YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[WarrenC12]

I noticed a new gravel lot near Templeton Station. Is that for YVR or the outlet mall?

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Cage

The 319 connects well to Asia bank. The 763 uses up surplus aircraft downtime.

I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that AC is actively trying to defend Yvr tooth and nail against WS. AC might even be trying to make YVR into a proper hub, dare I say even a mini global hub.

This is interesting because it's an irony of history. When Canadian (formerly CP) was around, AC was a Crown Corporation up to 1988, and YYZ and YUL were mandated "the prime cuts," with Canadian (CP) restricted, especially in transborder flights.
Now that it's privatized, even with YYZ (naturally) its megahub, the kid to beat is Westjet, especially domestically though it seems WJ is making some pretty daring overseas moves.
And the way WJ is increasing its transborder traffic, mainly out of YYC but also YVR, AC knows
(finally) that to keep profits up, the have to beef up YVR in a serious way.

2: When you say "mini global hub," on what par might that put YVR with? In which airport group (in terms of routes, if not pax)? Thanks.

[Johnny Aussie]

Somebody wanted YVR news...

They put this on their blog today...

Summary of 2016 new services so far (note all this to happen in the first 6 months only!):

http://www.yvr.ca/en/blog/posts/New_Routes_and_Services_at_YVR_in_2016.aspx

Plus on top of all that on the international front:

AC upgauge PVG to 77W
AC rouge adding one more weekly to KIX to 6 weekly
TS adding an additional weekly flight to LGW to daily
CZ upgauge CAN to 77W
NH upgauge HND to 789
QF to SYD returning for a longer period

And now we wait patiently to see what happens with:

Hainan Airlines (Tianjin)
Xiamen Airlines (Xiamen)
Tianjin Airlines (Chongqing, Tianjin)
Beijing Capital Airlines (Hangzhou, Qingdao)

None? One? Two? Three? All?

✈️✈️✈️✈️

[craneSpotter]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Somebody wanted YVR news...

They put this on their blog today...

Summary of 2016 new services so far (note all this to happen in the first 6 months only!):

http://www.yvr.ca/en/blog/posts/New_Routes_and_Services_at_YVR_in_2016.aspx

Plus on top of all that on the international front:

AC upgauge PVG to 77W
AC rouge adding one more weekly to KIX to 6 weekly
TS adding an additional weekly flight to LGW to daily
CZ upgauge CAN to 77W
NH upgauge HND to 789
QF to SYD returning for a longer period

And now we wait patiently to see what happens with:

Hainan Airlines (Tianjin)
Xiamen Airlines (Xiamen)
Tianjin Airlines (Chongqing, Tianjin)
Beijing Capital Airlines (Hangzhou, Qingdao)

None? One? Two? Three? All?

✈️✈️✈️✈️

Nice...maybe top 21 million PAX for 2016!

Barring any global recession ....of course

[phesto]

Should we expect any near-term negative impact on transborder traffic/routes due to the CDN dollar?

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by phesto

Should we expect any near-term negative impact on transborder traffic/routes due to the CDN dollar?

Interestingly enough, those cities in Canada which tend to attract more inbound "tourists" etc are actually showing strong transborder growth. YYZ and YVR predominantly.

The dollar has been quite low for some time already. I would assume outbound is being affected, but just look at those YVR transborder numbers! Also, hotel and visitor stats in Vancouver and BC do indicate a pretty big increase in US visitors.

Will that continue though????

[Hot Rod]

YES, We love Vancouver.

[Johnny Aussie]

Yes we do!

And my anecdotal observation of late.

My PEK-YVR and YVR-PEK flights on the CA 77Ws were absolutely jam packed. The PEK-YVR was 100% full in J and 2 empty seats in Y. But the YVR-PEK flight was 100% full J and Y - not one empty seat. Not sure about F but I'm pretty sure both directions were not close to full (only 8 seats anyway). For reference my MEL-PEK and PEK-MEL were not full. MEL-PEK was probably 95% but the PEK-MEL flight this week was probably only about 80% and J cabin was empty. They moved the one passenger in the mini rear cabin to the front cabin and the crew used the rear cabin as crew rest. Never seen that before. Such a treat to have arrived in MEL being the only plane in and the bags were very quick to be dispensed. For the first time in a very long time (at least that I can remember) we were the first pax out of the customs hall. Arriving in YVR we timed it perfectly between other arriving flights so no wait at all at immigration. Bags were a bit slower though.

Anyway, it was peak travel to and from YVR but nice to see Air China doing well. Also, I am guessing about 50% (or more) of the flight was connecting to/from India - most likely DEL.

Other than the horrific smog in Beijing on the way over.. we were there during a red alert... we didn't even leave the hotel. The air pollution index was over 400 where we were and in some areas over 600. Hazardous was the warning! On the way back we were fortunate enough the air quality was "Moderate" and we did venture out into the city. Very very sad though for the people subjected to this over there. Talked to an employee in the lounge at our hotel and he said they are just getting accustomed to it. They should not have to get accustomed to it... this really is a huge wake up call for me and really making me think what the long term effects this will have and what we are doing to our planet.

[Johnny Aussie]

Looks like they are, in fact, adding a fifth weekly flight on the seasonal FRA-YVR route after all.

Their original pre-summer timetable showed five weekly flights but only to load four weekly. The same as last summer.

