additionally, it is the Captain that has final authority while inflight. So if the FA is detained, so is the Captain.

ETA: it is the uniqueness of local law is the reason for many catch and release scenarios played out in Gander NL. Plane diverts for unruly drunken pax, Passenger get ejected from the airplane. FA gets ejected as well because they over served said pax unless the pax was drinking from their own alcohol. USA based FAs usually miss the requirement that they follow NL Pro-serve guidelines in order for the drunken charge to stick.

Interesting, didn't realize that.

[rinathq]

here she is.... taxing for departure. Pity the weather was messed

[Johnny Aussie]

http://www.yyc.com/Portals/0/MEDIA/BR_PaxTotal.pdf

The momentum continues.

JUNE
Overall up 7.8% to 1,252,016
Domestic up 7.7% to 902,510
Transborder up 8.5% to 236,699
International up 6.9% to 112,807

YTD
Overall up 7.6%
Domestic up 7.3%
Transborder up 8.8%
International up 6.8%

[cyeg66]

Pretty decent, though I was expecting a little more 'pop' in June's numbers. Oh well, good growth in all sectors. Inching closer to the 15M mark on the rolling 12 month.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by cyeg66

Pretty decent, though I was expecting a little more 'pop' in June's numbers. Oh well, good growth in all sectors. Inching closer to the 15M mark on the rolling 12 month.

Yeah, perhaps the floods didn't affect traffic at YYC as much as we thought. I reckon July will have more "pop."

[Bigtime]

Pop pop!

Southwest eyeing Canada, article implies YVR and YYZ as possible places to start but with their LAS base I wonder if they'd consider LAS-YYC to really shakeup the WS stronghold.

The move would mean increased competition for Air Canada, WestJet Airlines Ltd. and Porter Airlines Inc., which would likely lead to reduced fares for transborder travellers.

“There’s some opportunities because there’s a lack of low-cost carrier action between the two countries and that’s part of the problem why we’re leaching five million passengers to and from the U.S. border airports,” said industry analyst Robert Kokonis, who heads consulting firm AirTrav Inc.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...ning-air-canada-westjet/article19783679/

[tuffyy]

Originally Posted by Acey

Southwest eyeing Canada, article implies YVR and YYZ as possible places to start but with their LAS base I wonder if they'd consider LAS-YYC to really shakeup the WS stronghold.



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...ning-air-canada-westjet/article19783679/

I can easily see cities other than YYZ and YVR (although they would likely be included). The "analyst" quotes New York-Toronto flights as likely, but I think rather very unlikely since the carrier has little to no presence in the New York area in a hub or focus city capacity. BWI-YYZ however, likely.

KLM 77W and her 213 foot wingspan... on the Romeo bridge.

• Video Link

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Acey

Southwest eyeing Canada, article implies YVR and YYZ as possible places to start but with their LAS base I wonder if they'd consider LAS-YYC to really shakeup the WS stronghold.



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...ning-air-canada-westjet/article19783679/

Thinking about this a bit more I could see YYC-HOU as well as YYC-LAS and YYC-PHX. Houston Hobby is developing an international terminal scheduled for completion late 2015.

YYC-IAH annual pax count exceeds 400,000 which would make this a ripe route for the picking. Lots of O+D in this number. This is YYC's largest transborder route by far. In comparison YYZ-IAH (the second largest Canada-Houston route) only has about 230,000 annual pax.

YYC-LAS and YYC-PHX are both in excess of 300,000 pax. All three of these cities have very significant WN operations.

If WN were going to venture into Canada I highly doubt they would touch any route without at least significant O&D. So for YYC I would say HOU, PHX and LAS only. LAX I think is just not quite large enough for YYC at around 265,000 annual pax. As for the rest of Western Canada I could see YVR to LAX (over 750,000 annual pax) and LAS only. YVR-SFO is about 520,000 but Southwest is quite small there. YVR-SEA is about 380,000 annual pax but little O+D.

Would business travellers take YYC-HOU over AC/UA to IAH? I'm assuming HOU is closer to where people would need to go than IAH. Not too familiar with the city of Houston. No premium cabin, however...

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Acey

Would business travellers take YYC-HOU over AC/UA to IAH? I'm assuming HOU is closer to where people would need to go than IAH. Not too familiar with the city of Houston. No premium cabin, however...

HOU is about 16km south south-east of downtown Houston whilst IAH is about 30km north. Not sure where everybody is heading but I'm sure a few would be heading downtown.

