Calgary International Airport II

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

I guess they will need to update those schedules pronto!

Checked again this morning, and its still there, even available for booking. Some of the HNL flights are even 70-80% sold. Wondering if it was a misfile or for some reason its taking its time to disappear off its system.

WS seems to be the slowest airline in North America at updating its MAX schedule. Everyone else has already pushed it back to February/March and they still only have it until January 5.

[YYCFlier]

Frankly I'm surprised they elected to use the 763s to MBJ, CUN and PUJ over Hawaii as the 737 NGs can reach there just fine especially from YYZ.

[hollywoodcory]

I guess WS is doing its schedule updates on Tuesdays instead of Sundays now? They removed the MAX until February 4.

Here is list of all the schedule changes:
https://blog.westjet.com/westjet-updates-max-schedule-through-february-4-2020/

Only Hawaii operation from YYC was affected (as already noted by Johnny on previous page)
OGG is now 4x Weekly all on 789, so capacity remains the same.

I'm starting to think HNL will probably not be operated at all non-stop this year.

[YYCFlier]

Anyone know if there is a way to get airside if someone is connecting thru YYC with a layover, and you want to visit?

[Cage]

Originally Posted by YYCFlier

Anyone know if there is a way to get airside if someone is connecting thru YYC with a layover, and you want to visit?

For domestic airside, the uncommon solution is to buy a full fare economy one way flight (flight should be well in advance of your expected leaving airside) using excess room on your credit card. Once you finish up with your meeting, you suddenly don't have a need to fly, call the airline and cancel your itinerary.

Also buy the full fare refundable, in the event you can't do the call-in, your air fare is sent to credit file that can be refunded after the fact.

This only works on Canada's largest airline. The second largest airline will charge a minimum fee and doesn't allow refunds on tickets purchase less than 24 hours before departure. Canada's second largest airline is way more suspicious of this practice - expect a lot more questions. Finally, this procedure can maybe be done 1-5 times before any airline will start to notice a pattern and not so politely ask you to cease and desist.

[s211]

Originally Posted by Cage

For domestic airside, the uncommon solution is to buy a full fare economy one way flight (flight should be well in advance of your expected leaving airside) using excess room on your credit card. Once you finish up with your meeting, you suddenly don't have a need to fly, call the airline and cancel your itinerary.

Also buy the full fare refundable, in the event you can't do the call-in, your air fare is sent to credit file that can be refunded after the fact.

This only works on Canada's largest airline. The second largest airline will charge a minimum fee and doesn't allow refunds on tickets purchase less than 24 hours before departure. Canada's second largest airline is way more suspicious of this practice - expect a lot more questions. Finally, this procedure can maybe be done 1-5 times before any airline will start to notice a pattern and not so politely ask you to cease and desist.

Or just ask the person to exit the secure area and join you instead? As long as they have a boarding pass, it shouldn't be that hard.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by s211

Or just ask the person to exit the secure area and join you instead? As long as they have a boarding pass, it shouldn't be that hard.

The ground side public area doesn't have a lot of amenities left. Its the basic food court and that's it.

If you go airside, you get a lot more time with the person you are meeting. Take a 2 hour layover. if the pax goes groundside you might get 30-45 minutes before the pax has to go back through security. If the non traveler goes airside, they easily double the amount of time.

[Tobuz]

Originally Posted by Cage

The ground side public area doesn't have a lot of amenities left. Its the basic food court and that's it.

If you go airside, you get a lot more time with the person you are meeting. Take a 2 hour layover. if the pax goes groundside you might get 30-45 minutes before the pax has to go back through security. If the non traveler goes airside, they easily double the amount of time.

Absolutely true re the timing.

But the two best places to eat by far are both landside: the restaurant in the Marriott, and Bistro by the Bow on the Arrivals level of the international terminal.

[s211]

Originally Posted by Cage

The ground side public area doesn't have a lot of amenities left. Its the basic food court and that's it.

If you go airside, you get a lot more time with the person you are meeting. Take a 2 hour layover. if the pax goes groundside you might get 30-45 minutes before the pax has to go back through security. If the non traveler goes airside, they easily double the amount of time.

