Canadian Airport Thread

[thenoflyzone]

I think YYC's main problem is that WS is short staffed. Creating delays, be it for departure, arrival, baggage claim, etc. Most of the pics you see in that CBC article is mostly that. Not customs related. WS needs to hire back more staff. That will solve most of the problems at YYC.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/08/13/westjet-staffing-shortage/

The issue at YUL is something else entirely and has to do with customs. Not because they are short staffed, but rather because it is taking 5, 10x longer per passenger to process compared to pre-pandemic times. (Checking for vaccination status, quarantine planning requirements, etc). Combine that with the increase of international passengers YYZ and YUL are seeing in the last few months, and the outlook doesn't look too good. When passenger numbers really start to pick up in 6 or 12 months time, customs procedures need to get more streamlined, or else these lineups will get bigger and bigger. it is already a disaster. What will it look like in 2022?

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

I think YYC's main problem is that WS is short staffed. Creating delays, be it for departure, or arrival, baggage claim, etc. All the pics you see in that CBC article is mostly that. Not customs related.

The issue at YYZ/YUL is something else entirely and has to do with customs. Not because they are short staffed, but rather because it is taking 5, 10x longer per passenger to process compared to pre-pandemic times. (Checking for vaccination status, quarantine planning requirements, etc)

At least with domestic passengers, you don't have that worry.

One of those pictures is actually in the US Customs hall (or just outside of it). I know USCBP has been slow processing as its caused many flights to be delayed, but that could be that a vast majority of the Transborder flights are all in the morning. The inbound arrivals in CBSA are probably staggered enough (for now) that they aren't getting the volumes YYZ/YUL or even YVR are getting at once.

It ain't just WS, but literally everyone is understaffed. My old boss said they are still cautious about hiring back too many people in case more restrictions pop up down the road.

[thenoflyzone]

I look at all of this, and none of it is making me want to book a trip anytime soon....I simply don't have the patience for any of it anymore.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

It’s bizarre that YHZ will have two airlines competing for FRA, while YOW at this point has both zero FRA and zero transatlantic for 2022.

YHZ catchment has lots of Europeans who own vacation homes and some tourist traffic. Ottawa doesn't have that. Nor does Ottawa have the freight demand.

[thenoflyzone]

Speaking of YYZ. This is from 2 days ago.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/08/14/toronto-pearson-international-airport-delays-saturday/

YYZ is getting it all. Baggage delays + customs delays.

GTAA is holding passengers on the inbound aircraft for 3+ hours in order to limit the number of people at customs. They also have baggage delays with AC, most likely due to staffing issues.

[hehehe]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Speaking of YYZ. This is from 2 days ago.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/08/14/toronto-pearson-international-airport-delays-saturday/

YYZ is getting it all. Baggage delays + customs delays.

GTAA is holding passengers on the inbound aircraft for 3+ hours in order to limit the number of people at customs. They also have baggage delays with AC, most likely due to staffing issues.

Do you think the Delta variant will actually suppress traffic meaningfully? Or will air traffic continue recovering?

[Coldrsx]

Should continue to recover given the % of folks being unvaccinated versus vaxxed.

[YOWflier]

Terrible circumstances brought an interesting visitor to YOW. Air Senegal A330-900 “neo”.

Quoting from YOW forum:

Originally Posted by MountainView

YOW had an interesting visitor yesterday - an Air Sengal A330 (operated by Hi Fly Malta)

Not sure if it was a refugee flight or perhaps a charter with embassy staff from the Middle East. Both are pure guesses on my part.

Not sure if its still sitting at YOW right now or not.

Flight Aware link

Edit: it was a charter from Afghanistan. A flight carrying CAF members, including elite operatives and employees of the Canadian Embassy in Afghanistan landed this evening in Ottawa, as per DND.

Twitter info

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by zahav

How are everyone's airports doing with international and transborder nowadays? I randomly checked YVR and YYC, and YVR has 8 international departures and 21 transborder departures, while YYC had 2 international departures and 11 transborder departures. Both vast improvements in transborder over a few months ago, but international is still pretty sparse.

Here is this year's international (including transborder) passenger breakdown at Canada's only airports that were allowed to handle intl passengers in the months listed. YYZ and YVR are lagging behind YUL and YYC in terms releasing timely passenger statistics, so i added some additional YTD monthly stats, for comparison's sake.

YYZ
til February 384,155

YUL
til February 172,126 (to compare with YYZ)
til April 251,903 (to compare with YVR)
til June 413,625

YVR
til February 105,814
til April 171,862

YYC
til February 64,643
til April 91,181
til June 128,384

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Here is this year's international (including transborder) passenger breakdown at Canada's only airports that were allowed to handle intl passengers in the months listed. YYZ and YVR are lagging behind YUL and YYC in terms releasing timely passenger statistics, so i added some additional YTD monthly stats, for comparison's sake.

YYZ
til February 384,155

YUL
til February 172,126 (to compare with YYZ)
til April 251,903 (to compare with YVR)
til June 413,625

YVR
til February 105,814
til April 171,862

YYC
til February 64,643
til April 91,181
til June 128,384

Here's YYZ up to the end of Q2 that I posted a couple of pages back last week:

YYZ Reports Q2 traffic and year-to-date:

Quote:
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority ("GTAA") today reported its financial and operating results for the three- and six-months ended June 30, 2021. Passenger activity decreased 79.1 per cent during the first six months of 2021 as compared to the same period of 2020.
For the periods ended June 30


Three months / Six months (in millions)

Sector/ 2021 Q2 / 2020 Q2 / # Change / % Change / 2021 YTD / 2020 YTD / # Change / % Change
Domestic / 0.6 / 0.3 / 0.3 / +93.8% / 1.2 / 3.5 / (2.3) / (65.3%)
International / 0.4 / 0.2 / 0.2 / +93.9% / 0.9 / 6.6 / (5.7) / (86.4%)
Total / 1.0 / 0.5 / 0.5 / +93.8% / 2.1 / 10.1 / (12.2) / (79.1%)

[Dominion301]

Here's YOW's July pax stats.

