YVR Airport & Sea Island Developments Discussion

[Johnny Aussie]

YVR’s European network for November:

31 flights per week on 6 different carriers (5 foreign) - not too bad!

AC LHR Daily 789
BA LHR Daily 772 - switches to Daily A350-1000 next Friday!!
LH FRA 5 weekly 359
LH MUC 3 weekly 359
AF CDG 3 weekly 772
KL AMS 3 weekly 333
TK IST 3 weekly 789

I’ll do Asia later…

[Klazu]

That's some nice modern metal on most routes!

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by hehehe

Fair. But WS going to Asia is out of the picture for now and they seem to be building up YYC the most. Hopefully, AC can get their Asia flights back in order in the next few months. Excited to see QF come back.

True... but a lot of that Asia business is China or through China... and I think this whole virus has really taken a hit on its reputation... and I think Europe will be adequately vaccinated long before China and the rest of Asia is.

I think WestJet really wants to be on the forefront of the travel boom that's expected over the next few years as people slowly get released from Covid-captivity.

Essentially... Asia carries risk right now... and WestJet's fledgling international (excluding transborder USA stuff of course) needs more of a sure bet. I'm curious to see if WestJet is going to try and focus on secondary markets where AC doesn't have a presence or continue to focus on traditional hubs.

YYC/YVR–MAN has some potential I think. Perhaps a YVR-MAN with a technical stop in YYC? I know Manchester is mostly an LCC hub, being a base for EasyJet UK, RyanAir etc. But that may be a strength for some WestJet clients. MAN is well connected to Europe in any case and only has a single AC flight from YYZ.

YVR–MAD or BCN has no direct competition from AC or *A and I don't foresee anything from Air Canada as Iberia is OneWorld. That could attract some pax from SEA/PDX as well as it would be shorter than the LAX-MAD flight.

YVR/YYC–OSL is an interesting one. Very well connected by SAS throughout Europe. SAS is *A but an independent deal with SAS could be beneficial. Since OSL only serves the East Coast of USA.. and only EWR and MIA, it could even draw pax from SFO, LAX, LAS, and PHX... all WestJet destinations from YVR.

We could get some interesting destinations from WS focus on Europe.

[nname]

AF seems to be suspending YVR service for 2 weeks in Nov, and 4 weeks in Jan/Feb though...

For PTT flight, AF/TN/BF will be leaving YVR after the second week of November.

Next winter (2022/23), AC planned to resume YVR-AKL as AC 39/40, using the flight number currently assigned for KIX. Not sure if KIX will be permanently cancelled, or a new number is to be assigned. No resumption planned for MEL and TPE yet, up to schedule in Mar 2023. AC now codeshare with BR for YVR-TPE.

Check with the reservation with Google flights, seems like YVR-SIN is selling well only for the VTL flights. There are a couple of flights seems to be full, and a few more at very high price (perhaps almost full). Maybe they miscalculated the demand for VTL, and should make all 4 flights VTL or perhaps 1:3, instead of 2:2.

[nname]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

Essentially... Asia carries risk right now... and WestJet's fledgling international (excluding transborder USA stuff of course) needs more of a sure bet. I'm curious to see if WestJet is going to try and focus on secondary markets where AC doesn't have a presence or continue to focus on traditional hubs.

Yeah, I don't see WS will be flying on the Pacific side, except for maybe SYD. WS will be codesharing with QF for the YVR-SYD starting December, so it could be possible for QF and WS to form JV on the route to complete with the daily service from AC. But then, for the resource it takes for WS to run the route, WS could've run two routes to Europe...

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

YYC/YVR–MAN has some potential I think. Perhaps a YVR-MAN with a technical stop in YYC? I know Manchester is mostly an LCC hub, being a base for EasyJet UK, RyanAir etc. But that may be a strength for some WestJet clients. MAN is well connected to Europe in any case and only has a single AC flight from YYZ.

I believe TS only managed a LF of high 70s for the YVR-MAN service before the pandemic. Perhaps widebody is too big for the route? Might work well if there is A321XLR though...

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Klazu

That's some nice modern metal on most routes!

Yup.
And next summer Air France will be switching to a daily 787-9 and KLM will be flying a daily 787-10.
Farewell old metal on the mainline / full service carriers.
- except as of now LH still has 744s scheduled on their daily YVR-FRA.

- and of course Condor will still be flying their 763s 3x weekly and Edelweiss is scheduled to operate 4x week on 343s

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Yup.
And next summer Air France will be switching to a daily 787-9 and KLM will be flying a daily 787-10.
Farewell old metal on the mainline / full service carriers.
- except as of now LH still has 744s scheduled on their daily YVR-FRA.

- and of course Condor will still be flying their 763s 3x weekly and Edelweiss is scheduled to operate 4x week on 343s

Summer 2022 is still quite far out & Air France and KLM have enough time to switch back to the planes they're currently using for Vancouver YVR the Boeing 777/Airbus A330 for next summer too.

Will see as it gets closer & summer schedules are not yet finalized with *changes possible* as most airlines ✈️ are updating it 1-3 months at a time still.

