Originally Posted by zahav
BKK is such uncharted territory for any carrier from any North American city. There's obviously a reason why no one has flown the route, even from a powerhouse like LAX. LAX holds the rare distinction of being a main hub for all three major US airlines, so it has massive appeal. And yet not one of them launched BKK. So I am thrilled AC is trying it, and it's too early to read into the couple week shorter season as being a sign of failure. As others have said, this is probably an aircraft utilization issue. So in that sense yes, it is probably not doing as well as YUL-CDG or another major route, but that doesn't mean it's underperforming in its own right. Time will tell what happens, or until someone with real inside intel educates us, otherwise we're all just baselessly speculating.
I don't personally see more Indian destinations in the immediate future. For the reasons others have said, where our Indian population descends from. Mostly Punjabi, and even if not Punjabi or Sikh, they are usually from the more northern regions. I think the population from other parts of India is growing, but not enough to justify any other city pairs IMO. And honestly, I would much rather have Delhi at this higher frequency with larger aircraft. Daily 777s from AI is something people would have only dreamed of years ago, when scoring India was still elusive. I'm sure eventually AC will rejoin the route, and maybe even properly codeshare with AI (ahem, they are *Alliance partners after all...)
And echoing what everyone else has said on the AC transborder growth. Very encouraging, and long overdue. And very happy to see it on mainline with 737s, and not just Jazz (hey, I'd be happy with some new Jazz routes too, especially since they could serve smaller places). Taking EWR to double daily is smart, a decent capacity boost but more importantly gives way more flexibility for inbound and outbound connections. I believe the 789 on this route originated and departed to BNE? So BNE will be rotating with another route (I thought YYZ but just checked and the 787 from YYZ arrives at 18:51 while BNE departs at 22:50. Quite a long time to remain at gate, the EWR turn was much tighter aka more efficient. When I have time I will do my chart of inbound/outbound wide body AC flights and figure out the rotation. It's actually fairly easy to guess based on aircraft type and arrival/departure time.
I don't like losing any routes, but honestly the DFW flight showed its weakness when it went do to a single Jazz flight, pretty meagre. I would much rather see AA keep up capacity on the route than for AC to muscle it out. Just like how I was content with AC dropping CDG, I was happy it resulted in AF increasing capacity instead of just having it be a loss. Part of what I love about YVR is that other airlines have a real place at the table, and that a domestic airline doesn't monopolize. I like that Air Canada has some niche routes like BKK, DUB, KIX, and then foreign carriers have their own routes like MNL, TPE, CDG, SIN, IST. But then share on the huge markets like LON, FRA, TOKYO, SYD (as well as some smaller ones like ZRH and AKL in peak times). YVR is big but not THAT big, so if there were too many shared routes, I feel like something would have to give, and that could mean losing carriers. Honestly as much as I'd love for AC to beef up YVR even more, if it came down to it, I love the variety of foreign tails even more. And if there's isn't room for both AC and a competitor on a foreign route, I'd rather see the foreign carrier keep it. AC will still have a commanding presence and isn't throwing in the towel with service here. But they are obviously conscious of what works and what doesn't, and aren't going to keep flying routes like CDG and TPE if they aren't working (ie. too much competition). If we all of a sudden lost both carriers on a certain route, then I'd be very upset. And other than routes to China (which isn't even relevant to be discussed in its current state), we have not lost any route outright I don't think? Other than SJC on Jazz?
Last thing, I am beyond thrilled seeing AC put capacity on YVR-YHZ, soooooo long overdue! And increasing YQB. It was really a big blind spot in YVR's network to have no service to either Quebec or any of Atlantic Canada. I have personal bias because of my ties to there, but even putting that aside, it really was a glaring void for the 2nd busiest airport in Canada. We're still way behind the service YYC has thanks to WS, but it's a big improvement. And again, a show of confidence in the performance that they are x2 daily to YHZ for the peak season. 5x weekly to YQB is nice, but daily mainline would be better obviously lol. Maybe it's my OCD, but the fact that we're Rouge-free except for 5 flights to Quebec City is like a pristine painting with a splotch on it lol... As if mainline managed to show so much love even on major leisure routes but then throws those 5 flights in as a spoiler haha
|
Prev
Another destination from Seattle, announced with fanfare several years back but is now seemingly off the destination roster was Munich, to be served by Lufthansa. Another Covid casualty?
Linear Mode
