YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Hourglass

YVR is a great first impression for visitors to Canada. Nice change from the clinical steel and glass that characterizes most airport developments nowadays.

Yeah, YVR does feel relaxed and cosy; a bit like someone's living room.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Yeah, YVR does feel relaxed and cosy; a bit like someone's living room.

Agreed! It's just the color scheme I don't like - Federal Green.
How about sandy beige with turquoise and gold accents?

[Gordon]

According to an article in the Bellingham Herald Jul 15 @ BLI Traffic int the 1st 6 months is down 9.4% That's a huge drop especially for a small airport. I wonder what %age of that drop is from fewer Canadian passengers?

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by Gordon

According to an article in the Bellingham Herald Jul 15 @ BLI Traffic int the 1st 6 months is down 9.4% That's a huge drop especially for a small airport. I wonder what %age of that drop is from fewer Canadian passengers?

Is that perhaps due to the CAD and USD exchange rate change in the past year? I wonder how much that impacts things, like cross-border shopping.

[rsxstock]

many people drive down to bellingham to catch a flight. maybe it's no longer worth it vs a direct flight

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Gordon

According to an article in the Bellingham Herald Jul 15 @ BLI Traffic int the 1st 6 months is down 9.4% That's a huge drop especially for a small airport. I wonder what %age of that drop is from fewer Canadian passengers?

Didn't Allegiant drop Hawaii flights from BLI? Plus a lot of people I know who have tried Allegiant to other destinations said "never again".

[memememe76]

For me personally, my trips are more often starting from and ending at Seatac because it is the same price or cheaper, they have 24/7 parking, and direct flights.

But I have noticed that the price differential between YVR and the two other airports are getting lower and lower. My most recent trips (to Cancun and Chicago), I departed from and arrived at YVR.

[WarrenC12]

My rule of thumb is we have to save at least $100 each to go through Bellingham, $300 each for Seattle (pretty much never happens).

Since we live downtown, the Canada Line to the airport is a lot easier and cheaper than getting to Bellingham and parking (even with Nexus).

[Valley_Refugee]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Didn't Allegiant drop Hawaii flights from BLI? Plus a lot of people I know who have tried Allegiant to other destinations said "never again".

Never again indeed! I once flew Allegiant from BLI-LAS and that was quite enough.

Most people look at the ticket price and don't consider the gas, parking, time, etc. it takes. For me, I don't have a car and live downtown, so it will almost never be more economical to fly out of Washington.

[craneSpotter]

Originally Posted by memememe76

For me personally, my trips are more often starting from and ending at Seatac because it is the same price or cheaper, they have 24/7 parking, and direct flights.

But I have noticed that the price differential between YVR and the two other airports are getting lower and lower. My most recent trips (to Cancun and Chicago), I departed from and arrived at YVR.

Plus you can almost always get a coupon for $99/week (all in) general parking @ the Sea-Tac garage.

[craneSpotter]

Originally Posted by Valley_Refugee

Never again indeed! I once flew Allegiant from BLI-LAS and that was quite enough.

Most people look at the ticket price and don't consider the gas, parking, time, etc. it takes. For me, I don't have a car and live downtown, so it will almost never be more economical to fly out of Washington.

Torture tubes!

Yeah, no doubt in your situation. But if you were buying 4 or more tickets and lived in south Surrey heh

I have noticed that US/CAD airfares seem to be getting closer as of late - after factoring in exchange, on the airlines I check anyway. Not sure if 3 or 4 tickets would save enough to justify a trip by car to Seattle, maybe Bellingham but the flights are so limited.

[memememe76]

Ya know, there are a lot of people who live in Surrey, White Rock, Abbotsford, Langley, etc. A lot of us factor in parking, gas, etc. We're really not that dumb.

The side benefit of flying from and to the States is that you can fill up your gas tank before heading back to Canada and buying more stuff than your regular cross border trip.

[officedweller]

Yeah, if you're on vacation for a week, then your limit would be that much higher and the car allows you to bring over larger items bought in Bellingham (as opposed to flying to YVR)

[Johnny Aussie]

This was posted in the YYC thread (thank you YYCspotter for posting) and this was actually prepared for Tourism Alberta.... But there is a lot of other Canadian markets information.

It does include a lot of of very interesting data for YVR.

The data I am highlighting is for international visitors and overall O&D from certain international markets. However, it does capture YVR's major markets. It would be interesting to see also New Zealand, The Philippines and perhaps some other areas but it does give a very clear picture of just how large YVR actually is as an inbound destination and an overall substantial O&D market.