Sector / Jul-20 / Jul-21 / % Change
Dom: 42,675 / 116,171 / +172.2% - for context Jan-May was 117,426
TB: 0 / 0 / #DIV/0!
Int'l: 0 / 0 / #DIV/0!
TTL: 42,675 / 116,171 / +172.2%

Sector / YTD 2020 / YTD 2021 / % Change
Dom: 815,802 / 278,434 / -65.9%
TB: 163,093 / 0 / -100.0%
Int'l: 168,382 / 0 / -100.0%
TTL: 1,147,277 / 278,434 / -75.7%

If July's upward trend holds, YOW might end 2020 over 1 million pax. Will need to avg ~144.3k pax monthly the rest of the year. That should be easily reached in August with an average of 30 departures/day now. Should continue to increase with Porter returning in September, transborder service in October and international sun routes in November/December.

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2019
Dom: 494,669 / -87.6%
TB: 0 / -100.0%
Int'l: 0 / -100.0%
TTL: 494,669 / -90.3%

The meaningful indicator these days
Month-Over-Month Change
Sector / Jun-21 / Jul-21 / % Change
Dom: 44,837 / 116,171 / +159.1%
TB: 0 / 0 / #DIV/0!
Int'l: 0 / 0 / #DIV/0!
TTL: 44,837 / 116,171 / +159.1%
Avg/Day: 1,495 / 3,747 / +150.7%

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by ac888yow

Terrible circumstances brought an interesting visitor to YOW. Air Senegal A330-900 “neo”.

Quoting from YOW forum:

Refugees are going into Pierson.

Apparently about a 1000 so far. This will be steady according to the Gov until NATO shuts down operations.

[Dominion301]

YXE July

https://www.cjwwradio.com/2021/08/17/127934/

Saskatoon Airport Authority spokesperson, CJ Duchinski says there was a fair increase from June to July.
In July there were about 50,000 people arriving and departing from the airport.
For the year, the airport passenger numbers are down about 63 per cent.

[Nicko999]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

If July's upward trend holds, YOW might end 2020 over 1 million pax. Will need to avg ~144.3k pax monthly the rest of the year. That should be easily reached in August with an average of 30 departures/day now. Should continue to increase with Porter returning in September, transborder service in October and international sun routes in November/December.

The stat that matters the most to me this year is yearly PAX numbers being higher than 2020.

That would be very telling about how far along cities and regions are in their recovery.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

The stat that matters the most to me this year is yearly PAX numbers being higher than 2020.

That would be very telling about how far along cities and regions are in their recovery.

I think most airports in Canada will end 2021 below 2020 as January, February and the first 1/2 of March 2020 were 'normal' months. Take YOW for example. It would have to average 244,000 pax per month in the final 5 months of the year to finish at the same pax count as 2020. That's probably not realistic given that YOW only surpassed 100,000 pax in a month for the first time since March 2020 in July. While I expect August at YOW could flirt with 200,000 pax, even with Porter coming back in September, UA in October and international sun flights in November, I just can't see 244,000/month happening. The same would be true for YUL and YYZ, just proportionally higher.

[Dominion301]

There was a small plane crash at YQT on Monday evening. The pilot, the lone occupant, perished.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/tbay-airport-closed-1.6143338

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/tsb-update-tbay-plane-crash-1.6145508

Details about what caused the crash, which left one person dead, are still largely unknown.

The Rockwell Commander 90, owned by MAG Aerospace, was headed for routine maintenance at its base in Dryden, Ont., after a day of flying as part of the province's firefighting response.

The TSB previously said the plane returned to the airport shortly after takeoff, and then crashed into the runway shortly after 9:00 p.m.

A statement from MAG Aerospace said they are withholding the name of the pilot, the sole occupant in the plane, to respect the next of kin notification process.

[Nicko999]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

I think most airports in Canada will end 2021 below 2020 as January, February and the first 1/2 of March 2020 were 'normal' months. Take YOW for example. It would have to average 244,000 pax per month in the final 5 months of the year to finish at the same pax count as 2020. That's probably not realistic given that YOW only surpassed 100,000 pax in a month for the first time since March 2020 in July. While I expect August at YOW could flirt with 200,000 pax, even with Porter coming back in September, UA in October and international sun flights in November, I just can't see 244,000/month happening. The same would be true for YUL and YYZ, just proportionally higher.

I also expect the next few months to be stronger with international passengers allowed next month.

While 2020 had 2 1/2 normal months, 2021 should finish with the strongest months post March 2020.

[nname]

For S22, AC plan to change routing for MXP service, effective May 22

Current:
AC 894 YYZ-MXP, 4x weekly

New:
AC 894 YYZ-YUL-MXP, 5x weekly 330


I thought AC no longer do one-stop services?

[hollywoodcory]

WS appears to be planning to resume YYC-SNA this winter with up to 2-3x weekly service. Currently only filed in the OAG, and not bookable.

[Calfan12]

It currently looks like Air Canada plans to use the Boeing 777 between Calgary and Frankfurt Germany (again) starting end of March 2022 for next years Spring/Summer season.