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

[BlueJay]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

Strange. Not sure why that would be, I thought this route was very successful with a lot of uptake. On a side note, does anyone have an idea of when Porter will make their grand announcement? I thought it would be this week, not sure if it's too late. I figured they'd want to announce it on a Monday so they can have the whole week for interviews and what not?

I believe Flair also cancelled their Orlando SFB flights as well.

[roger1818]

I'm not surprised at Flair's cancellations. IMHO, it is only good for those who have a very flexible travel schedule (including having their trip cancelled). As for Swoop, the jury is still out, but it seems a little better.

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by roger1818

I'm not surprised at Flair's cancellations. IMHO, it is only good for those who have a very flexible travel schedule (including having their trip cancelled). As for Swoop, the jury is still out, but it seems a little better.

I just checked their website. It seems both are just changing to seasonal service because they are part of their Winter 2022/2023 schedule. Actually FFL flights have went up to 4x weekly instead of 3x.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by Phileas

When I called Flair this morning (since I had difficulty to manage my bookings online) to my great deception and surprise all my four (4) flights booked longtime ago were cancelled without receiving any emails. The agent confirmed no more flights YOW-FLL until further notice and he was unable to confirm the reason.

Good info. And welcome to the forum!

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

I just checked their website. It seems both are just changing to seasonal service because they are part of their Winter 2022/2023 schedule. Actually FFL flights have went up to 4x weekly instead of 3x.

So YOW is back to seasonal only Florida service. SFB was made seasonal a few months ago.

Tomorrow’s departure count: 67

Tomorrow’s departure count: 2

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 57

[wingman]

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-airport...-as-tourism-season-comes-alive-1.5932362

Leah Larocque - CTV News Ottawa
The Ottawa International Airport saw its busiest travel day of the year on Thursday, as the summer tourism season begins to ramp up in the capital.

According to the Ottawa International Airport Authority, June 2 saw 4,653 passengers depart the airport on flights.

Air travel plummeted in 2020 and 2021, with passenger volumes only a fraction of pre-COVID levels.

Recently, more flights have been added to the airport and leisure travel is recovering well. The airport says the return of events to the capital such as CANSEC, Canada's largest global defence & security trade show, is helping to boost visitors and is "vital for recovery."

Ottawa’s tourism industry is also seeing an increase in visitors to the capital.

"The spring in Ottawa has been good tourism-wise, for leisure tourism, the Canadian Tulip Festival brought a lot of people to town, this weekend there is so much going on," said Jantine Van Kregten, executive director of Ottawa Tourism.

"it is a breath of fresh air, it is great to see people coming back to the capital."

Corporate travel for conference and meetings will be critical for both the travel and tourism industry in Ottawa to return to complete pre-pandemic levels.

"We still have to wait for businesses and in-person events and meetings to come back full throttle, that is still slowing our recovery, but we are looking good from a leisure perspective," Van Kregten says.

The tourism industry was hit hard during the pandemic because of travel and safety restrictions. Van Kregten says, "We estimate almost $3 billion of spending was lost in 2020 and 2021, that is unprecedented… we are anxious to improve in 2022.”

Van Kregten says hotels are starting to book up and the summer projections are promising.

"We really are open for business, we have a great summer, and we are here to inspire."

Leon Harris runs Lady Dive Tours in downtown Ottawa. The business depends on tourists and is already seeing difference this spring.

"We have our double-deckers out, we have been noticing a lot more international tourists," Harris says.

"We are seeing a lot more people going out everywhere, so I think the businesses are feeling a lot more relieved and quite happy."

Harris projects a busy summer season with many visitors to the capital.

Harris says, "Based on our group bookings, we have a lot of charters booking in advance, we are getting a lot of bookings, so we think it is going to be very busy. We hope and believe there is a lot of pent-up demand."

[Dominion301]

Well here's evidence of more service, if there are fewer than 3 additional cancellations, Monday will mark the most flights in a single day since the start of the pandemic and the first time the departure count will get into the 70s.

Today's departure count: 71 - UA are starting to use E70s & E75s on some EWR departures.

Today's cancellation count: 1

Sunday's departure count was: 65 + - AC455 & AC447 were on 319s. I'd heard about at least one mainline 319's been pulled from the desert. I wonder if more will follow?

Sunday's cancellation count: 1

On Saturday evening I was at Place d'Orleans and overflying the mall at approx 1830 heading to rwy 25 for finals was the Cargojet 763 with the blue tail and no company markings. Given the direction it was coming from it must have been from YFB.

[casper]

Originally Posted by wingman

https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/ottawa-airport...-as-tourism-season-comes-alive-1.5932362

I was in Ottawa for CANSEC and flew out on WestJet on Thursday. Everything was fully booked. I know one person who who trying to also leave on Thursday and needed to stay until Friday.

