Calgary International Airport II

[Suburgatory]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

Eh, I'm sure the people able to angrily tweet at the airport from the floor could have stopped and read this sign on their way over to their gate too.

The first mistake was making not making the top line "There is limited seating past this point." No one is going to notice what's below the dots when passing by. Also, by putting the dots, you're suggesting that the additional information is
further clarification of the first line and not a completely separate point about the gates.

"You're only minutes from your gate" is also just prompting me to keep going to my gate!

If you want to inject important notices into your users heads they have to be able to read it and understand it in a crowd without stopping because 99.9% won't.

[s211]

Originally Posted by Suburgatory

The first mistake was making not making the top line "There is limited seating past this point." No one is going to notice what's below the dots when passing by. Also, by putting the dots, you're suggesting that the additional information is
further clarification of the first line and not a completely separate point about the gates.

"You're only minutes from your gate" is also just prompting me to keep going to my gate!

If you want to inject important notices into your users heads they have to be able to read it and understand it in a crowd without stopping because 99.9% won't.

The other mistake is the prod to "go spend money instead of sitting at the gate", which for me if just a bald-faced admission where the priorities are with the CTG system.

[Johnny Aussie]

I wish I had something to contribute to this thread about new routes or other developments lately about capacity changes or the like... But....

Carry on with the CTG discussions... I'll come back and visit soon!

I have relatives visiting from Calgary right now and I asked them about the new terminal. Conversation lasted 2 minutes and then we drank more Aussie wine!

[SpongeG]

I wandered around the airport on sunday i guess it was. I've noticed this in the past and why they didn't try to fix it for the new terminal is weird. The waiting/boarding areas get way too crowded as people end up standing in the main corridor and you have to plow your way through walls of people and dodge the annoying kiosks and when in a hurry to transfer etc it adds to the stress.

Also in the new section, there was a waiting area on one side of the corridor, the check in area was on the other and a big part of it was taken up by a hudsons news, it would have made more sense to use the hudsons news area as the waiting area with seating and put the retail on the side of the corridor, as it is its quite unwelcoming and makes the seating area very dark and isolated feeling


Also the food options post security suck, i was in the C gates area, there was tim hortons or chilis, i don't consider a place like jugo juice a place to get food, so you either have to have crap aka tim hortons or pay a lot for something at a place you would never choose to eat at, chilis.

I wondered over to the B section and holy crap its a ghosttown, there was a closed up starbucks and a closed up burger king, i think the only thing open was a bagel place.

anyway took some pics.

I don't know what the plan is for this poor area but its pretty depressing

2016-11-25_03-12-47 by snub_you, on Flickr

20161120_155737 by snub_you, on Flickr

20161120_160043 by snub_you, on Flickr

20161120_155313 by snub_you, on Flickr

20161120_153735 by snub_you, on Flickr

20161120_154316 by snub_you, on Flickr
the main corridor is between a dark small waiting area and the boarding gates - when they are boarding these areas are impassable

20161120_154320 by snub_you, on Flickr

20161120_154800 by snub_you, on Flickr

[Cage]

Calgary airport and call to gate issues were subject of a Gary Bobrovitz report.

Here is the global news link, it is the second or third story in.

http://globalnews.ca/video/embed/3089965/

<iframe src="http://globalnews.ca/video/embed/3089965/" width="670" height="437" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[thixotropian]

My other half and I flew via WestJet YYC-LGW through the new terminal this week and found the arrival and departure process clear and efficient. No issues or confusions with the CTG system for us or, apparently, for others around us although admittedly we were familiar with CTG from other airports (Manchester?) and I've been following the debate on this forum. Arrival and processing through customs was very quick, although we appeared to be the only flight arriving at the time. Very impressed overall. (The WestJet service to LGW was fine also, and at a great price.) Interestingly, several folks on our return flight were out of Montana and had driven up to YYC, possibly to take advantage of the direct UK flight and a strong US dollar...? It would be great if YYC were to develop a market south of the border, especially when one hears so much about certain US airports (Buffalo and Plattsburgh NY) drawing traffic from Toronto and Montreal respectively, but I'm not sure whether that's realistic.

