Calgary International Airport II

[JakeLRS]

Originally Posted by ace.yyc

It's not doing well from YYC, so they're shifting the transborder operation to YYZ. It will inevitably fail there too at which time they will retreat and focus on improving what has become an absolute gongshow of a domestic operation.

It's interesting how "Calgary-based" Lynx Air is well on their way to the YYZ operation overtaking us.

Now to be fair, Flair's first transborder operation was an absolute atrocity compared to Lynx's inaugural transborder ops.

Lynx's April Transborder Numbers are...
YYZ-MCO 62%
YYC-LAX 64%
YYC-PHX 57%
YYC-LAS 56%

They are pretty freaking bad, not Flair Tucson bad, but they are bad... atleast Flair got subsidies on their non-commonsense route.

Also, I feel that Lynx's branding is just... bland. Personally, their seats are cheap, no onboard service aside from water (not even a a-la-carte service) and just bland boring marketing.

Atleast Flair is aiming their advertising to GenZ and Millennials with their branding, marketing, and overall experience... and it seems to be working. I flew Flair a month ago and I immediately thought they really turned the corner from where they once were.

[hehehe]

I think YYC-BNA is going to go year round. it's already upped to 5x weekly for October

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by JakeLRS

Now to be fair, Flair's first transborder operation was an absolute atrocity compared to Lynx's inaugural transborder ops.

Lynx's April Transborder Numbers are...
YYZ-MCO 62%
YYC-LAX 64%
YYC-PHX 57%
YYC-LAS 56%

They are pretty freaking bad, not Flair Tucson bad, but they are bad... atleast Flair got subsidies on their non-commonsense route.

Also, I feel that Lynx's branding is just... bland. Personally, their seats are cheap, no onboard service aside from water (not even a a-la-carte service) and just bland boring marketing.

Atleast Flair is aiming their advertising to GenZ and Millennials with their branding, marketing, and overall experience... and it seems to be working. I flew Flair a month ago and I immediately thought they really turned the corner from where they once were.

Last summer the service to Vancouver seemed viable and somewhat reliable on Lynx. I get the need to diversify instead of going all in on a route where the big airlines could bully you out, but sheesh. If you can be a last minute, no frills, reliable, affordable air bus for short haul, that is a pretty nice niche imo.

4 hours plus on their aircraft is a stretch. Even early westjet had wheat crunch Of interest, YYZ-TPA is within the hour and a half service radius.

[IMG]http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=yyc-las%0d%0ayyc-phx%0d%0ayyc-bur%0d%0ayyc-tpa%0d%0ayyz-tpa%0d%0ayul-tpa&R=1225mi%40yyc%0d%0a1225mi%40yyz&MS=wls&MR=540&MX=720x360&PM=*[/IMG]

From	To	Initial Heading	Magnetic Heading	Distance	Time
YYC	LAS	184°	(S)		170°	(S)			1,040 mi	2:01
YYC	PHX	174°	(S)		161°	(S)			1,225 mi	2:23
YYC	BUR	192°	(S)		179°	(S)			1,188 mi	2:18
YYC	TPA	122°	(SE)		109°	(E)			2,287 mi	4:26
YYZ	TPA	189°	(S)		200°	(S)			1,095 mi	2:07
YUL	TPA	205°	(SW)		219°	(SW)			1,299 mi	2:31

[YYCFlier]

Merren McArthur is jumping ship, so maybe she sees the cliff ahead for Lynx.

If Lynx fails and Flair sits on a precipice, with Swoop and Sunwing gone we'll be back to the usual until the next round of donkeys convince VC to try the Canadian market, again.

[MalcolmTucker]

Flair is rumoured to be a growth machine, where if growth (both in pax but mostly in frame count which enables them to continually increase unearned revenue) stops the VC won't be able to extract cash at the seemingly predatory rate anymore. Destined for collapse unless the local execs and board find a way to convince lessees to let them keep flying while cutting out the VC intermediary. They did survive the 4 plane blip, so maybe there is hope?

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by hehehe

I think YYC-BNA is going to go year round. it's already upped to 5x weekly for October

I'm not 100% convinced BNA will be year-round, at least yet.

Other Sep/Oct WS Transborder changes:
IAD now ends Sept 10
DEN now ends Oct 9

[hollywoodcory]

June 2023 Stats are out:

Domestic: 1,210,618 +13.2% (YTD: 5,790,416 +31.38%) [2019 levels: 1,115,268]
Transborder: 340,159 +45.9% (YTD: 1,608,249 +55.78%) [2019 levels: 306,554)
International: 188,234 +70.7% (YTD: 1,092,681 +77.80%) [2019 levels: 154,828]

June 2023 Total: 1,739,011 +23.1% [2019 total: 1,576,650]
2023 YTD: 8,491,346 +40.25%

If my calculation is correct, this is a 10.2% increase over June 2019. Non-US international has the largest jump from 2019 at 21.6%.

