Quote:
Originally Posted by thenoflyzone
Like I said, clearly targeted at all of western Canada, as YVR has no non-stop to FCO. They're really betting it all on YYC. Wish them the best of luck. |
Whenever I ask other commentators about why AC doesn't give YYC more destinations, I always get "why, and weaken their YVR hub?"
For AC, YVR is their primary hub, and YYC is a secondary hub. For WS, this is reversed - YYC is the primary hub, YVR is secondary. Last year before the grounding WS had hourly flights to YYC from YVR (16x daily) so the intent was pretty clear. Growing YVR for TATL as this point beyond LGW seems highly unlikely as it would weaken YYC, and YYC's traffic is growing based on connections. And yes, I would expect WS is expecting connecting traffic from YVR to fill FCO. YYC also has a geographical advantage over YVR for TATL.
See:
https://calgaryherald.com/business/local...ecord-earnings-despite-boeing-groundings
Ed Sims says:
“We’ve seen significant connecting traffic from major cities in the U.S. now using Calgary as their preferred transit hub,” Sims said, adding he has no regrets about the company’s decision to make Calgary home base for the Dreamliner program. “We’ve seen very significant growth from Seattle, from San Francisco, from all points in the Pacific Northwest.”
WS is taking a page from AC's playbook, which is to capture a small percentage of U.S. traffic to fill the planes. AC has been been very successful at this. This is why we've seen some odd transborder launches in YYC that YVR doesn't have (e.g. AUS or PDX) - these are larger American airports with limited TATL service. These routes are to feed the international operations.
What will be interesting is what WS now intends to do with the 4 additional frames arriving in 2021, and if they intend to exercise options. My best guess is we will see more launches in the east in 2021 out of YYZ. YVR will come into play for Asia, when they launch Asia (which is not anytime soon at the moment). There's way higher O&D and geographical advantage. If WS launches Asia out of YYC it will be probably one route, perhaps HKG or TYO, or ICN if they get a JV with KE.
If they exercise options, then things get very interesting. But before then in the west, I don't see WS growing much international TATL out of YVR, with the possible exception of extending LGW year-round. But I don't see that happening until LGW is firmly daily year round at YYC.
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