YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[casper]

Originally Posted by Calfan12

Sounds like Singapore Airlines is planning for Vancouver flight ✈️ route in Canada.

Here is the press release.....
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/s.../ne2121-211011

And details on flight times.....
https://www.singaporeair.com/saar5/p...AUSANNEXEA.pdf

Interesting there will be a tag-on to Seattle. Hopefully it does well and gets extended.

[Klazu]

Nice! It will be great to see a new tail at YVR.

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by casper

Here is the press release.....
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/s.../ne2121-211011

And details on flight times.....
https://www.singaporeair.com/saar5/p...AUSANNEXEA.pdf

Interesting there will be a tag-on to Seattle. Hopefully it does well and gets extended.

Great 👍!

[nname]

Originally Posted by casper

Interesting there will be a tag-on to Seattle. Hopefully it does well and gets extended.

More like the non-stop SIN-SEA service get an additional stop at YVR, according to flight number.

Noticed the press said seasonal, so not sure what SQ going to do after Feb 15... Resume non-stop SIN-SEA without YVR? Separate SIN-SEA and SIN-YVR flights? Or neither until the new season begin (next winter? or summer?)

Currently SIN-SEA scheduled to resume Mar 27 the beginning of S22 schedule, but likely it's just they haven't made changes to the schedule yet.

[nname]

AF is planning to increase service to YVR to 5x weekly starting next May, and increase to daily June to Aug. I guess this fills the void after AC cancel the route.

[ninjakafi_81]

Originally Posted by nname

More like the non-stop SIN-SEA service get an additional stop at YVR, according to flight number.

Noticed the press said seasonal, so not sure what SQ going to do after Feb 15... Resume non-stop SIN-SEA without YVR? Separate SIN-SEA and SIN-YVR flights? Or neither until the new season begin (next winter? or summer?)

Currently SIN-SEA scheduled to resume Mar 27 the beginning of S22 schedule, but likely it's just they haven't made changes to the schedule yet.

Do you think there is a possibility that SQ can make YVR a permanent destination?

===============

Regarding with AF, do you know what equipment they'll be using ? I heard that they'll be switching to the 789 from the 772.

[nname]

Originally Posted by ninjakafi_81

Do you think there is a possibility that SQ can make YVR a permanent destination?

===============

Regarding with AF, do you know what equipment they'll be using ? I heard that they'll be switching to the 789 from the 772.

They probably want to see if there's any demand before making decision beyond Feb 15...

And AF will switch to 789 according to their flight schedule.

[Johnny Aussie]

The good news just keeps rolling.

And another Star Alliance option for us to fly home. Let’s just hope it gets extended or at least becomes permanent seasonal winter and summer…

Not sure if the links above are broken but this link has all the details.

https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/au/me...n_UK/2021/October-December/ne2121-211011

Was wondering when AF would finally go daily!

[thenoflyzone]

SQ is going after seasonal VFR demand to S and SE Asia. So the short operating season is most likely explained by operating the route in the peak of that demand. It's a start though.

SQ had hinted at staring YVR for a few years now. Crazy to think that COVID probably accelerated that process.

[thenoflyzone]

Will be interesting to see the SEA / YVR origin split of passengers on the route. I also don't think they will exercise a 5th freedom right (if given) on the route, considering the nature of the market they are after.

[madog222]

What’s the logic for this new route?
Singapore is about to open to vaccinated travelers from several countries, including Canada and the United States, but in order to travel you need to take a “Vaccinated Travel Lane” (VTL) flight, which are designated flights between the two countries. The idea is that all travelers on a particular flight are vaccinated and have been tested, to further reduce risk.


Canada had been announced as a country that would take part in the VTL concept, but the problem is that there weren’t actually any flights between the two countries, so there was no way for people to take advantage of this.

With this newly announced route, Singapore Airlines will be able to serve VTL passengers from both the United States and Canada. The airline is going about this in an interesting way, though. Of the 4x weekly flights:

All of the flights from Singapore to North America will be open to all travelers, regardless of whether they’re part of the VTL arrangement or not (since it only matters when you’re going to Singapore, and not from Singapore)
Of the Seattle to Vancouver to Singapore flights, two of the weekly flights will be for VTL travelers, while two of the weekly flights will be for non-VTL travelers (in other words, those connecting beyond Singapore)

https://onemileatatime.com/news/singapore-airlines-vancouver-flights/

[thenoflyzone]

Considering 2 of the 4x weekly flights will be reserved for SIN O&D alone (from what I understand), this might explain the YVR/SEA combo. Neither have enough demand to SIN proper to justify a non stop. Both of them together, however, might work.

[casper]

Originally Posted by ninjakafi_81

Do you think there is a possibility that SQ can make YVR a permanent destination?
.

I think that is what we all want to see. With the market out of SEA depressed clearly they need to find some way to augment that. YVR is the obvious choice.

However once they get use to operating tag-on flights out of Vancouver they will see the wisdom in their ways.