[casper]

Completed all my business trips for the month. This involved passing through YYC, YXE, YWG, YVR YLW and YYJ. The only two major airports I did not pass through this month were Regina and Edmonton.

I can report that all airports have water fountains readily available all over the place, except one.

YYJ differentiates itself by having a water bottle fill station between the security guy who barcode zaps your boarding pass when entering the security line and the x-ray machines. I would like to think this is to allow individuals to fill there water bottles and use them while in line for security, however it appears to be mostly used as a sink to empty water bottles.

YYC differentiates itself as being the least water fountain or water bottle friendly airport in western Canada. However, from previous posts it appears they are moving forward with correcting this problem. YYC should be commended for seeing the light (or water).

[SpongeG]

what is the plan for the "B" section"? it has that glass divider down to the corridor, will they remove it now?

when i was there only one gate was being used, it was an air canada flight to whitehorse.

[casper]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

what is the plan for the "B" section"? it has that glass divider down to the corridor, will they remove it now?

when i was there only one gate was being used, it was an air canada flight to whitehorse.

I was surprised they did not try to build a pathway from the overhead B walkway into international arrivals. That would have permitted most of the B gates to be used as gates that could off-load international and then board for a a domestic departure.

[b31den]

I flew out of the international terminal last week. It was bad. 3 different organizations didnt know what to do with my checked bag (Air Canada, CATSA, and the Calgary Police)

The police were called to search a firearm case. (This is NOT standard procedure in Canada). Usually you just sign an airline form that says your rifle is unloaded and inoperable, and that the ammunition is in a separate checked bag, and pay a "handling fee".

They send me to the Special Baggage area instead of oversize (also not normal). There is no xray machine there so it had to be manually searched. Catsa was insistent they couldnt search firearms. There were 3 officers there right as I arrived, patrolling around doing nothing, and were asked to help. "Nah, you have to call it in to dispatch." They left and literally didnt come for an hour and didn't even search it, just looked to make sure I wasn't travelling with an AK-47 or something.

Yes, it did not make it onto the plane despite getting there 3 hours early. Took 4 days to arrive.

Also, they were manually searching all ski bags because apparently they don't fit through the new baggage system. Nice. That will work well in the busy ski season.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by casper

That would have permitted most of the B gates to be used as gates that could off-load international and then board for a a domestic departure.

Domestic/International/Transborder swing gates are 70-73 (4 gates in total).

The swing gate operation is a mess. At least once per week there are complaints regarding inbound pax being held on the aircraft for 20-45 minutes because another aircraft is being handled into a separate area. As an example, WS had two aircraft arrive simultaneously: WS4400 from YXJ onto C72 and WS1461 from LAS onto E71. The LAS pa had to wait 20-40 minutes while the YXJ pax deplaned and the arrival corridor was reconfigured from domestic to transborder pax flow configurations.

The solution is to artificially limit swing gate operations, particularly domestic arrival configuration, as the terminal is too stretched from a configuration perspective (it takes 5-10 minutes to conduct a security sweep required to switch from domestic configuration to any of the other configurations).

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by b31den

I flew out of the international terminal last week. It was bad. 3 different organizations didnt know what to do with my checked bag (Air Canada, CATSA, and the Calgary Police)

The police were called to search a firearm case. (This is NOT standard procedure in Canada). Usually you just sign an airline form that says your rifle is unloaded and inoperable, and that the ammunition is in a separate checked bag, and pay a "handling fee".

They send me to the Special Baggage area instead of oversize (also not normal). There is no xray machine there so it had to be manually searched. Catsa was insistent they couldnt search firearms. There were 3 officers there right as I arrived, patrolling around doing nothing, and were asked to help. "Nah, you have to call it in to dispatch." They left and literally didnt come for an hour and didn't even search it, just looked to make sure I wasn't travelling with an AK-47 or something.

Yes, it did not make it onto the plane despite getting there 3 hours early. Took 4 days to arrive.

Also, they were manually searching all ski bags because apparently they don't fit through the new baggage system. Nice. That will work well in the busy ski season.

