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

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

My first instinct when I read this was, "mehh... probably not worth the hassle for most people"... then...

... just for fun I did a dummy booking with AC from YOW - MCO for some random dates in May.... absolute *cheapest* I could find was C$442, both involved transfers, and the longest segment was on Rouge (to/from YUL and YYZ).

Then I tried Allegiant non-stop from PBG (Plattsburgh - Montreal's "other" airport) to Sanford (SFB - Orlando's "other" airport) and got C$271 without even trying... probably could have saved C$60 more if I was willing to extend my trip by 3 days. I assumed one carry on (US$20/each way).

The kicker is Allegiant has a 30" seat pitch... Rouge is 29"... so this "low cost carrier" is actually a step above Air Canada Rouge.

Plus an extra hour of driving on the Ottawa side, plus the border crossing, plus an extra 45 minutes driving on the Florida side (unless your destination is to the North), plus gas, plus road tolls in Florida, plus a no frills terminal on either side.

I'm sure some people will find it worthwhile (Plattsburgh gets about 1% of the traffic that Trudeau does) but I don't think it is going to become a mainstream thing.

[HighwayStar]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Plus an extra hour of driving on the Ottawa side, plus the border crossing, plus an extra 45 minutes driving on the Florida side (unless your destination is to the North), plus gas, plus road tolls in Florida, plus a no frills terminal on either side.

I'm sure some people will find it worthwhile (Plattsburgh gets about 1% of the traffic that Trudeau does) but I don't think it is going to become a mainstream thing.

Fair enough.. partly... I've got family not too far from Sanford, so this just caught my eye. They will probably head to some of their other Florida destinations (FLL, PIE) in addition to Orlando.

I agree this shouldn't put much of a dent in YOW. One of the principal target markets would be families where one is flying 4-5 people down south... then the savings can add up.

While you may be correct about the no-frillness of Ogdensburg International Airport... Sanford with 2.5m passengers is 2/3 the size of YWG or YHZ, so I wouldn't call it "no frills".

In any event... I'm just happy to see some form.. in fact *any* form... of LCC competition to the area.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

Fair enough.. partly... I've got family not too far from Sanford, so this just caught my eye. They will probably head to some of their other Florida destinations (FLL, PIE) in addition to Orlando.

I agree this shouldn't put much of a dent in YOW. One of the principal target markets would be families where one is flying 4-5 people down south... then the savings can add up.

While you may be correct about the no-frillness of Ogdensburg International Airport... Sanford with 2.5m passengers is 2/3 the size of YWG or YHZ, so I wouldn't call it "no frills".

In any event... I'm just happy to see some form.. in fact *any* form... of LCC competition to the area.

Even if Ogdensburg does eventually steal away 50,000 YOW pax, the YOW leakage to upstate NY will still be peanuts compared to what's leaked to YUL. Keep in mind Ogdensburg might pull more from the cities & towns along the seaway, especially Kingston, plus upstate NY like Watertown.

[Dominion301]

Yesterday at approx. 1810, I spotted from my house on approach for rwy 07 what I'm almost certain was one of the two Bombardier CSeries CS300 FTVs (Flight Test Vehicles)! It appeared to only do a low approach. It was so quiet that it was barely audible. Now that AC is ordering the CSeries, they'll be a common sight at YOW a few years from now.

The weekend before last the turboprop powered DC-3 was buzzing around Ottawa.

Also, one morning last week while driving on Prince of Wales, I was lucky enough to catch a CargoJet 727 on finals for rwy 07. Seems as if the YHM-YOW run lately has been a 727 most days.

[Dominion301]

YOW's March pax traffic figures have been published.

Sector Mar-15 Mar-16 % Change
Dom: 270,890 / 288,501 / +6.5% - not surprising given the WestJet additions to YHZ & AC Rapidair capacity increases (i.e. more 320/321s, less E90s).
TB: 80,446 / 73,908 / -8.1% - the least bad month since last Oct. Is the worst of it over now?
Int'l: 67,219 / 56,495 / -16.0% - it's been a very poor winter down south. April will be equally horrific with no FRA this year
TTL: 418,555 / 418,904 / +0.1%

Sector / YTD 2015 / YTD 2016 / % Change
Dom: 760,107 / 805,767 / +6.0%
TB: 229,664 / 206,999 / -9.9%
Int'l: 192,996 / 178,584 / -7.5%
TTL: 1,182,767 / 1,191,350 / +0.7% - the only reason why this is positive is due to the leap year day (Feb 29th) this year.

12 Month Rolling Totals:
12 Months Rolling % Change vs Year End 2015
Dom: 3,534,289 / +2.9% - this is a record - and Feb marked the first time this past the 3.5 M mark
TB: 713,090 / -3.8% - will this stay above 700k this year?
Int'l: 417,564 / -5.3% - there's a real risk of this falling below 400k this year.
TTL: 4,664,943 / +0.2%

[Dominion301]

While driving today at approx. 1715, I'm almost certain I saw a CS300 again from a distance. It was coming from the northeast = to the direction of YMX.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

While driving today at approx. 1715, I'm almost certain I saw a CS300 again from a distance. It was coming from the northeast = to the direction of YMX.

Did a touch and go on Rwy 32, as per this video from Canadian Aviation Films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRvVgvOCdcc

[wingman]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Did a touch and go on Rwy 32, as per this video from Canadian Aviation Films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRvVgvOCdcc

That is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Must be so exciting for the pilot and crew to be in control of a brand new model!

