Canadian Airport Thread

[SignalHillHiker]

Scotland has afforable two-minute flights between islands. It's just not a priority for Canada, and they won't let other airlines in.

The annoying part is basically all transAtlantic flights pass right over us. Westjet's direct flight was just putting down a Toronto-Dublin flight for a bit. It didn't originate here, there were always people already on it. That's all we want. Flying to Halifax and back nearly doubles the flight time.

[BlueFusion]

Originally Posted by wave46

I'm quite surprised, given that BC has many destinations that are pretty small population-wise on AC Express.

Places like: Cranbrook, Castlegar, Penticton, Prince Rupert, Sandspit, Smithers and Terrace/Kitimat aren't that big.

Sure, I could see places like Prince George being upsized to a Q400. Perhaps due to their isolated nature, more people fly, but I'm curious about the economics of a Q400 vs. DH3 vs. DH1.

YXT and YXS have been Q400 for a few years now, and both are at 5 daily this summer. They seem to have no problem filling the Q400 on those routes. Also with the summer increases AC usually does on the other routes, I think it will be no problem filling up these planes this summer. 3 DH3 flights transitioning to 2 Q400 flights is essentially the same seat capacity (150 seats vs 156).

What I wonder though is what will they do on these routes next winter. Then twice a day Q400 ops replacing twice a day DH3 ops seem a bit much for some of the other destinations you mentioned above. Will they be dropped to once per day, or do the DH3 that went to Ontario this summer move back out west for the winter sked. It is definitely quite the shuffle AC has done, curious how it will work in the long term.

[zahav]

I don't know how seasonal the small BC routes are, they usually don't vary much throughout the year, unlike YYZ which gets more summer seats. But we shall see! The swap to all Q400 just happened on this latest update. Before this week, YXC, YYF, YLW, YQQ, YCD, YYJ, YYD, YPR, and YZP all had some or all DH3 service. Now all DH4. And that's on top of YXJ, YXT, and YXS which as mentioned were already switched to Q400 in the last couple years. SEA and PDX were also DH3 routes until the last couple years, now all DH4 (and one CR-900 to SEA). Seems like a lot of freeing up DH3 aircraft. Other than YXH and YQL from YYC, where else became DH3?

[Denscity]

Castlegar to Calgary return is now showing Q400 June 1st dummy booking.

[zahav]

Interesting, this wasn't in the AC schedules update before along with the others. Lots being toyed with right now with AC Express

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by zahav

Interesting, this wasn't in the AC schedules update before along with the others. Lots being toyed with right now with AC Express

Yes to Calgary but to Vancouver still showing DH3.
Also Q400 May 1st to Calgary but July 1st back to DH3.

[SaskScraper]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker
So, a majority of my flights are booked for September. Roughly $700 for St. John's-Halifax-Dublin (it was direct when I booked it), and about $60 for Dublin-Edinburgh. I realize they're larger cities with economies of scale but damn the price difference hurts me. You can fly around Europe for pocket change once you're there, and our only (I believe?) direct flight is now Air Canada's obscenely overpriced one to Heathrow.

Originally Posted by wave46

You're pretty much hosed if you want to fly direct anywhere other than London-Heathrow over the pond from St. John's

I'm curious - are you just connecting in Dublin? Or are you planning to travel around that part of Europe a bit?

Is that $700 from St.John to Dublin round trip? I just booked my flight back to Saskatoon from London for this Spring for ~$600 one way and I thought I was being hosed. Last year I was able to book for less than a thousand round trip, I'm just booking one-way for now to see if flight back to London is cheaper again in the Fall...

In Saskatchewan airport news
Regina YQR had an increase of +1.6% to 1.24 million passengers through airport for 2018.
Saskatoon's SKyxe had +3.8% increase last year for 1.52 million passengers, $20million new baggage handling system and renovations to Departure Hall of SKyxe is opening October this year.

press 'Watch this video on YouTube'
• Video Link

[zahav]

The Skyxe branding is really annoying, it seems really desperate and not effective for an airport to create something like that. This articulates it pretty well:

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/tank-saskatoons-airport-rebranded-as-skyxe-but-why-xe

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by wave46

I'm quite surprised, given that BC has many destinations that are pretty small population-wise on AC Express.

