YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Hmm sounds like good news for YVR, and gives them a few years breathing room to further bolster their gateway status.

I expect YVR to move soon on their next round of expansion as they have traditionally been quite on the ball with their capacity, and I would be surprised if they let themselves get in the position SEA is in.

Definitely expect an announcement soon.

[LeftCoaster]

Exciting!

Though it's not a new terminal the extended piers should make the airport feel a lot bigger, especially when looking at the intl' pier and a long row of widebodies.

Only concern is that it adds to the marathon distance when you get dumped off at the end of the international pier. Hopefully they use those express walkways they have here at Pearson.

[Gordon]

What is the timeline for the 2nd phase of the West Chevron?

When does YVR plan to start re-doing the original parts of Pier B?

How far along are the new Pier A gates?

[trofirhen]

All of this combined - the extended terminal wing, new jets, possibly THAI, TURKISH, maybe even another airline, more routes into the USA, maybe even to Bogotà .....
exciting stuff !!

[Johnny Aussie]

So one of the last hurdles for Xiamen to commence flights to YVR.

CTA has granted Xiamen their licence to operate into Canada.

https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/204-a-2016

[Genauso]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Definitely expect an announcement soon.

The federal government did trial the idea of selling/privatizing the airports recently. I'm not sure if the purpose is for a one-time income boost, or to remove what is a layer of tax (they call it rent, but they never bought the land or invested any money. out west anyways).

Originally Posted by trofirhen

All of this combined - the extended terminal wing, new jets, possibly THAI, TURKISH, maybe even another airline, more routes into the USA, maybe even to Bogotà .....
exciting stuff !!

I do not want to mislead anyone. I have no knowledge of upcoming announcements, I just like Colombians and Colombia. They recently announced a cease-fire agreement with FARC as a step towards making peace official, and the main hindrance of insecurity continues to fade which will bring so much potential to light. There's a bunch of smaller cities on the coast (Barranquilla/Cartagena/Cali/Medellin) to remind you of Vancouver the way Capetown, South Africa or Melbourne, Australia do.


(source: YVR pdf of airlines+routes)

With planes in service today, there seems to be a valley in the 6-10 hour range. Bogota is right in the middle of that flying time, too much for most 737s and not exclusive enough for 787s. I would not expect YVR-BOG soon

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Genauso

..............................
............With planes in service today, there seems to be a valley in the 6-10 hour range. Bogota is right in the middle of that flying time, too much for most 737s and not exclusive enough for 787s. I would not expect YVR-BOG soon

What about planes like the Airbus 330?

[LeftCoaster]

Not likely for an A330, given that AC has based their entire 330 fleet out of YUL.

I think BOG seems like a no-brainer for Air Canada's 767 fleet, especially with so many being freed up by the new dreamliners. A767 Rouge might make a lot of sense here, enough seats for the limited business class connections and a ton of VFR.

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

So one of the last hurdles for Xiamen to commence flights to YVR.

CTA has granted Xiamen their licence to operate into Canada.

https://www.otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/204-a-2016

Given that they are starting in less than 3 weeks, it's about time!

Excited to see these planes, love the livery. Hope it goes daily ASAP.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Genauso

I do not want to mislead anyone. I have no knowledge of upcoming announcements, I just like Colombians and Colombia.

With planes in service today, there seems to be a valley in the 6-10 hour range. Bogota is right in the middle of that flying time, too much for most 737s and not exclusive enough for 787s. I would not expect YVR-BOG soon

I like that. But, again, let's not get carried away with South America connections. I agree there is some potential, but wind back to the numerous discussions and voila, maybe a handful of flights per week to a couple of destinations. I like Argentinians too, don't know about a flight to Buenos Aires though.. I think Lima and Santiago would be more likely.

And YVR isn't showing MAN, GLA or ZRH on their Europe map! Shameful!!

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

I like that. But, again, let's not get carried away with South America connections. I agree there is some potential, but wind back to the numerous discussions and voila, maybe a handful of flights per week to a couple of destinations. I like Argentinians too, don't know about a flight to Buenos Aires though.. I think Lima and Santiago would be more likely.

And YVR isn't showing MAN, GLA or ZRH on their Europe map! Shameful!!

Honestly just a handful is fine. Getting down there right now is so unreasonably painful anything helps.

The MEX flight is a great example of this. In march I flew YVR-SAL through Mexico city. The connection was incredibly easy and a <2 hour layover. Big change from some of my previous flights to central america which were through Houston or LAX and necessitated a US customs stop, some heinous layovers and homeland security losing some of my luggage.

BOG or PTY would go a long way to opening up South America to YVR. BOG is a little longer but I'm hoping when Copa gets some of their 737 MAX planes YVR makes the cut, because it's within range.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

My guess is that Finnair already had a lot of routes to asia as they are trying to make themselves the gateway from Europe. Why go trasatlantic and rely on 1 One world partner (american via LAX or DFW, if BA is not an option), when you can get a likely more readily available flight from either HKG or japan? and FWIW, JAL/CX>>>>>American Airlines (insert poo emoji here)

Yeah, I know their Asian strategy (which is a bit shaky) and likely that is the reason. I don't know how airlines price their flights internally inside an alliance, but one would think it is a more expensive exercise to have someone fly 20 hours through Tokyo instead of ~12 hours through North America.

