Calgary International Airport II

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by Cage

There will be some flights/routes transferred from WS mainline to the ULCC. It appears WS has learned its better to cannibalize your own route than to have a competitor do it for you.

WS knows the routes that are both low yield and have lots of O&D traffic. These routes are from YYC and not the hinterland.

Winter season I expect WS will transfer routes that compete with WG - Sunwing. There are additional opportunities like CZM - Cozumel that would complement ULCC to the secondary airport and mainline to the primary airport.

Kinda makes sense, but WS will have the worst of both worlds here if the ULCC is truly separate, brand expectations with WS ULCC with a lack of synergy and redundancy.

Of course if it is profitable and crowds out ULCC competition at YYC, mission accomplished, but it seems to be a limiting strategy, unless i am missing something.

[casper]

Originally Posted by rotten42

Its interesting. I fly to the South East of the US quite a bit. My choices through United are Denver, Houston and Chicago. When you go to book online most of the options seem to run through Houston. Too bad because I hate that airport and have nothing but trouble there. Then the next is Chicago. The other thing I have noticed that with Denver more than the other locations when I have to switch planes the layover times are much tighter coming through Denver than Houston or Chicago. That might have some impact on the loads ..??

Houston. What an poor airport. Just pasted through the darn thing on the weekend. Arrived on united at an E gate, had to make my way to the far C gates. (At least there was a AMEX lounge in D to pass the time). Almost no place near the gate to site that is not one of those silly tables with the ipad to order food. This is United who have no problem removing seating to make room for five different queues where they expect people to stand for 15 to 20 minutes in a line up until their group is called. What a poor customer experience.

Out of the lot Denver is the much nicer airport.

[Tarsus]

Originally Posted by Acey

Denver is what happens when you build a high capacity airport from scratch with massive expansion in mind from day 1.

Are you talking about Denver's airport?

[CrossedTheTracks]

Originally Posted by Tarsus

Are you talking about Denver's airport?

At the risk of putting word's in Acey's mouth, yeah I'm pretty sure he's talking about Denver's airport, where the master plan contains:
- 6 new runways (in addition to current 6)
- extensions to existing A, B, and C concourses
- new D and E concourses
- new East/West concourses (order of D/E vs. East/West concourses to be determined)

Nearly all of which involves greenfield development.

[Tarsus]

Originally Posted by CrossedTheTracks

At the risk of putting word's in Acey's mouth, yeah I'm pretty sure he's talking about Denver's airport, where the master plan contains:
- 6 new runways (in addition to current 6)
- extensions to existing A, B, and C concourses
- new D and E concourses
- new East/West concourses (order of D/E vs. East/West concourses to be determined)

Nearly all of which involves greenfield development.

That's what I thought and it does make sense. I've been to Houston's airport and it's a mosh pit for getting around. I've never been to Denver, but have seen that it was a master planned airport.

You could almost say the same about Calgary when they built the domestic terminal back in 1977. It did a good job for a number of years.

[PPAR]

I remember the press when Denver first opened their new airport. The luggage system had major issues, and commentators were calling the whole project a white elephant. Looks like time proved the airport right.

I would definitely try to go through Denver rather than IAH for connections. Takes 5 minutes to figure out where I am whenever I land in Houston. The inter-gate walk/train time can easily be 15 minutes even when you know where you are going there. Airline lost my luggage there once, and when I received it the next day it was clear why. Homeland Security had left one of their thank you notes in my bag. Clearly security caused the bag to miss my connection.

Edit- as I read this, it occurs to me that YYC should consider it a cautionary tale!

[casper]

Originally Posted by Acey

Yep, talking about Denver. Luggage system issues aside, the runways are laid out in optimal fashion and are far apart so operations are not horribly affected by low visibility like at most major airports in the US, resulting in the best on-time performance in the country. The 12 runways mentioned by CTT require no additional land acquisition, and therefore no NIMBYs trying to shut them down, which is the biggest thing that hampers airport expansion. Denver is well positioned geographically to be a major hub and the sky is the limit.

Given its size, Denver is a great airport to transit. Can't think of any other airport of a similar scale that is easier. The airport is nicely done with a central people mover and piers stretching out from the stations.

The one compliant I have of Denver was the United morning flight from Regina and Saskatoon. They always managed to leave Saskatchewan on time or slightly early. However since SK does not have pre-clearance, you clear in Denver. The morning flight would arrive 10-20 minutes before US customs starts work. The airline is not permitted to open the door to the aircraft to unload until customs people give the OK. United fixed the problem by cancelling the flights.

[SpongeG]

Calgary airport criticized after converting 5 disabled stalls to Lexus-only parking

'We're always looking at different ways to diversify our revenue stream'
CBC News Posted: Aug 21, 2017 11:13 AM MT Last Updated: Aug 21, 2017 12:20 PM MT


Lexus paid the Calgary Airport Authority for the right to put its name on five parking spaces for the exclusive use of people who drive its vehicles. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)

The Calgary Airport Authority has been criticized after it relocated some disabled parking bays that were converted to more lucrative "Lexus-only" spaces.

It received a complaint after a family with access needs pulled into the short-term section of the parkade to find five accessible parking spaces they usually use were gone.

The airport sold the space to Lexus so it could paint its logo on the floor and allow its customers to enjoy the prime location exclusively.

