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

[casper]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I guess I can comment on this one as a born and raised Calgarian with friends and family there, but a resident of the NCR for many many years.

Nobody drives to Edmonton from Calgary for a flight. Not a single person.

Everyone drives to Montreal from Ottawa for a flight at some point. I fly out of YUL at least 70% of the time. It's just the way it is, regardless of the closeness in drive times.

Obviously, why would anyone drive from Calgary to Edmonton to catch a flight. That is just not a rational thing to do.

Driving from Ottawa to Montreal makes sense. We will have to see what happens once Porter is up and running with their Ottawa hub. That may result in some people driving from Montreal to fly from Ottawa.

The one I never understood was people driving from Seattle to fly from Vancouver and from Vancouver to fly from Seattle. But it happens regularly.

[Dominion301]

Today's departure count: 60

Today's cancellation count: 4

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by casper

Obviously, why would anyone drive from Calgary to Edmonton to catch a flight. That is just not a rational thing to do.

Driving from Ottawa to Montreal makes sense. We will have to see what happens once Porter is up and running with their Ottawa hub. That may result in some people driving from Montreal to fly from Ottawa.

The one I never understood was people driving from Seattle to fly from Vancouver and from Vancouver to fly from Seattle. But it happens regularly.

I have high hopes for Porter personally. They said they will announce their initial routes in late spring so it seems something will be announced very soon. They will probably focus on Canadian destinations first though, but the initial announcement will give us a hint on just how important YOW will be for them.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by casper

Obviously, why would anyone drive from Calgary to Edmonton to catch a flight. That is just not a rational thing to do.

Driving from Ottawa to Montreal makes sense. We will have to see what happens once Porter is up and running with their Ottawa hub. That may result in some people driving from Montreal to fly from Ottawa.

The one I never understood was people driving from Seattle to fly from Vancouver and from Vancouver to fly from Seattle. But it happens regularly.

Where do you imagine Porter will fly at what price that someone would drive from Montreal?

[Dominion301]

Today's departure count: 58

Today's cancellation count: 1

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Where do you imagine Porter will fly at what price that someone would drive from Montreal?

My thoughts on this is pure speculation but I think Ottawa will get more options than YUL with Porter. Montreal is already a hub for AC and Air Transat so competition there is very difficult for airlines. Westjet's direct options from Montreal are extremely small because of this fact. So I think die hard Porter fans in Montreal would drive to Ottawa if this is the case. Ottawa has very little competition since we are not a hub for any airline. In fact, if you look at all cities in Canada with 1m+ population, we are the only airport that is not a hub for any airline. I still believe that if other airlines come in and offer direct routes to the US and Europe, Air Canada and Westjet are toast here.

[Tesladom]

I probably fly out of Montreal 75% of the time for my travels, unless i'm flying within Canada or a direct US hub
Flying to Florence Italy in July for $870 return from YUL (Luftansa), great prices out of YUL if you look
The way I see it, if I can fly direct to a destination out of Montreal I will drive 1h45 to YUL, rather than 30 minute to YOW, it's only 1h15 net difference, but the direct flight is much quicker and reliable
Wish YOW would at least have seasonal service to a couple of European destination

[YOWflier]

I see it’s time for the bi-annual festivus in the YOW thread. We usually hear the grievances ahead of summer and winter. Please, carry on.

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by FlyYOW

I see it’s time for the bi-annual festivus in the YOW thread. We usually hear the grievances ahead of summer and winter. Please, carry on.

Clearly there is a massive problem if Ottawa people find it worth while to use YUL over YOW. It shows that we are underserved and we need to voice our opinions so airlines don't think their route network from YOW is acceptable. I bet you anything at all that they are eating this "drive to Montreal" thing up so they don't have to operate a decent amount of flights from here. Take Edmonton for example. In 2010 they held a "Stop the Calgary Habit" protest which resulted in less people driving to Calgary for flights. They were successful and got direct flights out of it. If that didn't happen, they probably wouldn't be at their pre-pandemic 8 million pax per year. I'm happy for them, and wish something like that would happen here.

[YOWflier]

You’re pretty new here. This comes up every year, several times a year in this thread.

