Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW/CYOW) 1.0

[JCL]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

For some inexplicable reason, YOW doesn't show it on the arrival board... but flight aware has it arriving 30 minutes late at 2:15pm...

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DLH478

I find that the Ottawa Airport doesn't like disclosing that kind of information on the Arrival/Departure status page.

Anyways, if anyone has a radio scanner, you should listen to these frequencies:
- 128.775 for Montreal Centre, they'll be the ones that advises the pilot what runway they'll land on. It's on the LEAMY2 STAR.
- 135.15 for Ottawa Arrivals
- 118.8 for Ottawa Tower

Right now Runway 07 is the active because the winds are out of the Northeast (i.e. coming in from the west heading east to the Airport). Not sure whether or not the pilot will ask for Runway 32.

[rocketphish]

As a non-planespotter, may I ask why this is an interesting event?

[eemy]

It's an uncommon airline and relatively uncommon aircraft in Ottawa. 99% of the time, plane spotters see the same planes come in, so when something a bit different shows up, it's a bit exciting.

[daud]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

As a non-planespotter, may I ask why this is an interesting event?

not certain, but I think its the plane's size. Seats about 300 and is quite rare at YOW I think.

Air Canada's Heathrow-Ottawa uses 767s which seat about 200 by comparison.

[HighwayStar]

It is longer (about 9m) and 20% heavier... but seating capacity is close. The AC 767 seats 211... LH-330 seats only 221... primarily due to it's 3 class configuration and double the number of business class seats.

Sometimes AC uses it's 330 on the LHR route... but otherwise this is the biggest plane to land at YOW in a while.

If I wasn't tied up this afternoon, I would have definitely made the trek

[khabibulin]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

U.S. savings a flight of fancy

Michael Prentice, OBJ
Published on April 27, 2015

Many times I’ve heard people in Ottawa say they save a fistful of money on air travel by driving to the United States to catch a flight from one of the northern New York airports in Ogdensburg, Watertown or Syracuse.

In actual fact, I’ve discovered it often costs more to reach your destination from one of those three U.S. airports than it does if you fly from Ottawa. It can cost a lot more if you factor in the time and expense of getting to these airports.

I think we’ve been brainwashed into thinking there are always better deals available in the United States than in Canada.

Not so.

Also, we tend to equate a Canadian dollar with a U.S. dollar. That’s all right when the loonie is close to par with the greenback. But lately the Canadian dollar has been worth only about 80 U.S. cents. I suspect that some people tend to overlook this when they compare U.S. and Canadian airfares.



• Ottawa-Orlando non-stop on WestJet: $623. Syracuse-Orlando non-stop on JetBlue: $708.
• Ottawa-Los Angeles on Air Canada with one connection: $677 Watertown-Los Angeles on American Airlines with one connection: $779.
• Ottawa-London non-stop on Air Canada: $1,080. Syracuse-London on United Airlines with one connection: $1,205.
• Watertown-Philadelphia non-stop on American Airlines: $460. Ottawa-Philadelphia non-stop on US Airways: $759.
• Ogdensburg-Boston on Cape Air with stop: $310. Ottawa-Boston non-stop on Air Canada: $358.

Michael Prentice is OBJ’s columnist on retail and consumer issues. He can be contacted at [email protected].

http://www.obj.ca/Opinion/2015-04-27/article-4126112/U.S.-savings-a-flight-of-fancy/1

I am a firm believer that travel from the US is way cheaper than flying out of Canada. I randomly picked Yow to MCO on October 17 and here are the cheapest prices I found. Flying out of Syracuse is $240 cheaper (all prices Canadian). Family of 4 saves almost $1000.

WestJet
6h 32m
YOW - MCO
1 stop
2h 42m in YYZ
C$549 .39
roundtrip


And then compared SYR to MCO same dates


C$308.97
Delta
2:15p - 9:34p
Delta
7h 19m
SYR - MCO
1 stop
3h 21m in ATL

[HighwayStar]

del

[daud]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

It is longer (about 9m) and 20% heavier... but seating capacity is close. The AC 767 seats 211... LH-330 seats only 221... primarily due to it's 3 class configuration and double the number of business class seats.

Sometimes AC uses it's 330 on the LHR route... but otherwise this is the biggest plane to land at YOW in a while.

If I wasn't tied up this afternoon, I would have definitely made the trek

I wonder if Team Germany was on that flight that landed http://ottawacitizen.com/sports/local-sp...t-germany-norway-in-advance-of-world-cup

[HighwayStar]

Originally Posted by daud

I wonder if Team Germany was on that flight that landed http://ottawacitizen.com/sports/local-sp...t-germany-norway-in-advance-of-world-cup

That was the whole point of it.... team, friends and family.... don't think we'll be seeing LH here again for a while..

