Calgary International Airport II

[MalcolmTucker]

I know Air Transat wasn't enough in 1999, used to an L1011 with two handles, one for explosive door opening, and one for normal, the plane pulls up to Calgary and the A330 door mode select lever isn't moved into ground mode before the handle is turned and the slide deploys right into the air bridge.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Acey

Aren't AC crews trained on everything?

Most AC cabin crew are trained on everything. The exceptions are usually senior ranking people who can bid into narrowbody equipment YWG and YYC, these bases usually were narrowbody only, so staff would be trained accordingly. However with the growth of AC international widebody operations, I think the YYC base is now widebody flying as well.

The biggest exception is however the part time summer students who are hired for the May to September period, they are usually only trained for either domestic/transborder (narrowbody) or International (widebody).

[Johnny Aussie]

UK Feb 2015 preliminary stats have been released.

YYC-LHR up a healthy 25.4% compared to Feb 2014.
YYC-LGW down 71% as expected as TS suspended the route for about 8 weeks from early Jan to late Feb.

Source: http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=80&pagetype=88&sglid=11&fld=201502

Speaking of Transat it looks like YYC-LGW is being suspended for the whole winter 2015-16. Last flight operates the last week of October. Resumes the first week of April 2016. This will be the first winter where there are no UK charter flights. Not that long ago there used to be 6 per week split between LGW and MAN.

[Bigtime]

What gives with the charter flights to the UK pretty much dying off? Is it the effect of AC and BA to LHR? Cutting their potential losses before WS shows up?

[MalcolmTucker]

The world wide airframe shortage strikes again?

[Bigtime]

Oh yeah, that could definitely be it too.

[evolv]

also of note is Calgary surpassed Montreal in total passengers for LHR.

[Johnny Aussie]

The snow has only just melted from this winter but... AA has just updated their winter 2015/16 scheds and it looks like AA is increasing DFW back to 2 daily flights for the entire winter. Last winter this was reduced to only 1 daily for most of the winter. Both flights to be operated by 319s.

On the other hand, PHX looks like it is being reduced to just one daily from the usual 2 in the winter months. Perhaps an early sign of AA's intentions at PHX, they may be getting smashed by Westjet and rouge or.. who knows?

Of course things can change... but in any event good to see DFW back to 2 daily.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

What gives with the charter flights to the UK pretty much dying off? Is it the effect of AC and BA to LHR? Cutting their potential losses before WS shows up?

(1) strength of CAD over euro. USD weakness against the euro makes us ski destinations much more attractive.
(2) uk and euro attitudes towards leisure travel that has huge environmental impact. The Europeans and Brits are very focused to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the annual vacation air trip has been promoted as a casualty.
(3) economic weakness in Europe amd Uk.
(4) scheduled airlines moving into traditional charter territory.
(5) increase cost of fuel, especially for longhaul operations. Tends to favour scheduled airlines that can charge higher yield. Also tends to cut into package tour operators as the airfare component of the package gets too expensive.

[McMurph]

Originally Posted by evolv

also of note is Calgary surpassed Montreal in total passengers for LHR.

I suspect they'll have us beat on CDG for some time yet.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by McMurph

I suspect they'll have us beat on CDG for some time yet.

Ummmm... Perhaps forever.

Still good to see YYC doing well to the UK. Despite Air Transat pulling off the route for the winter there are still more pax to London overall. Perhaps BA is doing better now as well... who knows?!

[Johnny Aussie]

KLM is rolling out their summer 2016 timetable already.

YYC-AMS will be daily 777-200ER. This replaces the 4 per week 777 and 3 per week 332 this upcoming summer.

Decent bump in seats.... approx 220 per week. More premium seats as well.

http://airlineroute.net/2015/04/06/kl-s16update2/

[Bigtime]

Thanks KLM, showing others how to nicely grow a route in YYC.

Well if there was concern about YEG stealing pax, this upgauge means either

a) loads on both look fine
b) YEG loads are not fine and it won't be flying in S16, meaning this announcement is really the first part of what would be a downguage in total KL Alberta seats for S16 vs S15

My bet is on A.

[Cage]

I don't see any service reduction to account for the additional flying. My guess is this KLM schedule is not balanced, there is too much flying for the available fleet. The cuts will come later when network schedule more accurately reflects achievable flying targets.

Do new deliveries account for it maybe, or still too much flying? 11 789 and 4 77W by the end of '16, but 12 332/744 leaving by my count.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Acey

Do new deliveries account for it maybe, or still too much flying? 11 789 and 4 77W by the end of '16, but 12 332/744 leaving by my count.

Deliveries might account for the changes in a round about way. Could be total flying is balanced with the imbalance between 789 and 772 flying. There is still a lot more 772 flying than kLM has available lift.

[Johnny Aussie]

I was going to add earlier....

With the 332s being phased out eventually it was just a matter of time they had to be replaced. So I don't think too much emphasis on how the routes are doing can be made from this.

I recall reading YVR has been earmarked for the 789... when though? Who knows... In the meantime YVR-AMS is going daily 772 summer 2016 too.

That's big for Van, AF starting and a KL upgrade. AF/KL really stepping it up in western Canada.

[Pegasus]

Today’s news headlines: Air passengers could soon find themselves with even less room on board passenger jets after it was revealed manufacturers are plotting to squeeze more seats in cabins.

Boeing and Airbus, the two main plane manufacturers, are currently working on their new ranges of aircrafts - which are reported to include completely reconfigured cabins containing a greater number of seats.

And Maclean’s magazine headline: “The evil genius of airlines – it takes work to make flying this miserable. But it pays”.