Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW/CYOW) 1.0

[Harley613]

Ok Airport Improvement Fees are up but flights are at record low prices. I'm flying Westjet to Calgary in July for $242 return all in. I'll gladly pitch in to help our airport while the airlines are giving out flights at cost.

[Dominion301]

Porter restart pushed back again. Now August 3rd.

[bcard519]

AC 343 on July 1st is now on a 789

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Well yes. Covid has a cost. Time to pony up.

Meanwhile our dollar is high, US airports getting big subsidies thrown at them and had a much shorter shutdown.

Lots of room for bleedage.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by bcard519

AC 343 tomorrow is a 788. Inbound tonight from YYZ as AC462.
First time in a while that there will be a pax widebody flight

I just spotted a 788 in old colours inbound from YVR heading for landing onto 25.

Today’s departure count: 11

Sunday’s departure count was 11

I see Flair used the MAX on Saturday at YOW to YWG - 1st time at YOW?

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

I just spotted a 788 in old colours inbound from YVR heading for landing onto 25.

It's been the same 788 (C-GHPU) ever since the route started last Friday. On Friday it went missed on 14 in the storm so I got to see it twice which was neat.

Originally Posted by Dominion301

I see Flair used the MAX on Saturday at YOW to YWG - 1st time at YOW?

There was also a MAX on the same route the previous Saturday.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

It's been the same 788 (C-GHPU) ever since the route started last Friday. On Friday it went missed on 14 in the storm so I got to see it twice which was neat.



There was also a MAX on the same route the previous Saturday.

Interesting about it being the same 788 all the time.

Today’s departure count: 10

[bcard519]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Interesting about it being the same 788 all the time.

The more interesting part is that it spends more time on the ground, then in the air in a 24 hour period.

I’m curious as to when we will see service to an American airport, how long after the border reopens������

[wingman]

I am on this train too... will we be getting back that ORD route? I am planning a trip to the US west coast and I need a better connection than a 3 or 6 hour layover in YYC or YVR.

At this point, I can go to YUL and do a 1hr+ layover in DEN...

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by bcard519

The more interesting part is that it spends more time on the ground, then in the air in a 24 hour period.

I’m curious as to when we will see service to an American airport, how long after the border reopens������

Just goes to show how AC have nowhere else to put 788s these days.

As for transborder, well surely there will be some service to Florida this winter, but as for a hub feeder, I found:
1) AA have YOW-PHL resuming 2x daily on 05APR22 (1x the first day of ops) - it looks for real and not a dummy schedule as the flight times are completely different that AA's actual old schedule. The published schedule would bring back the ability for YOW pax to do a same-day biz trip to PHL.

2) UA has YOW-IAD resuming 1x daily on 05OCT21 and increasing to 3x daily on 31OCT21. YOW-ORD shows as resuming 3x daily (2x days 67) on 06NOV21. I don't if I'd put much stock into anything beyond 30OCT21, which would coincide with the start of the IATA winter season.

3) AC has YOW-DCA resuming 2x daily (1x on day 7), YOW-BOS 2x daily and YOW-EWR 3x daily (2x days 67) on 07SEP21. Anything past Labour Day is pretty much a dummy schedule for AC at this point...case in point Rapidair goes from 7x on 06SEP21 to 16x on 07SEP21. The leisure transborder schedule looks legit though.

As for AC & Florida, I can find YOW-MCO 3x weekly starting not until 18DEC21 days 567 on a mainline 320, YOW-TPA 3x weekly on days 357 starting 19DEC21 on a mainline 320 and YOW-FLL 2x weekly starting that same weekend on days 67 also on a mainline 320. So 8 weekly vs what the 18 or 19 weekly AC had for winter 2019-20 - and much earlier season start!

4) WS - I wouldn't read too much into this as WS state their schedules are only accurate to 04AUG21, but YOW-RSW 2x weekly 738 (days 46) and YOW-MCO 3x weekly 73G/738 mix (days 567) are there.

[Dominion301]

Today's departure count: 13

[Dominion301]

Today's departure count: 12

[Dominion301]

Some good news on the transborder front. AA have announced in a press release celebrating 80 years of service to YYZ that service to YOW, along with YHZ and YQB will resume in spring 2022 = April 2022. So the 05APR22 restart date is legit!

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/am...ears-of-service-to-canada-868882689.html

[YOWflier]

When armageddon happened at the outset of the pandemic I predicted (hoped) that suspended routes would be back within 3 years. It’ll be nice if much of it comes back before that.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 14 - the most since January 10th's 15 departures.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count is 15, which is the most for the second day in a row since January 10th and tied that number.

Today also marks the inaugural WestJet flight to YYJ, the first ever nonstop between the BC and National Capitals.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 14

[Dominion301]

Monday’s departure count: 12

EDIT: 13 missed a late evening Flair

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Today also marks the inaugural WestJet flight to YYJ, the first ever nonstop between the BC and National Capitals.

WestJet adding YOW-Victoria route to schedule

By: OBJ staff
Published: Jun 25, 2021 5:54pm EDT

As Ontario’s economy starts to gradually reopen from COVID-induced shutdowns, WestJet announced Friday that it is adding a new route to its schedule of Ottawa flights.

The country’s second-largest airline says it’s introducing once-weekly direct service from YOW to Victoria beginning Saturday. The move came as WestJet also said it was restarting nine routes from Toronto and London, Ont., to various Canadian cities before the end of the month.

“We continue to work towards the restoration of our pre-COVID domestic network to ensure that when our guests are ready to travel, we are there for them,” the carrier’s chief commercial officer, John Weatherill, said in a statement.

WestJet also offers non-stop flights to four other Canadian centres from Ottawa: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto.

The additional route should come as welcome news to the Ottawa Airport, which is facing the biggest cash crunch in its history as passenger volumes have plummeted during the pandemic. Roughly two dozen flights a day now serve the airport, compared with about 110 pre-COVID.

As a result, the airport – which relies on improvement fees charged to passengers as well as terminal and landing fees, concession revenues and parking fees for most of its revenues – racked up a net loss of $51.2 million in 2020 and expects to incur an even bigger deficit this year.

Other carriers say they’re also adding routes to Ottawa in anticipation of an uptick in passenger traffic as COVID case numbers fall and people start feeling more comfortable with air travel.

In April, low-cost air carrier Flair Airlines said it plans to add twice-weekly flights between Ottawa and Kelowna, B.C., to its growing list of routes that are slated to start service again this summer.

https://www.obj.ca/article/local/tourism/westjet-adding-yow-victoria-route-schedule-later-month

[MountainView]

Did OBJ really publish that yesterday?

The route was announced back in late March!

Originally Posted by BenYOW

From March 26:
WestJet has announced 11 new domestic routes for the summer, including Ottawa to Victoria:

• Ottawa – Victoria: 1x weekly (Sat): Commences June 26, 2021

This is a nice piece of good news for Ottawa, and it signals that WestJet is focusing on domestic tourism this summer.

News Release