Calgary International Airport II

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by ace.yyc

WS trial running dual-boarding the 787 at YYC international gates. The new terminal of course has had this capability on all gates since day 1, but no airline has taken advantage of it.

This is encouraging and should make for a more efficient boarding process.

Originally Posted by DoubleK

This is encouraging and should make for a more efficient boarding process.

Very Calgarian thing to spend a billion on a half dollars on a new terminal and not properly use the new gates for 6 years.

[Nick]

I wonder how much faster it makes things, cause most of the people who would use the 2nd bridge are boarding in zones 1-2 and they are long in their seats when everyone else is boarding. Would up deplaning a bit cause all those forward cabin passengers could use the forward bridge.

I spoke directly to the WestJet guy who said the primary advantage is for late J pax to board at their leisure and not get stuck in line at the L2 if they board late. Based on how the new gates in Calgary are configured, it also significantly expedites movement of ground crews in and out of the airplane during the turnaround, which is a secondary advantage.

It is standard procedure at many major airports including T1 at YYZ, so it seems harmless to take advantage of the capability since we built it anyway.

[Nick]

Interesting, I'm surprised they haven't used it so far. it's only been 6 years.

[hehehe]

Looks like we'll see what new TATL additions there'll be on WS next summer on Monday, maybe even sooner if the schedule is loaded earlier?

[hollywoodcory]

I'm guessing it'll be BCN / EDI with increases to LHR / CDG / FCO. Curious if they opt to keep LGW too.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

WS filed its initial W23 schedule and it looks like CDG might be finally going year-round. Also LAX shows up to 3x daily? No AMS scheduled as of yet.

Additional W23 note for WS. FCO appears to have been extended as well, with flights scheduled until the second week of November. Curious if this could get a March-November season similar to how they've run CDG.

[hollywoodcory]

^
Oddly enough, WS did extend FCO's season to start earlier.

WS S23 Long haul schedule:
LHR - 1x Daily
LGW - Up to 1x Daily (from April 30th)
CDG - Up to 1x Daily (from April 13th)
FCO - Up to 5x Weekly (from April 6th)
DUB - Up to 5x Weekly (from April 30th)

New routes weren't filed (from what I can see).

[hehehe]

By the way AC looks like it's gutting YYC? YQR/YXE/YZF/SFO/IAH/YYJ/YCD/YCG/YKA have all been completely cut in one go.

YMM goes down to 2x daily, and YQU/YLW each go down to 1x daily. YEG is also down to 4x daily. At least YWG is 4x daily on a mix of mainline/express?

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by hehehe

By the way AC looks like it's gutting YYC? YQR/YXE/YZF/SFO/IAH/YYJ/YCD/YCG/YKA have all been completely cut in one go.

YMM goes down to 2x daily, and YQU/YLW each go down to 1x daily. YEG is also down to 4x daily. At least YWG is 4x daily on a mix of mainline/express?

Not surprised.

Air Canada cuts are good news for WestJet, Lynx, Flair & Canada Jetlines as all 4 them are still adding new routes at YYC they see sit. While AC has been stagnant.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Calfan12

Not surprised.

Air Canada cuts are good news for WestJet, Lynx, Flair & Canada Jetlines as all 4 them are still adding new routes at YYC they see sit. While AC has been stagnant.

AC has been stagnet in Alberta, SK and MB for a bit now, they know there isn't brand loyalty like out east and competition is too strong.
Similar to why West Jet pulled out of the east.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

^
Oddly enough, WS did extend FCO's season to start earlier.

WS S23 Long haul schedule:
LHR - 1x Daily
LGW - Up to 1x Daily (from April 30th)
CDG - Up to 1x Daily (from April 13th)
FCO - Up to 5x Weekly (from April 6th)
DUB - Up to 5x Weekly (from April 30th)

New routes weren't filed (from what I can see).

I am surprised Mexico City isn't coming back. I know someone on the accounting side at West Jet who told me they were looking at it again (this was in August). I know it failed once, but would be nice for it to come back.

[hehehe]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

I am surprised Mexico City isn't coming back. I know someone on the accounting side at West Jet who told me they were looking at it again (this was in August). I know it failed once, but would be nice for it to come back.

If MEX were to come back they’d probably announce that on a separate date later on. I’m pretty sure this Monday is just for long haul flying next summer

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

I am surprised Mexico City isn't coming back. I know someone on the accounting side at West Jet who told me they were looking at it again (this was in August). I know it failed once, but would be nice for it to come back.