Curious if July or August could push close to 2 million.

[JakeLRS]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Flair is rumoured to be a growth machine, where if growth (both in pax but mostly in frame count which enables them to continually increase unearned revenue) stops the VC won't be able to extract cash at the seemingly predatory rate anymore. Destined for collapse unless the local execs and board find a way to convince lessees to let them keep flying while cutting out the VC intermediary. They did survive the 4 plane blip, so maybe there is hope?

Flair is honestly the cat with nine lives, I think most of us aviation geeks are surprised by how long they've been flying for...

They survived the 2017 newleaf collapse
They survived the 2018 disastrous transborder ops
They survived the 2020-2022 pandemic without government funding
They survived with mediocre transborder ops in 2022
They survived the 2023 Tuscon route blimp
They survived the 2023 aircraft seizures
They managed to create new domestic routes that went very poorly at the start in order to create demand/bring brand awareness (the inaugural YKF-YEG flight had a mere 30 pax).

And here they are, flying transborder loads averaging 75% (eh) and domestically above 90%. They are boosting brand awareness by sponsoring musical festivals across the country and through the CEBL (which is doing surprisingly well), and marketing towards a younger/cheaper demographic.

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by ace.yyc

Domestic being down vs 2019 is fascinating, isn't it.

Domestic is also up compared to 2019 though:

2023: 1,210,618 / 2019: 1,115,268

[YYCguys]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

Other Sep/Oct WS Transborder changes:
IAD now ends Sept 10
DEN now ends Oct 9

Are these dates later or earlier than originally announced?

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by YYCguys

Are these dates later or earlier than originally announced?

Yes, IAD ends 4 weeks earlier and DEN about 2 weeks earlier than originally scheduled.

[YYCguys]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

Yes, IAD ends 4 weeks earlier and DEN about 2 weeks earlier than originally scheduled.

Ruh roh! The loads must not be very good! That’s too bad because I would love to try out the IAD flight but I just can’t fit it into my schedule this summer!

[hehehe]

It would suck to go from 10x weekly IAD to zero!!

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by YYCguys

Ruh roh! The loads must not be very good! That’s too bad because I would love to try out the IAD flight but I just can’t fit it into my schedule this summer!

The loads at least on WS have been fine actually. It’s been performing similarly to DEN.

Yesterday both the in and out bounds were over 90% sold.

[peytol]

Does anyone know exactly what YYC is doing with the old de ice fluid? I've been to alot of airports and can't think of any other one that leaves all their glycol rotting in pools. The smell was terrible on the deerfoot yesterday, can't imagine living straight east of the airport.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by peytol

Does anyone know exactly what YYC is doing with the old de ice fluid? I've been to alot of airports and can't think of any other one that leaves all their glycol rotting in pools. The smell was terrible on the deerfoot yesterday, can't imagine living straight east of the airport.

This is what Calgary does: https://www.ae.ca/ae-today/latest-update...educes-environmental-impact-of-discharge

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by nname

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/air...ing-787-vancouver-service-from-may-2018/

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/air...airlines-1q19-vancouver-service-changes/

HU flies to YVR from S18, then drop the TSN stop in the middle of W18.

If HU can just transfer the YYC slot over, they would've run it more frequently than 2x weekly. But 2x is all they got for the route, so they started it anyways.

Will Hainan ever return to YYC?

[msmariner]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Will Hainan ever return to YYC?

Considering there are almost no flights (compared to 2019) from anywhere in Canada to China/Hong Kong. I doubt a return to YYC will happen anytime soon

[JakeLRS]

Originally Posted by ace.yyc

WS is taking some minor precautionary measures to reduce fleet constraints with the impending furious reconfig and painting of Swoop tails. IAD will be back next summer for sure, the question is whether or not UA will also be back and if throwing away money to fight WS is worth it.

Maybe a stupid question, but how would these measures be associated with swoop tails? Unless Westjet is picking up a majority of swoop routes (which we'll find out this weekend I guess), Westjets ops shouldn't at all be affected by this (unless WS planes will be flying some swoop flights in September/October to help cover the painting)

[peytol]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

This is what Calgary does: https://www.ae.ca/ae-today/latest-update...educes-environmental-impact-of-discharge

Thanks for that!