Calgary International Airport II

Changes via @airlineroute

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

For CUN, WestJet I believe weekly is 8x 738 and 2x 73G for 10x weekly total. SJD is daily but with funky times depending on the day, in December anyway.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Acey

Changes via @airlineroute

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

For CUN, WestJet I believe weekly is 8x 738 and 2x 73G for 10x weekly total. SJD is daily but with funky times depending on the day, in December anyway.

I guess you are talking about Air Canada?

[FormerWingTipper]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

The situation with the gates at the end of the terminal- sorry don't have numbers memorized but past Starbucks where there are something like 5 gates clustered together- where all flights are departing at around the same time and the multiple boarding announcements with AC's overthought zone 1-5 system mean that nobody can tell which announcements are theirs is just pure headache inducement. In Ottawa I could hear the announcements perfectly clearly and there wasn't this cluster that I experienced in Calgary for flights to Toronto on April 29 and Ottawa last Sunday.

Part of the issue the last two weeks was that the CAA was doing their semi-annual bridge maintenance inspection. Each day the airlines were down one gate. This caused more congestion.

As a rule of thumb, there is an hourly YYC-YVR flight and almost hourly YYC-YYZ flight. YYC-YVR normally departs C57/C59 and YYC-YYZ normally departs C56/C58 to help spread the gates out and cause less congestion. However, with more and more flights for the summer (YHZ, additional YUL, etc.) it isn't as simply anymore.

I agree that it is very congested in the C55-C59 area! Just look at the washroom stalls available in the concourse too (lol) - hardly any and always a lineup after a flight arrives, especially the B767 from YYZ.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

I know I have to be patient, but I just got back from a conference in Ottawa and after spending time in their serene, light-filled, generally GORGEOUS airport and coming back to our hoarding-filled cluttered embarrassment was, well, embarrassing.

The situation with the gates at the end of the terminal- sorry don't have numbers memorized but past Starbucks where there are something like 5 gates clustered together- where all flights are departing at around the same time and the multiple boarding announcements with AC's overthought zone 1-5 system mean that nobody can tell which announcements are theirs is just pure headache inducement. In Ottawa I could hear the announcements perfectly clearly and there wasn't this cluster that I experienced in Calgary for flights to Toronto on April 29 and Ottawa last Sunday.

Ottawa (YOW) was a mess of an airport for 8 years until the present terminal building was complete. First half of the new terminal opened in October 2003, but the old terminal holdrooms were still utilized for another 5 years. During the 2003-2008 years the hoarding was everywhere in the new terminal.

The new terminal also opened with very few if any retail establishments. I flew into YOW October 30, 2003 and flew out Nov 4th; the place was a retail ghost town after security. The eating places were also entirely before security. But then YOW had the miss fortune of being designed pre 2001 and then constructed post 2001. The airport retail and food was designed to allow for passengers to checkin, grab a quick bite with friends, then go through a short preboard security screening and board the airplane. That concept died when preboard security screening became a much longer and more intrusive process.

The other major difference between YOW and YYC is passenger growth. In 2005 YOW had just over 4 million passengers and YYC had over 10 million. Today YOW has 4.6 million and YYC has over 15 million. The busier holdroom and constant change that is YYC's reality is brought about by significantly larger demand growth at YYC.

If YOW had YYC 10 year growth profile, there would be hoarding and construction projects all over YOW as well. Even considering their terminal is less than 10 years old (e.g not finished until 2008).

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

I guess you are talking about Air Canada?

Yeah, my bad. Who else has 319's and Embraers!

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Acey

Yeah, my bad. Who else has 319's and Embraers!

US, UA, AA, LH, KL, and lots of others.

[PPAR]

Originally Posted by Cage

The other major difference between YOW and YYC is passenger growth. In 2005 YOW had just over 4 million passengers and YYC had over 10 million. Today YOW has 4.6 million and YYC has over 15 million. The busier holdroom and constant change that is YYC's reality is brought about by significantly larger demand growth at YYC.

If YOW had YYC 10 year growth profile, there would be hoarding and construction projects all over YOW as well. Even considering their terminal is less than 10 years old (e.g not finished until 2008).

I lived in Ottawa in the early 2000s. Their new terminal was designed during the tech boom, when Nortel and others were driving demand for service. The terminal (which I agree is a fantastic space) did not open until after the tech bubble went pop. Hence the sense of tranquility and uncrowded space.

[thegx]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Thanks for the update!

In other news, WestJet is picking up a 5th 767 from Qantas.

That was a rumour on airliners.net, though it seems to be untrue.

[Bigtime]

Yeah, I've seen the thread and the subsequent discussion. Looks like a mix up with the aircraft and reg's getting changed.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by PPAR

I lived in Ottawa in the early 2000s. Their new terminal was designed during the tech boom, when Nortel and others were driving demand for service. The terminal (which I agree is a fantastic space) did not open until after the tech bubble went pop. Hence the sense of tranquility and uncrowded space.