Originally Posted by casper

Lots of One world options: BA flies into several Canadian cities including Calgary. They also fly into Seattle as well as California. BA and American code share on the connecting WestJet flight and Alaska airline flights. Cathay Pacific also has the red-eye flight from JFK to Vancouver that connects with a good number of flights from Europe. That all assumes there is available space. That could be the problem.

Yeah, that's what I would also thought and JFK, ORD or other east coast cities making more sense than rerouting through Asia, but that's what happened. Long way around, but she made it home.

One thing that was pretty cool was that at Tokyo-NRT there is a special "lounge" for people with long transfers. It's free of charge and doesn't require any frequent flyer membership.

What's even cooler is that from NRT they offer free city tours of Narita which she joined. It was a private tour with TWO tour guides, took few hours and cost nothing. Pretty sweet to have the option to make a mini visit to Japan upon transiting!

Why doesn't YVR do anything similar? Canada Line would make visiting Vancouver so easy and I am sure the likes of McArthurGlenn would also like it. I guess the visa requirements make it difficult for many transit passangers that most require one, but perhaps something that YVR should still consider.

[LeftCoaster]

Speaking of the MEX flight, noticed this today:

Mexican visitors eye Vancouver when visa lifted

Vancouver is set to reap a windfall of tourism dollars once the visa requirement for Mexican visitors is officially removed in December — reuniting many families in the process.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered on his promise last week to lift the visa for Mexico, setting the stage for a large influx in Mexican travellers.

“We lost a big percentage of tourism in the province … I’ve heard of a lot of people complain of the significant decline on Mexican tourists,” said Manuel Otero with the Mexican Business Association.

Rocco Trigueros, founder of the Mexicans Living in Vancouver support group, said members of his group have already messaged him with their new holiday plans.

“They have tears of joy … for some of them it’s been over seven years since the last time they saw their families,” he said. “Mexicans are generous tourists — they like to travel and visit, eat at nice restaurants and that pours a lot of money for Vancouver.”

In a statement, president and CEO of the Vancouver Airport Authority Craig Richmond said that once the “cumbersome” regulations are removed, they anticipate the number of visitors from Mexico will jump.

Sebastien Dubois with Tourism Vancouver said projections for Mexican travellers in 2016 are 106,000, and that’s with the visa requirement.

“Definitely the visa being lifted will remove a significant barrier for travel between Mexico and Vancouver,” said Dubois.

Last year, Mexican airline Aeromexico launched a daily, non-stop flight between Vancouver and Mexico City. According to Otero, “it’s very possible” a second flight will be added next year.

“Mexican tourism towards Canada is strong and is going to get stronger,” Trigueros said....

Full story at: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2016/07/05/mexican-visitors-eye-vancouver-when-visa-lifted

[Caliplanner1]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Speaking of the MEX flight, noticed this today:

Sincerely hope that Mexico is able to control its volatile international drug cartels who could ruin this opportunity for the freer movement of law abiding Mexicans to and from Canada.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Speaking of the MEX flight, noticed this today:

I really think we will see:

1) More capacity to MEX on AC - perhaps an upgauge or more flights
2) More capacity to MEX on AM - perhaps more flights as hinted in that article
3) More capacity to MEX on another Mexican carrier
4) New routes to other Mexican cities - in particular GDL and MTY

[LeftCoaster]

That would be great, would love to see some more Mexican tail(s)

Posted this in the YYC airport thread based on a discussion they were having. Hopefully will keep some of you quiet about the level of air service we get here, specifically in relation to Pearson.

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Funny you guys are talking about this, I put together a per-capita look at summer widebodies using tosins population estimates and the charts I compile and have posted here and in the Canada section. It's done on a weekly flight per population basis, so the lower number is better.

YYZ: 1 widebody per 12,113 inhabitants
YUL: 1 widebody per 16,874 inhabitants
YVR: 1 widebody per 9,829 inhabitants
YYC: 1 widebody per 26,781 inhabitants

So on a percapita basis YVR sees the most international widebodies per person, next is YYZ, then YUL and YYC is a distant fourth.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

That would be great, would love to see some more Mexican tail(s)

Posted this in the YYC airport thread based on a discussion they were having. Hopefully will keep some of you quiet about the level of air service we get here, specifically in relation to Pearson.

I think YVR also has a higher %/per capita of domestic widebodies.

At least 10 daily on AC to YYZ(8) and YUL(2).

*********

More good economic news for Vancouver / BC

Relevance to airport talk? good economy = growth in pax numbers.

BC now has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

Has this ever been the case??? I do not remember BC ever having the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.

And Vancouver down to 5.4% down from 5.7% in May. Definitely by far the lowest of the MAJOR (> 1,000,000) cities, but below Quebec City (4.1), Peterborough (4.5) and Victoria (5.3).

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/...-b-c-as-province-adds-16000-jobs-in-june

[LeftCoaster]

Nice pic of the Qatar A340 that visited YVR a few weeks ago. Would be nice to see 3x per week service (not much more though)


https://twitter.com/yvrairport/status/744914805488656384

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Nice pic of the Qatar A340 that visited YVR a few weeks ago. Would be nice to see 3x per week service (not much more though)


https://twitter.com/yvrairport/status/744914805488656384

Would having QATAR be much different from having EMIRATES? I thought the M3 were "persona non grata" around here, what with (potentially) TURKISH waiting offstage.

[LeftCoaster]

A few flights per week is not likely to upset the market too much, it's when they ram an A380 or two a day in (as they often do) that the market gets shaken up.