...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ai...sley-calgary-reserved-disabled-1.4255651

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Calgary airport criticized after converting 5 disabled stalls to Lexus-only parking

'We're always looking at different ways to diversify our revenue stream'
CBC News Posted: Aug 21, 2017 11:13 AM MT Last Updated: Aug 21, 2017 12:20 PM MT


Lexus paid the Calgary Airport Authority for the right to put its name on five parking spaces for the exclusive use of people who drive its vehicles. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)

The Calgary Airport Authority has been criticized after it relocated some disabled parking bays that were converted to more lucrative "Lexus-only" spaces.

It received a complaint after a family with access needs pulled into the short-term section of the parkade to find five accessible parking spaces they usually use were gone.

The airport sold the space to Lexus so it could paint its logo on the floor and allow its customers to enjoy the prime location exclusively.

...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ai...sley-calgary-reserved-disabled-1.4255651

Sounds like the Airport Authority just needed to ensure the new H/C stalls were ready prior to these ones being taken over. A small error but with really bad optics.

Curious, what happens if someone without a Lexus parks in those spots? Is there really an ability to ticket them?

[DoubleK]

As the owner of two Lexii who will probably never use these stalls, I welcome this initiative.

[CrossedTheTracks]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

The airport sold the space to Lexus so it could paint its logo on the floor and allow its customers to enjoy the prime location exclusively.

Coming soon to a bookstore near you: "Public Relations: Cautionary Tales from YYC"

[Cage]

Originally Posted by Acey

Similar thing at YEG last year, and people erroneously (to stir up drama) were saying that disabled spots had been relocated.

If you're YYC, there's basically only one thing you have to ensure after watching YEG do it: you have to make sure there's no way anyone could perceive there to be easier access to these spots than to the existing disabled spots. It'd be a risky and terrible idea to relocate them, and in true YYC fashion that's exactly what they did and took it to the next level of idiocy by having the Lexus spots "operational" before said relocation.

YYC is run by the most moronic people on the planet, and this simply falls in line with that.

What I find completely silly about the outrage over the CAA decision is that no one is looking at the Lexus parking stalls depicted in the CBC photo.

In the top right hand corner of the photo is a 5 step staircase. The steps make it completely unusable for someone requiring barrier free access.

The first two stalls are not compliant with Barrier Free Access Guidelines in the Alberta Building Code. The ABC requires 28 square meters of space in a 7m long by 4m wide stall. There is a protrusion in the first two stalls that cuts usable space to 24 meters square as the stall is 6m long.

There are better locations for handicap parking. Door 3 has ramp with a straight in approach to the terminal building, no need to deviate from the as the crow flies path).

If you want a crappy functionality but great looking spot, those Lexus painted stalls fit the bill. Even for normal people, how do you get the luggage cart down 5 stairs?

[FormerWingTipper]

Originally Posted by Cage

What I find completely silly about the outrage over the CAA decision is that no one is looking at the Lexus parking stalls depicted in the CBC photo.

In the top right hand corner of the photo is a 5 step staircase. The steps make it completely unusable for someone requiring barrier free access.

The first two stalls are not compliant with Barrier Free Access Guidelines in the Alberta Building Code. The ABC requires 28 square meters of space in a 7m long by 4m wide stall. There is a protrusion in the first two stalls that cuts usable space to 24 meters square as the stall is 6m long.

There are better locations for handicap parking. Door 3 has ramp with a straight in approach to the terminal building, no need to deviate from the as the crow flies path).

If you want a crappy functionality but great looking spot, those Lexus painted stalls fit the bill. Even for normal people, how do you get the luggage cart down 5 stairs?

No one uses those five stairs.

The actual stairs and elevators that people use are where the photographer is standing.

[FormerWingTipper]

Oops, I may be mistaken.
I thought these were the stalls that I saw in P2 the other day.
Are there more than one set of Lexus parking stalls?

[Cage]

Originally Posted by FormerWingTipper

Oops, I may be mistaken.
I thought these were the stalls that I saw in P2 the other day.
Are there more than one set of Lexus parking stalls?

Yes there are Lexus stalls throughout both parkades in both short term and longterm sections.

At P2 parkade, the Lexus stalls are on level four on the opposite the h/c stalls. The subject stalls appear to be in P1 short term, level one on the WS side, about where the alignment to door 1 is located.

[hoboman27]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ai...sley-calgary-reserved-disabled-1.4255651

Wow Lexus is now involved, unhappy, and the airport's apologized to Lexus

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by hoboman27

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ai...sley-calgary-reserved-disabled-1.4255651

Wow Lexus is now involved, unhappy, and the airport's apologized to Lexus

That was quite categorical. I think this was a comprehensive and appropriate response. Not only are they reverting the stalls in question, the new ones they added to replace these will remain h/c also. They also were very transparent about where the blame lies in selection of the stalls. Kudos for owning up, and thus allowing things to move on.

[boeing767300]

Mr Sartor is discovering the hard way that Garth did not always hire the best and the brightest. The criteria back then was who you know rather than what you know. Now we are all paying the price as these people continue to fumble the ball.

[SpongeG]

story made it to the Russian news RT

https://www.rt.com/business/400528-canada-airport-parking-issue/

Canadian airport slammed for converting handicapped parking to “Lexus-only” spaces

[jmt18325]

So in the Canadian Airport thread, it was pointed out that with Montreal getting NRT today, Calgary will be downgraded to a 767 for next year's summer season, and it will once again be YYZ-YYC-NRT.