Ah, two hour layover. Your friend needs a Nexus card and breeze past the longer security lines.

[hollywoodcory]

Posted this in the Canada thread last week, but WS/VS began a codeshare agreement allowing UK travelers to book LGW-YYC/YVR/YYZ/YHZ via Virgin's booking system. Not much for WS to feed into at LGW though.

https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/gb/...ounces-new-partnership-with-westjet.html

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/air...-begins-codeshare-service-from-nov-2019/

[YYCFlier]

What's going on with BA?

2020 shows 4x weekly in April and service ending in September. That's a pretty short season. WestJet crowding them out? LGW eating the O&D to LON?

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by YYCFlier

What's going on with BA?

2020 shows 4x weekly in April and service ending in September. That's a pretty short season. WestJet crowding them out? LGW eating the O&D to LON?

Absolutely. As WS continues to turn the screws the pressure on other carriers is showing. TS is a casualty and the reduction by BA to seasonal and now cutting the summer flying back a bit would be a direct result of WS’s expansion.

[nname]

Seems like Hainan had furthur trim down YYC service. First flight for S20 now scheduled on May 14th.

This is pretty close to the bare minimum they'll have to fly without losing the slot from the Chinese authority. I believe the bare minimum is set to 70% in at least one of the summer or winter season. Current utilization is 75% for summer, 0% for winter. So the most they can still do without losing the slot is to trim another 1 or 2 week off in May - October.

[YYCFlier]

Originally Posted by nname

Seems like Hainan had furthur trim down YYC service. First flight for S20 now scheduled on May 14th.

This is pretty close to the bare minimum they'll have to fly without losing the slot from the Chinese authority. I believe the bare minimum is set to 70% in at least one of the summer or winter season. Current utilization is 75% for summer, 0% for winter. So the most they can still do without losing the slot is to trim another 1 or 2 week off in May - October.

I wish we had an Asian option that wasn't PEK with Hainan. For China, that route works, but if you want to connect to anywhere else, it's not very easy and PEK is not the greatest airport to transit (I'd rather go through YVR). NRT year round would be ideal, but clearly AC has given that up (good connectivity on ANA). We will probably have to wait for a partner with WS to get a decent Asia service.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by YYCFlier

I wish we had an Asian option that wasn't PEK with Hainan. For China, that route works, but if you want to connect to anywhere else, it's not very easy and PEK is not the greatest airport to transit (I'd rather go through YVR). NRT year round would be ideal, but clearly AC has given that up (good connectivity on ANA). We will probably have to wait for a partner with WS to get a decent Asia service.

With a potential JV between WS & KE maybe ICN could be a good future option?

[hollywoodcory]

Also October stats are out.

Domestic: 1,028,732 -2.3%
Transborder: 288,213 +5.3%
International: 115,974 +10.2%
October Total: 1,432,919 0.0%
2019 Year to Date: 15,201,722 +3.86%

[YYCFlier]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

With a potential JV between WS & KE maybe ICN could be a good future option?

ICN was my bet too if they do a JV with KE.

[YYCFlier]

RE - October stats ....

Domestic getting hit, is this 7M8 grounding pushing capacity out of YYC with WS?

[Cage]

Originally Posted by YYCFlier

RE - October stats ....

Domestic getting hit, is this 7M8 grounding pushing capacity out of YYC with WS?

The 7M8 grounding all summer forced both major airlines to run flat out with no back up capacity (e.g. spare aircraft). This can only go on for so long before maintenance schedules require aircraft be taken into the barn for 1-2 weeks.

The equivalency would be having all your household cars oil changed on May 15th. By September 15th you have to get the oil change done or the Transport Canada grounds your car. September flying is going to be reduced because all equipment was in operation throughout the summer.

The other impact is crews. The crews worked overtime during the summer thunderstorm season and now get extra time off. If the crews don't get extra time off, the busy Christmas season will have additional crews timed out on annual hours maximum. Crew scheduling is a complicated process.

[YYCspotter]

https://www.acl-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/LHR-S20-INITIAL-COORDINATION-REPORT-FINAL.pdf

WestJet requested 14 weekly LHR slots for summer 2020. Unfortunately, their request was not approved.