[MoreTrains]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

That was the whole point of it.... team, friends and family.... don't think we'll be seeing LH here again for a while..

Well, funny story. I flew Ottawa-Heathrow last summer. I booked through Lufthansa, had Lufthansa boarding passes and everything. Then I got to the plane and it was an Air Canada plane and crew. The pre-boarding announcements in the terminal were for the Air Canada flight but the on-plane announcments were 'Lufthansa flight .... by Air Canada as part of the Star Alliance'. Needless to say, I was pretty dissappointed in the deception. Would have been nice if it was an actual Lufthansa flight with actual Lufthansa crew.

[HighwayStar]

Originally Posted by MoreTrains

Well, funny story. I flew Ottawa-Heathrow last summer. I booked through Lufthansa, had Lufthansa boarding passes and everything. Then I got to the plane and it was an Air Canada plane and crew. The pre-boarding announcements in the terminal were for the Air Canada flight but the on-plane announcments were 'Lufthansa flight .... by Air Canada as part of the Star Alliance'. Needless to say, I was pretty dissappointed in the deception. Would have been nice if it was an actual Lufthansa flight with actual Lufthansa crew.

Even the "Lufthansa" Ottawa-Frankfurt flight is an AC plane and crew... fully code shared as part of Star Alliance.

[MoreTrains]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

Even the "Lufthansa" Ottawa-Frankfurt flight is an AC plane and crew... fully code shared as part of Star Alliance.

Quite dissappointing but not surprising.

[eemy]

It's common practice in the industry. Usually there is an indication somewhere (operated by so-and-so). Another hint that it is a codeshare flight is that the flight number is four digits.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by MoreTrains

Well, funny story. I flew Ottawa-Heathrow last summer. I booked through Lufthansa, had Lufthansa boarding passes and everything. Then I got to the plane and it was an Air Canada plane and crew. The pre-boarding announcements in the terminal were for the Air Canada flight but the on-plane announcments were 'Lufthansa flight .... by Air Canada as part of the Star Alliance'. Needless to say, I was pretty dissappointed in the deception. Would have been nice if it was an actual Lufthansa flight with actual Lufthansa crew.

Also, despite open skies within Europe it is pretty uncommon, and may be downright not allowed (either by alliance rules or the law), for one country's carriers to fly from a third country country to Canada. Or else Europe
s airlines would have consolidated even more so into super majors by now.

[VaskoYOW]

June 8, 2015
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Air Canada / rouge W15 Caribbean/Mexico Operation Changes as of 08JUN15
by JL
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Update at 0420GMT 08JUN15

As of 08JUN15, planned operational changes for Air Canada and Air Canada rouge’s Caribbean and Mexico network for winter 2015 season as follow. Additional changes are possible during the course of next few weeks.
Aircraft changes for Halifax and Ottawa:
Currently all Caribbean and Mexico service from Halifax (seasonal operation from mid-Feb 2016) and Ottawa (seasonal operation from late-Dec 2015) are displaying operational aircraft Airbus A320, replacing Embraer E190, including from Halifax: Cancun, Cayo Coco, Montego Bay, Puerto Plata, Samana, Santa Clara, Varadero; from Ottawa: Cancun, Montego Bay, Providenciales, Punta Cana, Santa Clara, Varadero
Other changes:
Calgary – Cancun eff 22DEC15 Reduce from 4 to 3 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Calgary – San Jose del Cabo eff 30OCT15 Airbus A319 replaces Embraer E190, 1 weekly service
Halifax – Cancun eff 13FEB16 Increase from 1 to 2 weekly
Halifax – Montego Bay eff 14FEB16 Reduce from 2 to 1 weekly
Montreal – Antigua eff 21DEC15 Airbus A319 replaces A320, 1 weekly service
Montreal – Cayo Coco eff 22DEC15 Increase from 2 to 3 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Montreal – Holguin eff 23DEC15 Increase form 1 to 2 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Montreal – Nassau eff 23DEC15 Increase from 1 to 2 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Montreal – Providenciales eff 20DEC15 Airbus A319 replaces Embraer E190, 1 weekly service
Montreal – Puerto Plata eff 22DEC15 Increase from 1 to 3 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Montreal – Samana eff 22DEC15 Increase from 2 to 3 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Montreal – Santa Clara eff 20DEC15 Increase from 3 to 4 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Montreal – Varadero eff 20DEC15 Increase from 4 to 6 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Ottawa – Santa Clara eff 21DEC15 Increase from 1 to 2 weekly
Toronto – Bermuda eff 25OCT15 winter frequency is 5 times a week, increase from 3 weekly in W14
Toronto – Cozumel eff 22DEC15 Increase from 1 to 2 weekly, Airbus A320 service
Toronto – Havana eff 30OCT15 Increase from 7 to 9 weekly, extra flights operated by Embraer E190
Toronto – Providenciales eff 25OCT15 Airbus A320 replaces Embraer E190, 2-5 weekly service
Toronto – Puerto Plata eff 21DEC15 Increase from 1 to 2 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Toronto – St. Kitts eff 19DEC15 Airbus A320 replaces A319, 1 weekly service
Toronto – St. Lucia eff 21DEC15 Increase from 4 to 5 weekly, Airbus A319 service
Toronto – St. Maarten eff 19DEC15 Reduce from 2 to 1 weekly, Boeing 767 service

