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

[YOWflier]

"Assumption is the mother of all fcuk ups".

Numbers matter, especially in the airline business. Nothing is ever done on assumption.

And as a passenger, notwithstanding the negligible travel time difference, you can benefit from a lower fare making the connection via air. The entire airline industry is based on this feed approach; fares are priced accordingly to encourage it.

[sgera]

If you've ever noticed what looks to be a set of bunkers near the runway parallel to alert road.... Well mystery solved. Very interesting Cold War history here.

https://ottawow.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/ottawas-secret-cold-war-missile-bunkers/

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

"Assumption is the mother of all fcuk ups".

Numbers matter, especially in the airline business. Nothing is ever done on assumption.

And as a passenger, notwithstanding the negligible travel time difference, you can benefit from a lower fare making the connection via air. The entire airline industry is based on this feed approach; fares are priced accordingly to encourage it.

Yup indeed. I'd hazard a guess that 50% of all YOW-Europe pax aren't recorded due to driving/busing/training to YUL. Also, probably about 5-10% of passengers are YUL originators connecting in YOW.

On a separate note, WS' full expanded YOW-YHZ and YOW-YYZ schedules are now published. What WestJet didn't mention is that YOW-YQM is dropped.

YOW-YHZ (effective 05MAR16):
WS3490 0845-1141 Q400 D
WS3478 1435-1731 Q400 D - essentially replaces WS3484 YOW-YQM 1440-1725
WS3506 1700-1956 Q400 D

YHZ-YOW (effective 05MAR16):
WS3505 0800-0926 Q400 D
WS3467 1240-1406 Q400 D
WS3485 1810-1935 Q400 D - essentially replaces WS3485 from YQM-YOW 1805-1911

Right now the summer sked still shows WS225 (a 73G) departing 20 mins after WS3485 and WS224 departing 10 mins before WS3506. It'll be interesting to see whether WS224/5 become a YOW terminator, 4th flight is in fact added or WS3506/WS3485 go away for the summer.

YOW-YYZ:
WS357 0700-0802 73G D
WS3457 0800-0915 Q400 D
WS3461 1000-1115 Q400 X7
WS3429 1100-1215 Q400 D
WS3463 1200-1315 Q400 X67
WS3465 1400-1515 Q400 D
WS3459 1600-1715 Q400 X67
WS369 1700-1800 73G D
WS3469 1800-1915 Q400 X67
WS3471 1930-2045 Q400 X67
WS3485 2005-2120 Q400 D
WS3455 2100-2215 Q400 X6 - WS will now have a later departure to YYZ than AC

YYZ-YOW:
WS3490 0700-0806 Q400 D
WS3460 0730-0836 Q400 X67
WS3460 0815-0921 Q400 67
WS3462 0900-1006 Q400 X67
WS3464 1200-1306 Q400 D
WS3478 1300-1405 Q400 D
WS3468 1400-1506 Q400 X67
WS3470 1600-1706 Q400 X67
WS368 1735-1835 736 D (73G on days 67)
WS3472 1745-1851 Q400 X67 - Strange that this is only 10 mins later than WS368, even during the peak afternoon
WS3454 1900-2006 Q400 X6
WS3458 2000-2106 Q400 D
WS374 2300-2359 73G D (738 on day 6)

Hopefully eventually WS will be up to hourly YOW-YYZ service. It's just too bad the flights mostly depart YOW on the hour instead of the 1/2 hour so that it's not the same as most Rapidair flights.

[Dominion301]

Here are the December and 2015 year-end pax traffic results for YOW:

Sector / Dec-14 / Dec-15 / % Change
Dom: 273,571 / 283,439 / +3.6%
TB: 71,031 / 62,090 / -12.6% - just awful
Int'l: 43,946 / 41,701 / -5.1% - this I can see due to Nov/Dec being so mild fewer people wanting to go south
TTL: 388,548 / 387,230 / -0.3%

Sector / YTD 2014 / YTD 2015 / % Change
Dom: 3,434,209 3,488,629 +1.6% - this breaks 2012's record by 34,000 pax
TB: 741,285 735,755 -0.7% - the good news here is 3/4 of the year was so bad, that it's not likely to get any worse in 2016 overall. It's amazing how stagnant transborder traffic has been since the late 1990s. This is 40,000 pax shy of the 2012 record
Int'l: 440,954 431,976 -2.0% - this is 25,000 pax shy of the 2012 record
TTL: 4,616,448 4,656,360 +0.9% - continued stagnation - this is still about 30,000 pax shy of the 2012 record and the 4th consecutive year of either growth under 2% or negative growth