I hope things get turned around for Bombardier with this jet, there is potential there.

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

My first instinct when I read this was, "mehh... probably not worth the hassle for most people"... then...

... just for fun I did a dummy booking with AC from YOW - MCO for some random dates in May.... absolute *cheapest* I could find was C$442, both involved transfers, and the longest segment was on Rouge (to/from YUL and YYZ).

Then I tried Allegiant non-stop from PBG (Plattsburgh - Montreal's "other" airport) to Sanford (SFB - Orlando's "other" airport) and got C$271 without even trying... probably could have saved C$60 more if I was willing to extend my trip by 3 days. I assumed one carry on (US$20/each way).

The kicker is Allegiant has a 30" seat pitch... Rouge is 29"... so this "low cost carrier" is actually a step above Air Canada Rouge.

You can fly nonstop from YOW-MCO Saturday to Saturday for as low as $369 (just did a search May 28-Jun 4). This flight is on "real" Air Canada, not Rouge. The issue is getting a Tango fare, which isn't always available.

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Looks like we won't have the A333 on YOW-FRA for as long as we had hoped. Still scheduled to start on May 19th as planned, but ACA838 on June 15th is the last day there is an A333, with ACA839 having an A333 returning the next day. That day, ACA465 will be on an A333 (as opposed to the normal B763) to get it back to YYZ.

So the B763's will go back to their normal rotation of LHR-YOW-FRA, and as usual AC466 will be a B763, going YYZ-YOW-LHR.

Noise in the scheduling?

I'm looking right now at various dates in June and July, and I see the 333 showing.

[HighwayStar]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

You can fly nonstop from YOW-MCO Saturday to Saturday for as low as $369 (just did a search May 28-Jun 4). This flight is on "real" Air Canada, not Rouge. The issue is getting a Tango fare, which isn't always available.

Thanks... yeah I get that... I was just curious to do an apples-to-apples comparison of 2 "similar" flights, on a random day... one with AC (Rouge) and one with an American LCC.

My hope is, at very least, this should raise awareness and lead to a little more vigorous price competition.... one can dream

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by wingman

That is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Must be so exciting for the pilot and crew to be in control of a brand new model!

I hope things get turned around for Bombardier with this jet, there is potential there.

Great video. Things are looking up if the rumoured Delta order for up to 125 pans out + AC for up to 75. That'll help cover all the phantom orders like Republic and the paper airlines.

[Dominion301]

Air North this summer will be adding a 3rd weekly YOW-YZF-YXY flight from 13JUN16 to 16SEP16. Encouraging to see.

https://booking.flyairnorth.com/servlet/FlightPeriodServlet

Would love to see Air North try say a weekly YOW-YLW-YXY, given that they already serve YLW.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

Noise in the scheduling?

I'm looking right now at various dates in June and July, and I see the 333 showing.

Really? I don't see anything after June 15th.

[YOWflier]

I swear it was the case yesterday when I did both "fake" flight bookings and also timetable searches on AC.com. Today, as you indicate, repeating those same searches shows the 763.

However, the downloadable PDF timetable still shows the 333. It could very well be wrong, but interestingly, the PDF timetable shows as "effective April 28", which is a week from now.

It'll probably be the 763, but there is some conflicting information out there.

[RomanR27]

Saw a while back in this forum that an airline called FlySarvaq would be flying Nolinor B732's from YOW-YFB, although it seems that they've now changed partners to Flair Air and their name to GoSarvaq (according to their website), which likely means they'll be flying B734's instead.

Doesn't First Air also have some flights operated by Flair? I wonder if that'll impact their partnership considering GoSarvaq is in direct competition with them.

Source: https://gosarvaqweb.intelisys.ca/

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Saw a while back in this forum that an airline called FlySarvaq would be flying Nolinor B732's from YOW-YFB, although it seems that they've now changed partners to Flair Air and their name to GoSarvaq (according to their website), which likely means they'll be flying B734's instead.

Doesn't First Air also have some flights operated by Flair? I wonder if that'll impact their partnership considering GoSarvaq is in direct competition with them.

Source: https://gosarvaqweb.intelisys.ca/

7F have wet-leased a Flair 734 a couple of times to cover off for their 734s while in maintenance.

7F also have a long-term wet-lease to operate majority of the flights on the YEG-YZF-YVQ-YEV route.

Go Sarvaq’s inaugural flight will depart Ottawa May 20, rather than May 6, with new air carrier partner Flair Airlines, company officials told Nunatsiaq News April 5.

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavuts_rebranded_go_sarvaqs_ready_to_take_off/

[Dominion301]

Jazz are acquiring 5 new CRJ900s and are increasing the existing CRJ705s' seat count to 76, converting them to CRJ900 standard.

Also the Jazz Q400s go from 74 to 78 seats.

http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/cho...ombardier-crj900-aircraft-577093851.html

[RomanR27]

An Atlas Air B744 was at YOW today, came in from HHN last night at 03:11 (5Y8659), and took off at 16:02 today on rwy 32 going to HNL (5Y5201).

As far as I recall, this is the first B744 since mid-January.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

An Atlas Air B744 was at YOW today, came in from HHN last night at 03:11 (5Y8659), and took off at 16:02 today on rwy 32 going to HNL (5Y5201).

As far as I recall, this is the first B744 since mid-January.

Cool. Was this a freighter or a military passenger charter?