More seats available this winter from YOW to the Caribbean, as Air Canada is replacing the Embraer 190 with the Airbus 320. According to "airlineroute.net"

[YOWflier]

I wonder if this means the referenced Ottawa routes will be "Rouged" instead of staying on mainline. It would be a bummer if so.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

I wonder if this means the referenced Ottawa routes will be "Rouged" instead of staying on mainline. It would be a bummer if so.

If it is truly an A320 aircraft then it will be mainline as Rouge aircrafts are A319s. I also did a dummy search Ottawa-Cancun and it is listed as a mainline A320. (Although a lot can change from now until December)

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by MountainView

If it is truly an A320 aircraft then it will be mainline as Rouge aircrafts are A319s. I also did a dummy search Ottawa-Cancun and it is listed as a mainline A320. (Although a lot can change from now until December)

That's quite a nice boost in capacity for AC's winter sun routes. In addition, AC are launching 2 new YOW sun routes this winter to HOG and CCC. These too will also be on 320s. This means AC will have 11 weekly A320 int'l sun flights to 8 destinations + 14 weekly Florida (2x TPA E90, 4x MCO E90 & 8x FLL (7x 320 + 1x E90). That's quite the boost in capacity. Now if we could only land one of AA's new E75 birds to MIA.

http://airlineroute.net/2015/05/27/ac-yowyul-w15/

Separately, Sunwing are flying weekly to Varadero year-round now. The 'summer' schedule is a weekly nonstop on Mondays and is in effect until the end of October, then there's a 1 week gap before the winter schedule gradually starts to ramp-up in mid-November starting on November 11th to 3x weekly, then going 4x weekly from mid-December onwards. Let's hope they do well and that this is a permanent year-round service and that if it does really well, perhaps CUN goes year-round eventually too.

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

It's an uncommon airline and relatively uncommon aircraft in Ottawa. 99% of the time, plane spotters see the same planes come in, so when something a bit different shows up, it's a bit exciting.

Speaking of which, has anyone seen the Basler turboprop-powered DC-3 buzzing around the city the past couple of weeks? It was doing a bunch of touch-and-gos, while I was in my backyard on Saturday. It doesn't appear to show up on flightaware.com so I don't know who it belongs to or what it's doing. Either way, I hope it's still in town.

[Dominion301]

If anyone's interested, I have started compiling/analyzing the airport's monthly traffic statistics, which an be found on the airport's website. Here are the numbers for the month of May, year-to-date (YTD) 2015 and 12 month rolling (i.e. June 2014 to May 15) totals, broken down by Domestic (Dom), Transborder/US (TB) and International (Int'l):

Sector / May-14 / May-15 / % Change
Dom: 304,834 / 307,385 / +0.8%
TB: 54,150 / 59,767 / +10.4%
Int'l: 20,046 / 20,279 / +1.2%
TTL: 379,030 / 387,431 / +2.2%

Sector / YTD 2014 / YTD 2015 / % Change
Dom: 1,330,643 / 1,336,331 / +0.4%
TB: 330,164 / 357,352 / +8.2%
Int'l: 267,228 / 258,430 / -3.3%
TTL: 1,928,035 / 1,952,113 / +1.2%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2014
Dom: 3,439,897 / +0.2%
TB: 768,473 / +3.7%
Int'l: 432,156 / -2.0%
TTL: 4,640,526 / +0.5%

Thoughts?

[NOWINYOW]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Thoughts?

Int'l down a bit. Would that be attributed to the FRA flight being suspended over the winter season? Perhaps fewer charters to MEX and other non-US sun destinations?