[daud]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Here are the December and 2015 year-end pax traffic results for YOW:

Sector / Dec-14 / Dec-15 / % Change
Dom: 273,571 / 283,439 / +3.6%
TB: 71,031 / 62,090 / -12.6% - just awful
Int'l: 43,946 / 41,701 / -5.1% - this I can see due to Nov/Dec being so mild fewer people wanting to go south
TTL: 388,548 / 387,230 / -0.3%

Sector / YTD 2014 / YTD 2015 / % Change
Dom: 3,434,209 3,488,629 +1.6% - this breaks 2012's record by 34,000 pax
TB: 741,285 735,755 -0.7% - the good news here is 3/4 of the year was so bad, that it's not likely to get any worse in 2016 overall. It's amazing how stagnant transborder traffic has been since the late 1990s. This is 40,000 pax shy of the 2012 record
Int'l: 440,954 431,976 -2.0% - this is 25,000 pax shy of the 2012 record
TTL: 4,616,448 4,656,360 +0.9% - continued stagnation - this is still about 30,000 pax shy of the 2012 record and the 4th consecutive year of either growth under 2% or negative growth

Would a trip that originates in Ottawa via Pearson to Dallas, San Fran or Denver for example be included in these stats as a transborder flight or a Domestic to Pearson flight?

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by daud

Would a trip that originates in Ottawa via Pearson to Dallas, San Fran or Denver for example be included in these stats as a transborder flight or a Domestic to Pearson flight?

In O&D terms it's a transborder stat (as Stats Can I think still does the annual transborder report - the domestic report was cancelled after 1997). In YOW pax stats terms, this person is a domestic passenger. If someone going to DFW, SFO, LAX, etc. connects via DTW, ORD, etc., then this person is counted as a transborder pax.

[HighwayStar]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

In O&D terms it's a transborder stat (as Stats Can I think still does the annual transborder report - the domestic report was cancelled after 1997). In YOW pax stats terms, this person is a domestic passenger. If someone going to DFW, SFO, LAX, etc. connects via DTW, ORD, etc., then this person is counted as a transborder pax.

Which leads to the obvious conclusion... how many of the 54,000 "new" domestic pax are actually transiting YYZ to the US? TB is down only ~6,000 pax.

What exactly disappeared in the past year to the US? CLT, reduction in ORD, what else?

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

Which leads to the obvious conclusion... how many of the 54,000 "new" domestic pax are actually transiting YYZ to the US? TB is down only ~6,000 pax.

What exactly disappeared in the past year to the US? CLT, reduction in ORD, what else?

The dollar also went down. I think a lot of people (including myself) looked to take vacations in Canada.

[YOWhopeful]

Looks like Delta has cancelled YOW-JFK previously scheduled to start in April!

[YOWflier]

Weird. OAG still shows the route, but Delta.com flight search doesn't.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

Which leads to the obvious conclusion... how many of the 54,000 "new" domestic pax are actually transiting YYZ to the US? TB is down only ~6,000 pax.

What exactly disappeared in the past year to the US? CLT, reduction in ORD, what else?

Some TB additional pax are obviously now transiting YYZ (or elsewhere in Canada), but overall, the picture is bleak. In the past couple of years YOW's lost CLT, plus:
IAD is down to 2x/day (used to be 4x)
EWR is down to 3x/day (used to be 4x)
PHL is down to 2x/day (used to be 3x in recent times and 5x further back)
DTW is down to 2x/day (used to be 3x in recent times and 4x further back)
ORD lost legacy AA 2x/day (used to be 3x the year before it was cut) + UA used to be 5x...although now 2 of the 4 flights are on larger E75s, so their capacity cut was minimal.
DCA on US and LGA on DL 3x/day each were short-lived.

The only US capacity increases have been to Florida, which shows how business travel to the US is way down from here. Mind you YOW is not alone in losing service to the US. Pretty much everyone but the big 4 are down...even YEG now with oil tanking.

Originally Posted by ac888yow

Weird. OAG still shows the route, but Delta.com flight search doesn't.

Probably means it'll get pulled from OAG next week. Gee who would of thought that a new route would generate loads so abysmal with no press release and no mention of it happening even by the YOW Airport Authority that it would get cancelled before it even starts.

For the life of me, I don't understand why the YOW Airport Authority don't promote the nonstop air services the airport has, like so many other Airport Authorities do on their homepage, such as YWG and YHZ or even issuing press releases such as YVR.