This massive problem has existed since the dawn of time. I just chuckle reading page after page of people grieving about the massive problem while at the same time rationalizing their travel habits, which is in fact a direct cause of the massive problem, year after year.

But hey, people are gonna people…

I’ve been around here for a long long time and it’s all very familiar. Fun exercise: go to page 1 of this thread created 15 years ago and look at what’s being discussed.

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by FlyYOW

You’re pretty new here. This comes up every year, several times a year in this thread.

This massive problem has existed since the dawn of time. I just chuckle reading page after page of people grieving about the massive problem while at the same time rationalizing their travel habits, which is in fact a direct cause of the massive problem, year after year.

But hey, people are gonna people…

I’ve been around here for a long long time and it’s all very familiar. Fun exercise: go to page 1 of this thread created 15 years ago and look at what’s being discussed.

100%. But let's not give up at the same time. Especially now since new players are entering the market. YOW has never been so hopeful to get the attention it deserves (in my opinion). Porter is making us a hub, to what extent? We don't know yet. And Flair has made YOW a base so more routes in the future as they get their aircraft deliveries are sure to come. To make a 1.5m population city a feeder city for ALL airlines while the rest of these similar size cities have at least one airline making it a hub is unacceptable, and these big players need to know that time and time again or else they will just continue to cater to their beloved YYZ and YUL and forget about us.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

100%. But let's not give up at the same time. Especially now since new players are entering the market. YOW has never been so hopeful to get the attention it deserves (in my opinion). Porter is making us a hub, to what extent? We don't know yet. And Flair has made YOW a base so more routes in the future as they get their aircraft deliveries are sure to come. To make a 1.5m population city a feeder city for ALL airlines while the rest of these similar size cities have at least one airline making it a hub is unacceptable, and these big players need to know that time and time again or else they will just continue to cater to their beloved YYZ and YUL and forget about us.

The thing is though YEG's not a hub either. It's a WS, and to lesser extent, AC focus city and a base for Flair, Swoop and Canadian North, but none of them operate a hub from YEG. So far YEG has recovered to YOW circa 2015 levels of traffic.

Wednesday's departure count: 62

[Dominion301]

Changing topics, April 2022's pax numbers were YOW's best since the start of the pandemic beating August 2021 by just 248 pax. The airport has now handled 1.7 million pax in the past 12 months or approximately 33.3% of pre-pandemic traffic. About 1.52 million of that total is in the past 9 months, which is approximately 44.5% of pre-pandemic traffic levels.

Sector / Apr-21 / Apr-22 / % Change
Dom: 20,716 / 187,290 / +804.1%
TB: 0 / 12,288 / #DIV/0!
Int'l: 0 / 8,395 / #DIV/0!
TTL: 20,716 / 207,973 / +903.9%

Sector / YTD 2021 / YTD 2022 / % Change
Dom: 95,827 / 549,738 / +473.7%
TB: 0 / 33,031 / #DIV/0!
Int'l: 0 / 42,722 / #DIV/0!
TTL: 95,827 / 625,491 / +552.7%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2020
Dom: 1,597,861 / +54.8%
TB: 44,273 / -72.9%
Int'l: 58,319 / -65.4%
TTL: 1,700,453 / +24.7%

The meaningful indicator these days for looking at trends
Month-Over-Month Change
Sector / Mar-21 / Apr-21 / % Change
Dom: 161,216 / 187,290 / +16.2%
TB: 10,204 / 12,288 / +20.4%
Int'l: 14,252 / 8,395 / -41.1%
TTL: 185,672 / 207,973 / +12.0%
Avg/Day: 5,989 / 6,932 / +15.7%

I would guess May will come in at around 240,000 pax which would be in line with circa 1994 pax levels.

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

100%. But let's not give up at the same time. Especially now since new players are entering the market. YOW has never been so hopeful to get the attention it deserves (in my opinion). Porter is making us a hub, to what extent? We don't know yet. And Flair has made YOW a base so more routes in the future as they get their aircraft deliveries are sure to come. To make a 1.5m population city a feeder city for ALL airlines while the rest of these similar size cities have at least one airline making it a hub is unacceptable, and these big players need to know that time and time again or else they will just continue to cater to their beloved YYZ and YUL and forget about us.