Guns should not be allowed on planes IMHO. They are good for nothing.

[VIce]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Guns should not be allowed on planes IMHO. They are good for nothing.

Well, lucky for the rest of us you're not in charge of these decisions. Checking an inert steel tube, one without any destructive potential other than its use as a club, with the rest of the sporting gear segregated from the all passengers should not be a concern for any rational person.

[casper]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Guns should not be allowed on planes IMHO. They are good for nothing.

I don't own a gun, want to own one or ever plan to shoot one. However hunting and sport shooting are an important part of our history and economy.

You have never been in MSP trying to catch a flight bounded for Saskatoon during hunting season. It is easy to spot the gate with all the hunters in designer camo-outfits. Easy to spot as they much more stylish that the military folks that may be traveling.

When you arrive in Saskatoon, in the customers hall there is usually a small mountain of gun and hunting cases. It is an important part of Western Canada economy.

If it is not loaded, secure and in checked baggage, I don't see the problem.

[YYCMatt]

Originally Posted by Acey

...bite the bullet and start towing airplanes.

Does that involve some compensation for WS for the cost of towing and a less efficient YYC operation?

[MrBigStuff]

Originally Posted by Suburgatory

The first mistake was making not making the top line "There is limited seating past this point." No one is going to notice what's below the dots when passing by. Also, by putting the dots, you're suggesting that the additional information is
further clarification of the first line and not a completely separate point about the gates.

"You're only minutes from your gate" is also just prompting me to keep going to my gate!

If you want to inject important notices into your users heads they have to be able to read it and understand it in a crowd without stopping because 99.9% won't.

This sign is the last thing a person with mobility issues would like to see. $2B didn't improve the airport?? Who's responsible for this??

[CrossedTheTracks]

Originally Posted by Acey

Unless YYC promised WS they'd be able to flawlessly schedule flights from int'l and domestic destinations arriving at the same time on adjacent swing gates...

Though I have no inside knowledge, I would imagine the design requirements for the swing gates went roughly like this: "A small number of gates shall be changeable between domestic, transborder, and international operations to allow flexibility for different departure and arrival patterns in a day."

And it probably did not say, "Swing gates shall be changed back and forth willy-nilly and 'many' times in one day, necessitating a hallway system resembling a Houston freeway systems interchange more than an airport."

I dunno who's to blame, but 25-40 minutes waiting for hallways to be reconfigured is just stupid. I'd be livid if I was on such a flight.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by casper

I don't own a gun, want to own one or ever plan to shoot one. However hunting and sport shooting are an important part of our history and economy.

My prior post was partially to see the thought process of those that respond, so I'm not ridiculously stuck to my thought on this one.

Your post does raise the question, how much does it really support the economy?

Regarding history, well, the belief that the earth being flat is part of European history till not that long ago, and is still the case with some Trump voters. Leaving things in history is fine in many cases.

It would be interesting to understand what positives would result from banning guns on all flights, period.

[casper]

Originally Posted by suburbia

My prior post was partially to see the thought process of those that respond, so I'm not ridiculously stuck to my thought on this one.

Your post does raise the question, how much does it really support the economy?

Regarding history, well, the belief that the earth being flat is part of European history till not that long ago, and is still the case with some Trump voters. Leaving things in history is fine in many cases.

It would be interesting to understand what positives would result from banning guns on all flights, period.

For Saskatchewan it is over 13,000 visitors. Typical setup is fly into Saskatoon. An outfitter puts you on a small aircraft and you fly into the north. Come back and spend a day or two in Saskatoon before heading home. It is an expensive hobby.

The guys are usually in Checked baggage. Little hazard in there.

[VIce]

Originally Posted by suburbia

My prior post was partially to see the thought process of those that respond, so I'm not ridiculously stuck to my thought on this one.

Your post does raise the question, how much does it really support the economy?

Regarding history, well, the belief that the earth being flat is part of European history till not that long ago, and is still the case with some Trump voters. Leaving things in history is fine in many cases.

It would be interesting to understand what positives would result from banning guns on all flights, period.

I'd be curious to understand the positives of banning tubas.