[Dominion301]

AC have just announced that they're returning to Hamilton - but to YUL only twice daily at this point. http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/air...lton-ontario-and-montreal-567509231.html

I sure hope YOW-YHM follows, even if it's on a DH1. Send AC a note to show your support. I would use this service. When CanJet used to fly YOW-YHM, I was a regular. I was never on a flight with fewer than 40 pax and had many with +100 to 100%. While 40 pax on a 737 is not profitable, 40 on a CRJ should be in today's low fuel price environment.

[Dominion301]

AC have just announced a letter of intent with Bombardier for up to 75 C Series CS300s!

45 firm + 30 options (with the possibility of switching some to the smaller CS100).

This is the desperately needed C Series order Bombardier's been waiting for. Now the likes of UA can also order it and put the program back on solid footing.

http://aircanada.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=984

[YOWflier]

Certainly a positive development; hopefully this LOI gets converted into an actual contract soon (interestingly, Boeing and Airbus don't bother disclosing LOIs).

[BenTheGreat97]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

AC have just announced a letter of intent with Bombardier for up to 75 C Series CS300s!

45 firm + 30 options (with the possibility of switching some to the smaller CS100).

This is the desperately needed C Series order Bombardier's been waiting for. Now the likes of UA can also order it and put the program back on solid footing.

http://aircanada.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=984

United passed up the CSeries and has ordered more 737-700NGs instead. The only hope for a CSeries is for the CS100 type, and then maybe only a 20-30 frame order, which might not be worth it for United.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by BenTheGreat97

United passed up the CSeries and has ordered more 737-700NGs instead. The only hope for a CSeries is for the CS100 type, and then maybe only a 20-30 frame order, which might not be worth it for United.

I actually read an article that these 40 73Gs are for growth and that a true 100 seater (i.e. the CS100 or E190/5-E2) are still in the running. Only a 100 seater will allow UA to grow their 76 seater fleet. These 40 73Gs do not allow this.

Either way, this means the C Series will be a regular visitor to YOW within the next 5 years.

[YowItaliano]

Is it me, or has the airport expanded the "sterile" corridor up to Gate 17 now?
I knew they had it up to and including Gate 15 for transborder and international arrivals. But, yesterday it looked like it has been extended.
Am I losing my mind........when did they do it.......

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by YowItaliano

Is it me, or has the airport expanded the "sterile" corridor up to Gate 17 now?
I knew they had it up to and including Gate 15 for transborder and international arrivals. But, yesterday it looked like it has been extended.
Am I losing my mind........when did they do it.......

Do you mean the 'swing' gates 11, 12 & 13, which have a glass corridor to make them domestic/int'l or transborder or do you mean the stowed glass at gate 13 (at least when I worked there) that could be pulled out on Saturday mornings during the winter to add an extra transborder gate? Has that partition been relocated to 17? That doesn't seem to work given how domestic/int'l security is right in front of 16/17. I can see the partition having been moved to 15 though.

Looking at the YOW FIDS for tomorrow the early Saturday morning sun push (from 0545 to 0900), 11, 12 & 13 have Florida flights on them (4 total), while there are 5 international departures from gates 14 upwards. While international (non-US) arrivals can only arrive on gates 6 & 11-15, they can depart from 11 to 30, although the airport likes to schedule them near duty free as much as possible for obvious reasons.

Looking at the YOW FIDS for this afternoon, I see there's a Canadian North charter to YUL running 2 hours late.
16:00 Feb.19 18:00 Feb.19 MPE9866 Montreal Canadian North Delayed 23

I wonder what that's for?

[Dominion301]

Today, February 29, 2016 is WestJet's birthday. While they've been in business now for 20 years, one could argue that today is really their 5th birthday, since they commenced operations on the leap year day.

As an aside, I actually know someone with the exact same birthday as WestJet.

http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/wes...high-care-low-fare-flying-570470491.html

[Dominion301]

YOW's 2016 passenger stats are off to a mediocre start.

Jan-15 / Jan-16 / % Change
242,999 / 250,734 / +3.2%
72,879 / 64,457 / -11.6% - A big drop, but slightly ahead of 2014's numbers. Q1 of 2015 saw big TB gains before everything fell off the cliff the rest of the year.
64,454 / 61,941 / -3.9% - I'd imagine this is soft due to the warm weather in January. Still this is the lowest January total since 2009.
380,332 / 377,132 / -0.8% - I don't think YOW will see any growth beyond say 1% until after Q1 of this year when the new domestic capacity starts coming online. Later in the year I think 2-3% is consistently possible.

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2015
Dom: 3,496,364 / +1.8% - closing in on the 3.5 million mark
TB: 727,333 / -1.9%
Int'l: 429,463 / -2.6%
TTL: 4,653,160 / -0.1%