Calgary International Airport II

[s211]

Originally Posted by boeing767300

the highest AIF fee in Canada

That I did not know. Interesting.

[Tobuz]

Originally Posted by Acey

A bigger issue yesterday was literally half of WestJet ground crew calling in sick forcing planes to wait for up to an hour to get on gate, delaying pushbacks and cascading to international arrivals getting delayed, etc.

Saturday was kind of a disaster in every aspect of the airport.

Wow. Half of their ground crew? At their main hub?? Just ... wow.

There were lots of reports of serious WestJet problems at YYC - long delays, cancellations, and generally frustrated customers. A lot of angry and sad “guests” experiencing major, major disruptions (including outright cancellations) to their family holidays. Pretty sad.

But I assumed it was Mother Nature causing the problem, not WestJet’s own people.

So was it a crazy bout of “real” illness sweeping through the WestJet staff? Or was it the “I don’t feel like working in the cold so I just won’t bother to show up” flu?

Maybe Owners ‘actually don’t’ Care so much any more? I’m sure it’s been a challenging week for Westjetters at YYC, but it’s inexcusable if their people just threw in the towel en masse — particularly since it was their customers who suffered.

[speedog]

Originally Posted by Tobuz

Wow. Half of their ground crew? At their main hub?? Just ... wow.

There were lots of reports of serious WestJet problems at YYC - long delays, cancellations, and generally frustrated customers. A lot of angry and sad “guests” experiencing major, major disruptions (including outright cancellations) to their family holidays. Pretty sad.

But I assumed it was Mother Nature causing the problem, not WestJet’s own people.

So was it a crazy bout of “real” illness sweeping through the WestJet staff? Or was it the “I don’t feel like working in the cold so I just won’t bother to show up” flu?

Maybe Owners ‘actually don’t’ Care so much any more? I’m sure it’s been a challenging week for Westjetters at YYC, but it’s inexcusable if their people just threw in the towel en masse — particularly since it was their customers who suffered.

Maybe it's a bit reflective of management/worker relations?

[boeing767300]

Passengers on WS197 would not have felt like guests while boxed in at a FAKE gate. They literally had their backs against the wall with no seats and no room to move. No doubt smiley better known as Saretzky will issue a life is beautiful propaganda statement when he returns to the pumpkin palace at Aerial Place. Sartor will no doubt do the same and thanks to a not so great local media they probably will get away with. Meanwhile for unfortunate ground handlers their salaries are part of the race to the bottom. That was probably reflected on their attendance on the 30th. OWNERS are you kidding me������

[Tobuz]

If they’re so dissatisfied with their pay and/or jobs, they should move on. Time to go to work somewhere else.

Don’t hold families hostage over Christmas by being pi$$y, pouting, and not showing up to work.

Best recourse for WS if their ground crews are this unreliable might be to contract the entire function out to a third party. That would be unfortunate, though, since it sounds like half of them do care about their jobs and their customers.

[CrossedTheTracks]

On the other hand, I was at the airport (as "taxi" driver for relatives, not traveller) the day before. The AC checkin area was a complete mess of people, queues, and insufficient machines and/or staff. The WS area was calm and serene by comparison.

[Tobuz]

But still AC seemed to fare a lot better than WS over the past few days, no? (At least in terms of cancellations and big delays?)

[Aegis]

Does anyone who follows this thread have experience doing financial analysis in the airline/aviation industry? I am doing some research and would love to talk to an expert.

[PPAR]

Originally Posted by CrossedTheTracks

On the other hand, I was at the airport (as "taxi" driver for relatives, not traveller) the day before. The AC checkin area was a complete mess of people, queues, and insufficient machines and/or staff. The WS area was calm and serene by comparison.

I did a dropoff today (sunday) around 11am, not typically what I would think of as the busiest time for flights. The AC/ pier C security lines were overflowing out of the regular switchbacks. People without trusted traveler status were probably facing a 30- 45 minute wait.

After having seen many horrible airport congestion situations over the years, I have come to regard a security line that exceeds about 15 minutes as an unacceptable level of service. It is at that point that passengers start having issues making flights (further messing with the wait as people get bumped forward). YYC never really used to have these kinds of problems, it seems like we are on a slippery slope to dysfunction.