[ninjakafi_81]

Speaking of aircrafts, YVR will be seeing its very first A350-1000 (B-LXJ) tonight from Cathay Pacific.

[Johnny Aussie]

Air France and KLM are phasing out the aircraft types they’re using on their YVR flights so most likely the Dreamliners will happen.
Good to see so many European carriers flying to YVR.
Icelandair set to return in May as well.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by nname

AF seems to be suspending YVR service for 2 weeks in Nov.

More like 3 weeks. No flights available from Nov 9 to Nov 30.

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

YVR’s European network for November:

31 flights per week on 6 different carriers (5 foreign) - not too bad!

AC LHR Daily 789
BA LHR Daily 772 - switches to Daily A350-1000 next Friday!!
LH FRA 5 weekly 359
LH MUC 3 weekly 359
AF CDG 3 weekly 772
KL AMS 3 weekly 333
TK IST 3 weekly 789

I’ll do Asia later…

Remove AF, so that's 28 flight/week, or 4 daily. Not bad, but not great either. Frankly, AC is the one that is disappointing. You'd expect our national carrier to have more service from Canada's 3rd largest city to Europe, especially when Asia is essentially off limits.

[Johnny Aussie]

YVR’s Asian network for November:

43 flights per week on 12 carriers

AC NRT 6
AC DEL 7
AC ICN 4
AC HKG 2
AC PVG 2

JL NRT 3
NH HND 3
BR TPE 1
CI TPE 1 every other week
PR MNL 3
AI DEL 3
CX HKG 1
KE ICN 4
CA CGO PEK 1
3U CTU 1
MF XMN 1

So overall intl longhaul approx 74 flights per week on 17 airlines

As always plenty of other heavy metal still operating cargo only flights

Plenty of short haul sun flying as well but… not as interesting hahaha

[Denscity]

Nice exotic list.
When does Singapore start up again?

[nname]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

CX HKG 1

CX is:
1x weekly YVR->HKG
3x weekly HKG->YVR

So should that count as 1? 2? or 3?

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by nname

CX is:
1x weekly YVR->HKG
3x weekly HKG->YVR

So should that count as 1? 2? or 3?

Always a rough estimate as fluctuations can occur every week.

SQ and QF startup in December.

Still going to take awhile to rebuild the intl network. Step by step we will get there.

[nname]

Originally Posted by Johnny Aussie

Always a rough estimate as fluctuations can occur every week.

Well, CX had always been operating more outbound flights to YVR and YYZ, compared to inbound flights to HKG ever since they resumed service to Vancouver.

The flight from YVR to HKG was always between 1x to 2x weekly, but the flight from HKG to YVR never dropped below 3x weekly. This is currently planned until next March at least.

I guess the demand to HKG was so low that they rather run the plane empty and only carrying cargo, instead of open the flight for reservation? Or the demand to Canada is so high that they'll have to run those extra one-way flights?

[Johnny Aussie]

YVR NOV TRANSBORDER UPDATE

Approx 300 flights per week or about 42 daily
As always fluctuates but this is basically the schedule over the next two weeks

AIR CANADA 147 flights per week
ORD 7 CR9
DEN 7 CR9
HNL 7 7M8
OGG 7 789
LAS 7 7M8
LAX 21 7M8
SNA 4 223
PSP 3 7M8
PHX 7 7M8
PDX 21 DH4
SAN 7 CR9
SFO 21 7M8/CR9
SEA 28 DH4

WESTJET 62 flights per week
HNL 9 73H/7M8
OGG 7 789
KOA 6 7M8
LAS 10 73H/7M8
LAX 7 73H
LIH 5 7M8
SNA 3 73W
PSP 10 73H/7M8
PHX 5 73H

ALASKA 16 flights per week
SEA 16 DH4

AMERICAN 14 flights per week
DFW 14 738

DELTA 35 flights per week
SEA 35 E75

UNITED 21 flights per week
SFO 14 E75
DEN 7 E75

Flair starts up over the last two weeks of November

[hollywoodcory]

^WS hasn't served YVR-SFO since mid-October and it isn't scheduled currently to resume until late April.

[Johnny Aussie]

^ right. Thanks for that. Removed.
Started with a template and that’s one I forgot to remove.

[teriyaki]

YVRs official Instagram page has an announcement that they're starting to use the new D pier gates as passenger traffic is rebounding! Most excellent news, almost makes me want to book an international flight just so I can explore it! Be curious which airlines get to use the new gates.

[nname]

Originally Posted by teriyaki

YVRs official Instagram page has an announcement that they're starting to use the new D pier gates as passenger traffic is rebounding! Most excellent news, almost makes me want to book an international flight just so I can explore it! Be curious which airlines get to use the new gates.

Seems like CI is the first one to use the new area. I have looked at the gates from time to time over the past few weeks, and anything between D58 and D68 had never been used. CI31 will depart for TPE today from gate D62.

I guess they open it to allow the CI plane to be parked at the gate, since CI currently layover at YVR for over 30 hours for crew rest. Maybe those Chinese weekly flights will also use the new area too...