It only looks at passenger volumes so no info on premium traffic, revenues, yields etc.

What it also shows is just how big the Asian markets are compared to most European ones. The winds have shifted. This should, therefore, explain a lot, in clear numbers why there really isn't much more service to Europe. There may be room for limited additional flights to Europe but note the seasonality and that YVR is already connected to the UK, Germany, Netherlands year-round and France, Switzerland and Iceland (almost forgot Iceland!) summer seasonal service. Most other European markets are probably below direct service levels.

I will stand by my opinion again ---> YVR is very well served (even to Europe) based on these facts presented.

Since this report was prepared there have been even further additions to routes and capacity to Asia which is where the momentum is continuing. However, there have been additions to Europe as well. And both major international markets have really seen huge traffic jumps in the last two years which just bumps up these figures even higher.

It's a lengthy document and is for the year-ended 30 June 2012, but inbound visitors is section 5, O&D is section 6.

Happy reading if you accept this mission ;-)

http://tpr.alberta.ca/tourism/programs-a...df/AlbertaAirAccessQualityStudyFinal.pdf

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Yeah, if you're on vacation for a week, then your limit would be that much higher and the car allows you to bring over larger items bought in Bellingham (as opposed to flying to YVR)

We recently flew Alaskan YVR-LAX with only carry-on but alcohol (liquids over 100mL) meant we had to pay the additional $25. We likely would have purchased in Seattle or Bellingham if we flew stateside.

That's another fee that people don't always take into account.

That being said, the price difference from YVR just wasn't enough to warrant the inconvenience of a Seattle trip. Allegiant was the same price as Alaskan from Bellingham.. though Alaska had a transfer in Seattle. Even for 5 pax, YVR made more sense.

[SpongeG]

I flew with allegiant to san fran (oakland) once - it was fine, it was worth paying for a few extras like pre-boarding, it guaranteed us a spot for our carry ons - we never took checked in baggage and seemed to be that the majority of the people didn't either cause by the time general boarding started the luggage racks were pretty full, people had to put their luggage far from their seats. that would suck.

the flight itself was fine, parking was cheaper than YVR and the flight price was more than 50% cheaper than flying out of YVR even with "upgrades" and crossing the border wasn't too bad. I'd do it again.

as for flying out of seattle, my friends flew to new york last year from seattle it was $335 all taxes fees etc included each, even staying a night in seattle and the bus cost to get there worked out cheaper for them than taking the equivalent flight from YVR, the same flight at that time when they looked was just over $700 each and i think the only airport option was newark, they flew into JFK from seattle

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

..........................
as for flying out of seattle, my friends flew to new york last year from seattle it was $335 all taxes fees etc included each, even staying a night in seattle and the bus cost to get there worked out cheaper for them than taking the equivalent flight from YVR, the same flight at that time when they looked was just over $700 each and i think the only airport option was newark, they flew into JFK from seattle

Too bad some low-cost carrier: Jet Blue, Southwest, WestJet, whoever, can't pick up that route out of YVR and make it work.

[Johnny Aussie]

Looks like Westjet is really getting cozy with YVR's Asian carriers.

Copy of tweet from airlineroute.net

"China Airlines plans to start codeshare service with WestJet from 03SEP14."

No route information available yet. Will update when that happens.

So WS now going to be code sharing with CI along with CZ, MU, KE, JL, CX ex YVR. Pretty much all non Star Alliance carriers (CA, BR and NH) (gee I wonder why). The only remaining carriers would be Philippine and Sichuan... But could see that happening too.

Really a good way of shoring up connecting traffic.

[a very long weekend]

this is so so smart for westjet and I'm just surprised a) that the Chinese airline had to go this route; and b) that it has taken this long. likely west jet has been pursuing this forever and finally the Chinese airline just gave up trying to muscle into yvr (for the moment).

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

this is so so smart for westjet and I'm just surprised a) that the Chinese airline had to go this route; and b) that it has taken this long. likely west jet has been pursuing this forever and finally the Chinese airline just gave up trying to muscle into yvr (for the moment).

It is a smart move by Westjet. Getting in to bed with both Oneworld and Skyteam carriers. Basically makes it more likely you would connect onto Westjet flights than Air Canada when arriving/departing on one of these carriers. I don't think they "had" to go this route but it just helps streamline the travel experience which just makes them more competitive. Not quite sure about your "muscle into YVR" comment though.

Code share agreements are like any other agreement. They take time and careful consideration, including government approvals. In this case it's a good fit for both carriers.