[Lancaster]

Originally Posted by PPAR

I did a dropoff today (sunday) around 11am, not typically what I would think of as the busiest time for flights. The AC/ pier C security lines were overflowing out of the regular switchbacks. People without trusted traveler status were probably facing a 30- 45 minute wait.

After having seen many horrible airport congestion situations over the years, I have come to regard a security line that exceeds about 15 minutes as an unacceptable level of service. It is at that point that passengers start having issues making flights (further messing with the wait as people get bumped forward). YYC never really used to have these kinds of problems, it seems like we are on a slippery slope to dysfunction.

Well, you'll be disappointed to hear that CATSA's target level of service is even worse than that...

Over the course of 2016/17 we saw our highest-ever passenger volumes, and we were once again successful in meeting our wait time service level target – screening 85% of passengers in 15 minutes or less, on average, at Canada’s eight major airports. This is thanks to the hard work and commitment of both CATSA employees and screening staff.

[msmariner]

Originally Posted by PPAR

I did a dropoff today (sunday) around 11am, not typically what I would think of as the busiest time for flights. The AC/ pier C security lines were overflowing out of the regular switchbacks. People without trusted traveler status were probably facing a 30- 45 minute wait.

After having seen many horrible airport congestion situations over the years, I have come to regard a security line that exceeds about 15 minutes as an unacceptable level of service. It is at that point that passengers start having issues making flights (further messing with the wait as people get bumped forward). YYC never really used to have these kinds of problems, it seems like we are on a slippery slope to dysfunction.

How much does this have to do with all the cancelled flights to the east coast vs the actual airport operations?

[People.talking]

Does anyone have the figures for the amount of passengers/aircraft movements from 2017?

[Canadian74]

Originally Posted by People.talking

Does anyone have the figures for the amount of passengers/aircraft movements from 2017?

it gets posted on the yyc website.
http://www.yyc.com/en-us/media/factsfigures/passengerstatistics.aspx

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Canadian74

it gets posted on the yyc website.
http://www.yyc.com/en-us/media/factsfigures/passengerstatistics.aspx

It is nice to see material gains for those coming from or going over the national boundary - both international and transborder. YYC is set for another nice increase, a trend continuing from 2009. Edmonton is looking flat again, far short of their peak a couple years ago.

The Canadian context is interesting. This is based on 2017 estimates ...
45M-50M - 1 airport (YYZ)
25M-45M - no one
15M-25M - 3 airports (YVR, YUL, YYC)
8M-15M - no one
<8M - all the rest (YEG, etc.)

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by suburbia

YYC is set for another nice increase.......Edmonton is looking flat again

That doesn't make much sense, considering......

YYC pax YTD til November +3.6%
YEG pax YTD til November +3.4%

[GoflamesGo]

I know the economy is stil recovering. But does anyone have any insight or has anyone heard any rumors of future international destinations from YYC? I'd love to see regular direct to Paris, or maybe a Middle East or South American destination.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

That doesn't make much sense, considering......

YYC pax YTD til November +3.6%
YEG pax YTD til November +3.4%

I may have made some error in my scan, but at the same time, when I said YEG was looking flat, I was looking at the multi-year picture - considering for example that it will be 7.8M in 2017 and was 8.2M in 2014.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by GoflamesGo

I know the economy is stil recovering. But does anyone have any insight or has anyone heard any rumors of future international destinations from YYC? I'd love to see regular direct to Paris, or maybe a Middle East or South American destination.

Wasn't there rumour of Emirites some years ago? But I think most people felt that was a farce at the time (and I guess they were right, as nothing happened).

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by suburbia

Wasn't there rumour of Emirites some years ago? But I think most people felt that was a farce at the time (and I guess they were right, as nothing happened).

Yes.

I seem to remember AC throwing a hissy fit and Harper put the kibosh on the whole thing.

[Chinook Arch]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Yes.

I seem to remember AC throwing a hissy fit and Harper put the kibosh on the whole thing.

As much as I'm not a fan of AC, they did have a point. Emirates is subsidised by their government and has been known to add routes even if they lose money- just to stifle the competition. In this case there isn't an existing route, but if carriers like AC were looking at Dubai some day, but waiting for the economics to make sense, someone like Emirates putting in a money losing route ahead of them is an issue.