Absolutely no guarantees this would be a route they would pick without spending months factoring in everything including looking at the Star Alliance loyal base since all YYC-IAH flights are Star. But without crunching numbers WN would not venture into Canada without the starting point of passenger volume to support new routes. Not to mention pretty soon WN's smallest plane will have about 140 seats to fill.

[McMurph]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

YVR-SFO is about 520,000 but Southwest is quite small there.

They're small at SFO but absolutely huge at Oakland. That's their Bay Area hub. I could easily see YVR - OAK flights as a great option for those connecting onward on Southwest or staying in northern California. I'd love to see YYC - OAK some day to increase our options and hopefully decrease fares to the Bay Area.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by McMurph

They're small at SFO but absolutely huge at Oakland. That's their Bay Area hub. I could easily see YVR - OAK flights as a great option for those connecting onward on Southwest or staying in northern California. I'd love to see YYC - OAK some day to increase our options and hopefully decrease fares to the Bay Area.

Good point about OAK. I did think about that just didn't mention it.

YYC-SFO is a pretty small market though.

If WN were to launch into Canada they do not appear to be the type of airline to just enter a market with one or two flights a day. That's where our problem arises. It's a different market flying domestic US and transborder no thanks to all the additional taxes and fees transborder flights attract. They need to be able to hit certain markets with enough umph to make it worthwhile. Unlike other airlines who do have say just one flight per day to feed into the much bigger hub and spoke model. And again, they don't have "Express" size aircraft. It's going to be 143 seats per plane or above after they get rid of their remaining 735s.

Perhaps Southwest and Westjet will try working out an agreement again though... Since they won't be partnering or code-sharing with anyone anymore after the end of this year (airTran acquisition), it would be very difficult to get any feed on the Canadian side of the border.

[Cage]

I would take a wait and see approach to WN coming to Canada. There is a lot of talk based on one media article that WN did with one reporter. I think WN objective of the interview was to gauge the media interest in WN. One thing WN needs to get is a lot of exposure into Canada prior to launch inordinate to get demand from Canada.

One big problem for WN is they require dedicated hold rooms and gates to perform their ground ops. However most Canadian airports use common equipment and hold rooms to maximize efficiency for the airport. The WN boarding setup requires a lot of real estate and loss of sitting areas.

In contrast, the UA 5 boarding group set up dies not require permanent reconfiguration of the gate area, further full setup is only accomplished at hub location so or instances where UA leases the gate full time.

The YYC international terminal concept of being called to the gate will absolutely not work with WN boarding procedures.

[The Fisher Account]

Would Southwest be interested in the YYC-PSP route? I know that's a huge cash cow for WestJet with no competition

[PPAR]

I think WN will dip their toe in Canada at YYZ, and not bother with other Canadian destinations. Only YYZ has a US scale O&D market. If Toronto works, then in a year or two something like YVR-OAK could be on the table.
Hate to say it, but YYC would likely be far down their list, as Westjet has a similar business model to Southwest and would have home field advantage.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by PPAR

I think WN will dip their toe in Canada at YYZ, and not bother with other Canadian destinations. Only YYZ has a US scale O&D market. If Toronto works, then in a year or two something like YVR-OAK could be on the table.
Hate to say it, but YYC would likely be far down their list, as Westjet has a similar business model to Southwest and would have home field advantage.

YYZ is out because of the high fees charges for just about everything. Also see my piece above about WN SOP being anti common use, YYZ requires common use for all gates.

Ultimately if WN comes to Canada they will start in the west, most likely YVR with about 8 frequencies per day. Then they will move to either YYC or YEG. Canadian ops won't start until WN has two years experience with Mexican ops.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Cage

Ultimately if WN comes to Canada they will start in the west, most likely YVR with about 8 frequencies per day. Then they will move to either YYC or YEG. Canadian ops won't start until WN has two years experience with Mexican ops.

That's the key right there. As I mentioned earlier Southwest does not enter a market with just one or two flights per day. They come in big or go home. So that alone really restricts their ability to enter any Canadian market.
If, and a big if, they were to enter Canada they would have to find a way to deal with the common user system or, like you say, have to lease its own gates which would be difficult with most if not all Canadian airports.

[MalcolmTucker]

Or enter in at Hamilton in a huge way, and have their way with the airport. If they are going to undercut by a lot, that is where I would start. Plus its catchment area is a bunch of secondary media markets, so they could try to go all out on the relative cheap.