Domestic/Transborder/Short haul international updates for S23 will probably come in the new year.

They did add a 3rd flight to LAX on select days in March / April in this update too.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

AC has been stagnet in Alberta, SK and MB for a bit now, they know there isn't brand loyalty like out east and competition is too strong.
Similar to why West Jet pulled out of the east.

I am quite surprised they removed feed into Calgary for the European flights from Saskatoon and Regina.

I would have expected them to at least keep that flight. But I guess not.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by casper

I am quite surprised they removed feed into Calgary for the European flights from Saskatoon and Regina.

I would have expected them to at least keep that flight. But I guess not.

That’s losing a lot of feed but they’ll just have to route through YYZ for Europe or a backtrack to YVR. Same with the smaller BC markets (especially YYJ) but those can easily be handled by YVR
Transborder will be reduced to 3 daily only (2 to LAX and 1 to EWR)
AC’s hub status at YYC confirmed gone
Westjet effect hitting hard
The ULCCs can fight amongst themselves

[YYCFlier]

Originally Posted by hehehe

By the way AC looks like it's gutting YYC? YQR/YXE/YZF/SFO/IAH/YYJ/YCD/YCG/YKA have all been completely cut in one go.

YMM goes down to 2x daily, and YQU/YLW each go down to 1x daily. YEG is also down to 4x daily. At least YWG is 4x daily on a mix of mainline/express?

This looks like to me like they're closing their Jazz base at YYC? There was (and I think still is) a AC Express crew and pilot base here. But most, if not all of those, are Express operations, and closing all of them of once suggests to me the base is closing.

SFO looks like UA will pick up with 2x E175s (but interestingly, YEG keeps a CR9 on AC).

YYJ, YQR and YXE are baffling to me because in summer, those three destinations have enough O&D alone to run Express aircraft.

Then again, losing PHX was also baffling to me unless WS is just killing them on that route.

With only 3x trans-border and LAX cancelled again this winter, I wouldn't bet we keep 2x daily LAX on 7M8 this summer. With operations like that you wonder if they'll just cancel all trans-border out of YYC altogether. This makes me worried for LHR and FRA too because surely there was some feed on the regional flights?

This is definitely not COVID related recovery - last summer they ran tons of CR900 flights and replaced a lot of DH4 flying with CR9s to places like YQR, YXE and YYJ.

[hollywoodcory]

I've heard Jazz has had operational challenges, which probably played into those routes being cut.

UA has IAH / SFO covered for the summer months, both 2x daily.

Other than PDX, none of the Transborder cuts appear to be permanent as they all are still scheduled later in the year. AC even has HNL scheduled to resume next winter too.

[hehehe]

Originally Posted by YYCFlier

This looks like to me like they're closing their Jazz base at YYC? There was (and I think still is) a AC Express crew and pilot base here. But most, if not all of those, are Express operations, and closing all of them of once suggests to me the base is closing.

SFO looks like UA will pick up with 2x E175s (but interestingly, YEG keeps a CR9 on AC).

YYJ, YQR and YXE are baffling to me because in summer, those three destinations have enough O&D alone to run Express aircraft.

Then again, losing PHX was also baffling to me unless WS is just killing them on that route.

With only 3x trans-border and LAX cancelled again this winter, I wouldn't bet we keep 2x daily LAX on 7M8 this summer. With operations like that you wonder if they'll just cancel all trans-border out of YYC altogether. This makes me worried for LHR and FRA too because surely there was some feed on the regional flights?

This is definitely not COVID related recovery - last summer they ran tons of CR900 flights and replaced a lot of DH4 flying with CR9s to places like YQR, YXE and YYJ.

Also I think Acey explained over at airliners.net that YWG will most likely be reduced further as well to 3x daily CR9's. And considering all of these flights are ending on Jan 15 I'd also assume the base is being closed.

WS is probably really happy with this news. This allows them to add at least some capacity or frequency to a lot of western routes out of YYC while gaining a lot of market share and entrenching themselves as the #1 carrier of the west.

LHR and FRA seem pretty lucrative and successful even without many connections from Sask or BC though. I doubt AC would ever axe those (besides maybe FRA if LH mainline took over, which wouldn't really change much for AC anyways because of the revenue sharing).

I also think EWR will most probably stay, there's a lot of connections to be made there. But I could most certainly see LAX being reduced still.

By the way I find it a little weird that FCO resumes so early in April, even earlier than CDG. I could never see it being year round.