The new Aspire lounge is a nice addition to the airport. I was expecting it to be busier than it was.

The security setup is poorly done. That new CASTA system mixes up everyone items. They were flagging a relatively high number of items to manual search.

We were in a state of deadlock where they had a large number of items flagged to manually check, however the owners who's items they want to check were still on the land side of the x-ray machine.

In my case they wanted to swab the power adaptor for my notebook. First time I have seen that.

I am not a fan of that new CASTA screening setup at YVR or YYZ. However it looks to be more effective there. I don't know if the setup in YOW is a bit shorter or not.

[fanofYOW]

I keep logging onto Facebook everyday to check Porter's page to see if they've announced their plans. Should be very soon based off their comments to other people's comments on their page.

[chuckr99]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

I keep logging onto Facebook everyday to check Porter's page to see if they've announced their plans. Should be very soon based off their comments to other people's comments on their page.

Hearing about Transport Canada dragging their heels on aircraft certification. Probably closer to September now, unfortunately.

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by chuckr99

Hearing about Transport Canada dragging their heels on aircraft certification. Probably closer to September now, unfortunately.

Oh! That's news to me. Where did you hear that? Do you mean the announcement or the start of operating the new planes?

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by chuckr99

Hearing about Transport Canada dragging their heels on aircraft certification. Probably closer to September now, unfortunately.

After the MAX, I would not be surprised to have it go a bit slower, even though E2s are already in service elsewhere.

Today's departure count: 64

Unfortunately, Flair are cutting YOW-YLW cut completely. Last flight 18JUN22 - was Saturday-only service - probably was the problem of not enough frequency. 2x would have seemed more like it...or maybe this is a route better suited to a Porter hub-type operation with feed.

I'll be curious to see how they'll do on YOW-YYG. The most daily seats AC's ever operated on the route is 100. The largest aircraft to date has been 78 per flight (not counting the old DC-9 route of the 70s & 80s). We'll see how 189 in a shot goes 3x/week.

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

After the MAX, I would not be surprised to have it go a bit slower, even though E2s are already in service elsewhere.

Today's departure count: 64

Unfortunately, Flair are cutting YOW-YLW cut completely. Last flight 18JUN22 - was Saturday-only service - probably was the problem of not enough frequency. 2x would have seemed more like it...or maybe this is a route better suited to a Porter hub-type operation with feed.

I'll be curious to see how they'll do on YOW-YYG. The most daily seats AC's ever operated on the route is 100. The largest aircraft to date has been 78 per flight (not counting the old DC-9 route of the 70s & 80s). We'll see how 189 in a shot goes 3x/week.

I'm not surprised about the YLW route being chopped. I wanted to use that route so badly but the fact that it was only once weekly stopped me from doing so.

[wingman]

How are these new airlines determining their routes? It is based on some sort of data I assume?

I am extremely surprised no ULCC has put in a 2+x/wkly from YOW to YYT. Would seem to be a better option than YYG.

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by wingman

How are these new airlines determining their routes? It is based on some sort of data I assume?

I am extremely surprised no ULC has put in a 2+x/wkly from YOW to YYT. Would seem to be a better option than YYG.

Good point. An ULCC to St. John's is way up there on my personal hopes list because right now it costs an arm and a leg to use direct (or indirect for that matter!) to get there with AC.

[YOWhopeful]

According to Aeroroutes.com, Air Canada has axed YOW-BOS for winter 22/23

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by YOWhopeful

According to Aeroroutes.com, Air Canada has axed YOW-BOS for winter 22/23

Not surprising as AC's preliminary internal schedule had that route resuming with the summer 2023 schedule around 31MAR23.

Today's departure count: 69

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by chuckr99

Hearing about Transport Canada dragging their heels on aircraft certification. Probably closer to September now, unfortunately.

Very curious what you’ve heard here, if anything, beyond dragging heels.

It’s worth noting that the aircraft is already certified in and by the state of design (Brazil). Transport Canada would be doing what’s called a validation exercise, focusing on areas where Canadian airworthiness regulations differ from those applied in the state of design. TC would also focus on any new and novel features or technologies where means and methods of compliance to regulations Embraer used are immature or atypical. It is possible snags have been encountered here, slowing things down.

Dragging of heels in a purposeful manner is not likely. However, there is no question that with a certain size of staff working domestic certifications and foreign validations, domestic gets the priority (appropriately so, to support Canadian industry).

[HighwayStar]

Originally Posted by FlyYOW

Very curious what you’ve heard here, if anything, beyond dragging heels.

I don't know anything about this particular certification, but my company recently had to certify a product with TC and at last minute they pushed it out by 4 months... product was sold, built and waiting to go out the door.

We escalated to the local MP, and got full action the next week.