Places like: Cranbrook, Castlegar, Penticton, Prince Rupert, Sandspit, Smithers and Terrace/Kitimat aren't that big.

Sure, I could see places like Prince George being upsized to a Q400. Perhaps due to their isolated nature, more people fly, but I'm curious about the economics of a Q400 vs. DH3 vs. DH1.

Expect Kitamat/Terrace to get increased traffic , and I suspect most extra flights will be chartered. But AC will start using bigger aircraft as the LNG gets further along. As is Construction traffic must be increasing.

[zahav]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Expect Kitamat/Terrace to get increased traffic , and I suspect most extra flights will be chartered. But AC will start using bigger aircraft as the LNG gets further along. As is Construction traffic must be increasing.

Yes that's right, I remember not too long ago it was only 2 DH3 and even a couple years before was DH1 sometimes. Now 5 daily 78-seaters

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by Airboy

Expect Kitamat/Terrace to get increased traffic , and I suspect most extra flights will be chartered. But AC will start using bigger aircraft as the LNG gets further along. As is Construction traffic must be increasing.

You bet! This summer is going to be big in the area. Lots of hotels and long term stay residences already booking up. The new(er) Microtel has ridiculous rates for rooms right now.

[thenoflyzone]

YYZ posted Oct and November stats. They are at 45.55 million total pax for 2018 so far, with one month left to post.

https://www.torontopearson.com/en/gtaa/statistics/#

A few other American airports have also posted full year figures.

Updated 2018 international passenger numbers for North America's busiest, with increases compared to 2017.

As the % increases indicate, YUL had a tremendous 2018 and is catching up to ATL, all the while keeping pace with YVR. They should easily overtake ATL in a few years at most.

YYZ is slowly catching up to JFK for #1 spot, and has a decent buffer with LAX.

YVR had a solid number in 2018, but EWR and ORD had even better increases, and with no new intl routes announced at YVR for 2019, and with AC slowing its intl growth, it will be difficult for YVR to catch up to either airport in 2019 or 2020.

FLL, with a near 20% increase last year, is on track to overtake DFW in 2019.

1. JFK 31.1 million (til November, +3.5%)
2. YYZ 29.06 million (til November, +6.7%)
3. LAX 26.05 million (+4.4%)
4. MIA 21.86 million (+1.9%)
5. CUN 16.4 million
6. MEX 15.75 million
7. PTY
8. SFO 14.22 million (+5.9%)
9. EWR 12.9 million (til November, +9.2%)
10. ORD 12.67 million (til November, +10.3%)
11. YVR 13.49 million (+8.5%)
12. ATL 12.5 million (+3.6%)
13. YUL 12.27 million (+9.2%)
14. IAH 10.73 million (+3.7%)
15. DFW 8.74 million (+2.7%)
16. FLL 8.61 million (+19.8%)
17. BOS 7.58 million (+5.3%)

[MacLac]

Originally Posted by MountainView

You bet! This summer is going to be big in the area. Lots of hotels and long term stay residences already booking up. The new(er) Microtel has ridiculous rates for rooms right now.

Short lived until Civeo gets their 5500 man construction camp up and running along with a few more auxiliary camps as well......

[SpongeG]

a look at the westjet dreamliner

• Video Link

[youngregina]

IMO, the Westjet Dreamliner cabin interior, seats, colour palettes, and atmosphere looks a hundred times better than Air Canada's Dreamliner. Just beautiful.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by youngregina

IMO, the Westjet Dreamliner cabin interior, seats, colour palettes, and atmosphere looks a hundred times better than Air Canada's Dreamliner. Just beautiful.

I really don't see much of a difference, personally... I think they're both pretty attractive. And if you're sitting in economy, AC won't try to grind you for another few bucks for a meal during an 8 hour flight, so there's that too.

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

So, a majority of my flights are booked for September. Roughly $700 for St. John's-Halifax-Dublin (it was direct when I booked it), and about $60 for Dublin-Edinburgh. I realize they're larger cities with economies of scale but damn the price difference hurts me. You can fly around Europe for pocket change once you're there, and our only (I believe?) direct flight is now Air Canada's obscenely overpriced one to Heathrow.