[zahav]

YESSSS! Definitely a great addition, even if only seasonal for now. It is a good start, and shows that YVR is on their radar in a serious way. I really hope the route sticks around. Even if it is in conjunction with SEA, at least the YVR-SIN and SIN-YVR are non-stop.

Covid has been brutal for the travel industry, so it's nice to see that since March 2020, we have new or expanded service from:
Air India - New year-round to Delhi
Lufthansa - Expanded Munich service
Qantas - New year-round to Sydney
Singapore Airlines - New seasonal to Singapore
Turkish Airlines - New year-round to Istanbul

LH to Munich was a good add, but the other 4 were on the wishlist for many YVR supporters for a long time. It's a big coup to score them, during the worst period in travel nonetheless. Let's hope they are successful!

Obviously this good news is tempered by the cuts from other carriers due to Covid, but hopefully those schedules will come back and operate alongside the new services. Right now airports are really trying to keep themselves relevant, so it's nice to see we have held on to our international network.

[ninjakafi_81]

Originally Posted by casper

I think that is what we all want to see. With the market out of SEA depressed clearly they need to find some way to augment that. YVR is the obvious choice.

However once they get use to operating tag-on flights out of Vancouver they will see the wisdom in their ways.

Mind asking what's wrong with Seattle ? I would have thought Seattle being a tech city that the route would do well.

[nname]

Originally Posted by ninjakafi_81

Mind asking what's wrong with Seattle ? I would have thought Seattle being a tech city that the route would do well.

Most companies are trying to avoid or even disallow corporate travel right now.

[casper]

Originally Posted by ninjakafi_81

Mind asking what's wrong with Seattle ? I would have thought Seattle being a tech city that the route would do well.

Most corporate environments have significantly limited travel due to COVID safety concerns. That is especially true for international travel. They are only starting to now even open up offices and allow people to shift from work from home.

Seattle is historical a crappy airport for international arrivals. It was designed for a different time where aircraft were smaller and international arrivals were less frequent. It is very much an airport to be avoided if arriving from overseas. That said, there is a major expansion on the go that is expected to solve that problem.

[teriyaki]

Covid taketh away, and Covid giveth.

I think this SQ route is a very interesting proposition that really only could exist in its current form with the specific market forces driven primarily from Covid and some of the geo-politics in Asia.

With SQ having eyed expansion into cities like YVR for sometime but could never pull the trigger, this window of opportunity is very peculiar and opportune (for them). Connecting traffic is all but completely gone both from the supply and demand side. A lot of the Asian carriers that would SQ would normally have to compete with like CX, BR/CI and JL/NH are completely out of the picture as far as connecting traffic goes right now so that leaves this ripe opportunity for them to capture this market. Its a very smart play, and I hope the loads and margins work out favourably so we can have a shot at capturing this route on a long-term basis.

Also on my mind is that if SQ could show that the O&D to SE Asia does fairly well in this new travel market, it could encourage other carriers like Vietnam Airlines and/or Bamboo to think about something like this. Long stretch, but its a thought. The international travel game has changed significantly and it'll be very interesting to see how things shake out ahead.

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by nname

AF is planning to increase service to YVR to 5x weekly starting next May, and increase to daily June to Aug. I guess this fills the void after AC cancel the route.

Great that Air France is increasing flights✈️between Vancouver YVR & Paris,France Summer 2022.

Yes it helps to fill the void of Air Canada AC’s Vancouver- Paris canceled flights!

WestJet (WS) Summer seasonal flights between Calgary YYC & Paris will be more than enough to fill the void too in Western Canada,also it provides connecting options for Vancouver passengers✅.

[casper]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

Covid taketh away, and Covid giveth.

I think this SQ route is a very interesting proposition that really only could exist in its current form with the specific market forces driven primarily from Covid and some of the geo-politics in Asia.

With SQ having eyed expansion into cities like YVR for sometime but could never pull the trigger, this window of opportunity is very peculiar and opportune (for them). Connecting traffic is all but completely gone both from the supply and demand side. A lot of the Asian carriers that would SQ would normally have to compete with like CX, BR/CI and JL/NH are completely out of the picture as far as connecting traffic goes right now so that leaves this ripe opportunity for them to capture this market. Its a very smart play, and I hope the loads and margins work out favourably so we can have a shot at capturing this route on a long-term basis.

Also on my mind is that if SQ could show that the O&D to SE Asia does fairly well in this new travel market, it could encourage other carriers like Vietnam Airlines and/or Bamboo to think about something like this. Long stretch, but its a thought. The international travel game has changed significantly and it'll be very interesting to see how things shake out ahead.

Vietnam Airlines is an interesting one. It could do something very similar with a tag on to somewhere in the US. Perhaps JFK or LAX. The advantage of Vancouver is they could ask for and likely get rights to have passengers on the tag on flight.

We are in some way going back to the old days. JAL use to have a tag-on to Mexico City and Cathey to JFK.