I guess you don't get something for nothing

Originally Posted by Cage

US, UA, AA, LH, KL, and lots of others.

How many of those fly both YYC-CUN and YYC-SJD? Hmm.

[Cage]

Folks,

time to feast on page 37 of the AC investor day presentation.

Website:
http://www.aircanada.com/en/about/media/presentations/documents/investor_day_2015.pdf


YYC-PEK, YYC-CDG mentioned as potential new routes by summer 2018.

For the YVR lovers; YVR-BNE, YVR-MEL, YVR-TPE, YVR-CTS (Saporo), YVR-CDG. YVR-FRA.

YYZ-JNB... stretch out that 789!

[thegx]

Toronto to Bangkok and Toronto to Singapore seem like a stretch.

I noticed they have a section on their "three hubs". I guess YYC is a focus city.

[Spring2008]

2018? lol so far away.

Don't we already have a direct connection to Paris via Air Transit? PEK would be a good addition but i thought this would be something they'd add by next year.

Originally Posted by Cage

Folks,

time to feast on page 37 of the AC investor day presentation.

Website:
http://www.aircanada.com/en/about/media/presentations/documents/investor_day_2015.pdf


YYC-PEK, YYC-CDG mentioned as potential new routes by summer 2018.

For the YVR lovers; YVR-BNE, YVR-MEL, YVR-TPE, YVR-CTS (Saporo), YVR-CDG. YVR-FRA.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Spring2008

2018? lol so far away.

Don't we already have a direct connection to Paris via Air Transit? PEK would be a good addition but i thought this would be something they'd add by next year.

By 2018, this is what AC route map could look like. The 2018 route map also includes DXB and DEL as new routes where as they are all ready announced.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by thegx

I noticed they have a section on their "three hubs". I guess YYC is a focus city.

Door is opened by AC for WS widebody to come into YYC and YEG, however attempt to come into YYZ, YUL or YVR and there will be competitive response via AC and ACr.

The AC 2018 route map also shows their commitment to building YYZ into a true global hub. This comes at a time when AC facility charges to GTAA are largely fixed cost base and AC will participate in refund if their connection strategy is a success (AC gets a portion of their facility charges refunded if pax growth numbers are above high water mark). There are a few other clauses in the GTAA-AC agreement that impact other airlines. Chief among them is that GTAA must give AC all the access at T1 they require. As AC expands at T1 other airlines have to move out or move to less desirable facilities. AC and their Star partners will never be gated at the infield hold terminal. Look for Sunwing and or TransAt to move out to the infield terminal.

WS gets the T3 satellite terminal if they expand much more at T3. WS widebody together with Encore expansion could seal the deal for T3 satellite. The other option (expensive for a company like WS) is for WS to sign a similar arrangement with GTAA that AC has with WS.

[Blader]

Originally Posted by thegx

Toronto to Bangkok and Toronto to Singapore seem like a stretch.

I noticed they have a section on their "three hubs". I guess YYC is a focus city.

Air Canada has four hubs including YYC - it's on their maps in the PDF. Air Canada does not have any mention, past to present, of focus cities. You'll see focus cities mentioned in the Air Canada Wikipedia article, edited by young folk who can't accept that their city doesn't have mention. That said YYC is the smallest of ACs hubs.

[thegx]

Originally Posted by Blader

Air Canada has four hubs including YYC - it's on their maps in the PDF. Air Canada does not have any mention, past to present, of focus cities. You'll see focus cities mentioned in the Air Canada Wikipedia article, edited by young folk who can't accept that their city doesn't have mention. That said YYC is the smallest of ACs hubs.

That's what I originally thought. Which is why it's curious that Calgary is not mentioned on pages 58-60.

[yyc_engineer]

I think Air Canada's definition of a "true" hub is an airport that serves unique long haul destinations that are not served from other cities in their network. YYZ, YUL and YVR each serve long haul routes that are exclusive to those airports.

eg. for an Air Canada pax to reach Seoul on AC metal, they must connect thru YVR. To get to Brussells one must go thru YUL, and to fly to Rio YYZ. YYC does not serve any such long haul route exclusively, and likely never will. So while we are a strong connector for our local region, we are do not fit their true definition of a "hub". Just my interpretation, I could be wrong. Interested to hear what others think.

With the exception of the United States, and maybe now China, very few, if any, countries would be able to support an airline with 4 or more hubs. Even 3 is a stretch. It becomes very difficult geographically and economically to do so. And I would argue that were AC based out of Toronto, even YUL would not enjoy the true hub status that it does now.

Interesting to note they give a special mention to YYC on page 38, calling Air Canada a "Strong #2 in Calgary". I thought AC had more flights/day than WS, but maybe they are basing it on available seats? Either way, I sure wish I had bought some AC stock back in December of 2011

By my definition, I guess that makes YHZ and YYT "true hubs" for Westjet..but I'll save that discussion for a later day.