Oh I’m not giving up. I put my money where my mouth is and consistently start my journeys here. Period. Full stop.

But I’m done trying to educate people on why it’s critical to board flights here if they want air service to rebound and improve. Been doing that since day 1 of this thread and well before that. You seem to have the energy for it 😀 I pass the torch to you.

I’ve seen lots of players come and go but the main hope for us long term isn’t AC it WS; it’s Porter. All signs point to them giving us a serious opportunity; will Ottawans and Gatineans screw it up?

[GeoNerd]

My two cents: I had to drive to YUL during the pandemic to fly out of country. The drive sucked…potholes, construction, traffic, park and fly, gas, TIME, and then got caught in one the infamous Quebec speed traps on the way home. Never again. People that drive to Montreal to save a few bucks are out of their minds and don’t value their time. I will gladly pay a few extra buck to fly out of Ottawa in one of the nicest airports around.

[GeoNerd]

So I find the airline industry fascinating... But I admittedly don’t know much about the business of airlines or airports. Today it looks like a Canadian North flight flew 2/3’s of the way to Iqaluit then turned around back to Ottawa. Is there a way for amateurs like me to get more info on events like this?

[Stacmon]

Originally Posted by GeoNerd

My two cents: I had to drive to YUL during the pandemic to fly out of country. The drive sucked…potholes, construction, traffic, park and fly, gas, TIME, and then got caught in one the infamous Quebec speed traps on the way home. Never again. People that drive to Montreal to save a few bucks are out of their minds and don’t value their time. I will gladly pay a few extra buck to fly out of Ottawa in one of the nicest airports around.

This is a very helpful personal story to understand the downsides of using an airport 2+ hours away. I generally agree with you about paying a premium to fly out of Ottawa instead. I might consider the KLM/Air France bus "connection" but even that seems less desirable than flying let's say Ottawa to Europe/Asia via Toronto or even a US airport when we can pre-clear customs in Ottawa.

I would love to hear the other side given how often people point to travellers using Montreal instead being a problem for getting Ottawa passenger traffic numbers where they need to be to justify, for example, more European routes.

[Coho]

Originally Posted by GeoNerd

So I find the airline industry fascinating... But I admittedly don’t know much about the business of airlines or airports. Today it looks like a Canadian North flight flew 2/3’s of the way to Iqaluit then turned around back to Ottawa. Is there a way for amateurs like me to get more info on events like this?

Very likely poor weather in Iqaluit. I used to live up there and still follow a few people on Twitter and visibility looked pretty bad.

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by FlyYOW

Oh I’m not giving up. I put my money where my mouth is and consistently start my journeys here. Period. Full stop.

But I’m done trying to educate people on why it’s critical to board flights here if they want air service to rebound and improve. Been doing that since day 1 of this thread and well before that. You seem to have the energy for it 😀 I pass the torch to you.

I’ve seen lots of players come and go but the main hope for us long term isn’t AC it WS; it’s Porter. All signs point to them giving us a serious opportunity; will Ottawans and Gatineans screw it up?

Hahaha what an honour, I humbly accept! I think you are right. Porter seems to be hyping us all up right now. I hope their plans for YOW doesn't disappoint! Everything thus far has been pure speculation on our parts. Good news is that they did say they will announce initial routes in late spring, so seems like it's coming soon. I have given up on AC and WS completely. Someone who works for AC told me that maybe Porter's direct flights out of YOW might be the kick in the bum AC needs to be competitive from YOW and add some direct options. He's just a flight attendant though, it's not like he works in networking.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

Hahaha what an honour, I humbly accept! I think you are right. Porter seems to be hyping us all up right now. I hope their plans for YOW doesn't disappoint! Everything thus far has been pure speculation on our parts. Good news is that they did say they will announce initial routes in late spring, so seems like it's coming soon. I have given up on AC and WS completely. Someone who works for AC told me that maybe Porter's direct flights out of YOW might be the kick in the bum AC needs to be competitive from YOW and add some direct options. He's just a flight attendant though, it's not like he works in networking.

I asked before but how good could it be? I guess an LAX or LAS flight would be useful. Miami too but they will all be connectionless I assume?
The real need is Europe and that is not on the table.