Anyway, a fifth weekly flight has been added on Thursdays for July and August only, a total of nine weeks showing the additional flights.
No flights on Tuesdays and Fridays during the peak summer months.

YVR-Europe is going to be fascinating to watch this summer... With 84 flights per week (the equivalent of 12 daily flights). This is up from 70 flights pw last year.

[Gordon]

Is there any construction being done on pier A at this point?

[Johnny Aussie]

Looks like National Airlines has dropped plans to serve YVR altogether.

Originally they were supposed to start flights to SFB (Orlando Sanford) mid January (pretty much now). Then they delayed the launch to May 2016.

Anyway as of today, YVR is not displayed or mentioned anywhere in their website. Not listed as a destination in their schedules / booking section. YVR and LAS have also been removed off their route map.

Oh well.... too many seats to a further away airport to the main Orlando attractions I suppose. This should help Westjet making their new YVR-MCO route successful.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Looks like National Airlines has dropped plans to serve YVR altogether........

Oh well.... too many seats to a further away airport to the main Orlando attractions I suppose. This should help Westjet making their new YVR-MCO route successful.

Will Westjet still be making only ONE flight per week YVR-MCO? I would have thought this would have been a more lucrative route, thus with greater frequencies.

[sacrifice333]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Will Westjet still be making only ONE flight per week YVR-MCO? I would have thought this would have been a more lucrative route, thus with greater frequencies.

Pretty sure they already announced the addition of a second, weekly flight.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by sacrifice333

Pretty sure they already announced the addition of a second, weekly flight.

Yeah they did. Twice a week was announced not long after National announced their flights.

For all your Westjet schedule queries....

https://bookings.westjet.com/meridia?pos...ation&action=requestSchedule&language=en

[Klazu]

Newleaf ceasing all sales immediately.

In a week and a half, hundreds of thousands of Canadians have come to the NewLeaf Travel Company website looking to find an easy, and affordable option for Canadian domestic and international air travel services. Like millions of travellers in countries across the world, the citizens of Canada are demanding access to affordable fares.

But, recent questions about licensing and regulation for Indirect Air Service Providers, like NewLeaf, have caused confusion and ambiguity in the market, which amplifies the need for a clear articulation of the regulations from the Canadian government.

The CTA is currently conducting this review, but during this period Newleaf decided that in order to confidently protect the interests of our customers against any potential changes that could affect their travel plans, we have temporarily postponed sales of airline tickets that were scheduled to begin on Feb. 12, 2016. All customers will receive an automatic full refund of all credit card transactions made to date within 72 hours.

We will be back!

We want to bring fair fares to Canada, and over the past two weeks it has been clear that thousands of Canadians are supporting our efforts and cheering us on!

Rest assured that NewLeaf will be working hard to continue to spark this revolution in Canada.

See the full news release here.

[CareerShow]

This may be the worst time in the last 7 years at least to start up a new airline. The weak economy and Canadian dollar cannot be helping anyone.

[dharper]

Originally Posted by CareerShow

The weak economy and Canadian dollar cannot be helping anyone.

According to Global News, it is great for tourism and the local movie industry.

[CareerShow]

Originally Posted by dharper

According to Global News, it is great for tourism and the local movie industry.

Oh yes, i was refferring to Canadian airlines tho, who charge passengers in Canadian dollars, but have many expenses in USD.

[LeftCoaster]

So I flew into Vancouver last week and was thinking a lot about what makes a great hub. As I traveled past 3 different 747s a few 777s and 787s, all different tails, I realized Vancouver has done the more difficult part of becoming a major hub first, attract long haul routes.

YVR does a lot of things well, great service, nice terminal, good transfer system, but what it severely lacks is a north american network to make it a true hub. If one wants to Fly from Beijing to any secondary city in the US, LAX, SFO, SEA etc... are going to be preferable for one huge reason, direct domestic flights. YYZ has this in spades as well, as they fly to most secondary US cities. YVR has more or less none of this. We connect well to most US hubs but as far as flying to somewhere like Pittsburgh, Nashville or Austin? Forget about it.

I know YVR is chasing Asia to Latin America PAX, but to truly take advantage of its impressive roster of Asian flights (and it truly is impressive) we need more of the bread and butter type flights within North America. The type of flights that dont make headlines, impress no one, but make YVR a more accessible useful gateway. Most of the cities we link to already have direct flights to Asia, so what are we offering them?

With that in mind I put together a look at transborder flights, similar to the one I did for widebody international. It's a first crack so I'm sure there are some errors here and there, but it's pretty well researched.


http://i.imgur.com/U6YFJLT.png

So as you can see we are well served to hubs, and by all three alliances (delta was a pleasant surprise), but most of the US cities we link to are already well served to Asia, with a few notable exceptions. Hopefully Air Canada can fulfill the smaller portion of it's Asia hub strategy at YVR and connect us to some cities with decent population but limited trans continental options.

[trofirhen]

Could the reason for the lack of transcontinental options from YVR be:
1) second-tier US cities are concentrated in the East (Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Nashville, Memphis, Cleveland, and such, and are therefore closer to YYZ?
2) In the Western States, there are fewer second-tier cities and a lower population density (?)
Or .... could it be that YYZ wants to keep most of the action for itself ... OR ... that there is also enough O/D traffic from many US cities to YYZ that does not exist for YVR, thereby justifying flights to YYZ?
*Or, is Air Canada just trying to keep YVR's wings clipped, ever so subtly, (which leads back to YYZ hegemony)?