Three questions:
1. are those round trip prices or one way?
2. of each amount how much is actually going to the airline and how much is taxes and fees?
3. if you broke this down to $/mile or $/hr how does it compare? You would have to do this on the base fare only, not including taxes and fees

[king10]

275 jobs, $30-million investment announced at Hamilton’s airport

There is talk KF Aerospace may look to land a new maintenance contract for Westjet widebody aircraft.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4966136/275-jobs-30-million-investment-hamilton-airport/

KF Aerospace has announced a $30-million expansion of its facility at Hamilton International Airport including construction of a new hangar capable of servicing wide-bodied aircraft.

Company founder Barry LaPointe says the expansion will allow it to boost its workforce from 150 to 425, as it runs two shifts per day, five days per week.

The expansion will also allow KF Aerospace to provide classroom and hangar space for Mohawk College’s aircraft maintenance engineer programs which Mohawk College president Ron McKerlie says will provide students with on-site training.

[thenoflyzone]

AC Q4 and year end results for 2018

Transcript from the CEO.

Financials aside, here are the key highlights, route wise.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4241505...q4-2018-results-earnings-call-transcript

We’re pleased with our domestic performance of our hubs in Montreal and Toronto and we continue to see gains in Eastern Canada.
...
We were particularly pleased with the performance of our service between Eastern Canada and California as well as between Eastern Canada and Florida and these markets have been key drivers of our success in the U.S.
....
Now moving to the trans-Atlantic, which was the best performing market in the quarter. On capacity growth of 9.5%, Atlantic revenues grew by very efficient 18% or $136 million driven by traffic growth of 14.5% and a yield improvement of 3%.... Traffic and yield improvements were recorded on all major Atlantic services. In the fourth quarter we extended many of our seasonal routes into November and December including our service to Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon and Athens and we were pleased with the performance of these extensions.
Our Atlantic franchise grew with the introduction of new nonstop service to Dublin, Lisbon and Bucharest from Montreal, Shannon, Puerto, Bucharest and Zagreb from Toronto and Zurich and Paris from Vancouver. For the year, virtually all our new routes over the Atlantic performed well having met or exceeded our expectations.
...
Our Pacific markets saw significant improvement in most major services in the fourth quarter. On a capacity reduction of 0.8%, revenue increased $49 million or 9.7% driven by a very strong yield improvement of 9.3%. The yield growth reflected increases in base fares and carrier surcharges as well as a general improvement in the overall fare mix...Our strategy in Tokyo continues to exceed our expectations where we consolidated our service from Toronto to Haneda and started our Narita service from Montreal. Previously we had operated in both Haneda and Narita from Toronto. Reducing capacity over the Pacific has had a positive impact on our performance and contributed to notable improvements in China and Hong Kong.
...
Services to Australia continue to be slightly under pressure from the present perspective due to the increased capacity from North America
...
Looking at the first quarter, we expect to see positive revenue, yield and PRASM performance over the Pacific although Canada to China is under some pressure partially due to geopolitical issue as well as ongoing competitive pressures. We're implementing tactical aircraft down gauges on our China exposure and redeployment capacity to the Atlantic.
...
Revenues from the remaining services increased $36 million or 14.5%, on traffic growth of 14% and to a lesser extent a yield improvement of 0.5%. The yield growth reflected strong improvements on services to the Caribbean and Mexico however the improvement on these services was largely offset by the continued impact of the significant increase in average stage length on services to South America.
...
Mexico continues to perform very well for us and we were able to successfully increase our capacity into this market with the Boeing 737 MAX. The MAX aircraft also enables us to successfully defend our market position and back to Guadalupe from Montreal despite new low-cost competitions.

Explains the recent downgauge in seats on YVR-PEK for next summer.

[Canadian74]

Originally Posted by esquire

I really don't see much of a difference, personally... I think they're both pretty attractive. And if you're sitting in economy, AC won't try to grind you for another few bucks for a meal during an 8 hour flight, so there's that too.

Westjet will be introducing complimentary meals in economy on 787s. Earbuds, Blanket and pillow also I think. The IFE screen is also significantly larger than AC.

The colour palette and overall ambiance is much nicer on the Westjet 787s imo, compared to AC which is mostly a sea of black