Canadian Airport Thread II

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

^ Pretty late announcement. I think they’re scrambling to add service to Europe in the wake of lower demand to the US. Gotta send those 737’s somewhere.

They've added an additional 21 weekly roundtrips to Europe for S25 over the last few weeks.

Wonder if YHZ-CDG will end up getting boosted to daily.

This brings Europe for S25 to:
YYC - 37x weekly (LHR/CDG/KEF/FCO/DUB/EDI/BCN)
YHZ - 24x weekly (LGW/CDG/DUB/EDI/AMS/BCN)
YYZ - 22x weekly (DUB/EDI)
YYT - 7x weekly (LGW/DUB/CDG)

They haven't actually removed all that much US wise, and still have a larger schedule planned than in 2024.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Now when do they bring back daily YOW/YUL-YHZ flights to feed all these YHZ Euro routes? It seems odd that they wouldn't add feed to support all of this.

And besides feeding people to Europe, don't they need to position some aircraft to go to Europe? Presumably they don't have several aircraft that would just be parked in Halifax for 16 hours if they weren't going to Europe and back. So if they add a flight to Europe, the plane needs to come from somewhere, and it won't come empty.

[hehehe]

Perhaps YYZ-PDL or YYZ-FNC could be in the cards. (a bit of a stretch I know)

[samuelx88]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Now when do they bring back daily YOW/YUL-YHZ flights to feed all these YHZ Euro routes? It seems odd that they wouldn't add feed to support all of this.

They could even add Q400 YQB-YHZ to feed these European flights as Quebec City is east of any other hubs.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by samuelx88

They could even add Q400 YQB-YHZ to feed these European flights as Quebec City is east of any other hubs.

They consolidated all their Q400 flying out west post-COVID, so unless they have another major strategic shift, not happening.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

And besides feeding people to Europe, don't they need to position some aircraft to go to Europe? Presumably they don't have several aircraft that would just be parked in Halifax for 16 hours if they weren't going to Europe and back. So if they add a flight to Europe, the plane needs to come from somewhere, and it won't come empty.

That's what happening now. Aircraft comes in from Europe and turns to YYZ, YWG, YEG or YYC and vice versa.

It just seems like it would be useful for WS to operate a summer seasonal daily YOW/YUL-YHZ for additional feed (that's a lot of YHZ-Europe O&D to fill, plus only up to 4 connecting airports - a few more out west with a double connect) and to capture some O&D, along with 2nd daily YOW/YUL-YYZ for evening connections...even more so for YUL now that they've yet again cut YUL-YWG/YEG (and reduced YOW-YWG).

[SteelTown]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

More information on the terminal enhancements: https://flyhamilton.ca/travel-refreshed/

They've begun construction on the new terminal enhancements

https://x.com/i/status/1901997302149009638

[craner]

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

It actually has better advance bookings than last year, so I don’t foresee WS dropping it yet. They may shorten the season though.

WS did cut the following in this weekends update:
YYC-LGA
YEG-MCO (Suspended for S25)
YEG-YUL
YWG-YUL

WestJet axes two Alberta flight routes as travellers shift away from U.S. destinations
http://https://dailyhive.com/calgary/westjet-flight-routes-alberta-edmonton-calgary

[zahav]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Now when do they bring back daily YOW/YUL-YHZ flights to feed all these YHZ Euro routes? It seems odd that they wouldn't add feed to support all of this.

Time and time again we've seen just how weak WS is at YUL, it's nothing new. Their relative heyday was when Encore was running, and when YYZ was still a major focus for WS. But even then, their service was minimal esp. compared to pretty much all other Canadian CMAs. Even YUL-YYC is comparatively low frequency for WS, compared to most other cities to YYC. So not having feeder to YHZ is understandable, they only have 1x daily to YYZ and look at the size of that market, they obviously just can't generate demand there.

I hope YHZ is able to sustain all of this extra European flying, and WS isn't going to chop their schedule in the future, they can be pretty ruthless with chopping. With many of the new destinations until now, there was probably a healthy inbound demand as well (from DUB, EDI, LON, even AMS). But CDG I am not sure how much inbound demand there is. BCN I imagine would have the smallest inbound demand, I admit it is the weirdest of the newish adds, both in and outbound. But hey, they must have some idea. They added all of those non-stops from YYT too, without domestic cnx even being a factor. So the O&D must be strong enough in places like YYT and YHZ that they don't need feed (as LO 044 said).

I wonder if WS is ever going to try Germany, they seem terrified of it. It is such a major in and outbound market for Canada, massive population, wealthy, strong business ties, etc etc. Yes they codeshare with Condor, but Condor is barely there either, it's two feeble partners kind of. It seems like WS is ceding it to *Alliance (incl. LH's Discover), letting them dominate from all cities. I get there's competition, but would've thought they'd do something by now (even replacing Condor's YHZ service would seem to make more sense than adding BCN??). And out of YYC it's equally confusing. AC dropped FRA totally, and replaced by Discover, showing the market wants budget. Even Condor is only 3x weekly. Seems like a perfect place for WS to go, but somehow no.

[Alexcaban]

AC is adding 3 weekly YUL-EDI on the 737 MAX 8 starting June 26th

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Now when do they bring back daily YOW/YUL-YHZ flights to feed all these YHZ Euro routes? It seems odd that they wouldn't add feed to support all of this.

They can probably get away with it based on the surrounding population. A large chunk of maritime population is within 4 hours drive to YHZ, and with flying 737's they don't need large numbers per flight.

[jc_yyc_ca]

Originally Posted by zahav

And out of YYC it's equally confusing. AC dropped FRA totally, and replaced by Discover, showing the market wants budget. Even Condor is only 3x weekly. Seems like a perfect place for WS to go, but somehow no.

I don't have the numbers handy, but didn't the total number of Discover and Condor flights to Frankfurt end up higher than the original YYC-FRA with AC? But to your point, yeah, I thought WS would have taken a run at Frankfurt at some point. WS only has so many 787's maybe they decided it was easier to leave Germany for now?

[nname]

Looks like CA is moving 2 weekly YVR-PEK to YYZ effective May 20

The plan for S25:

CA991/2 YVR-PEK 1x weekly
CA993/4 YYZ-PEK 2x weekly
CA997/8 YVR-PEK 1x weekly

Looks like there will be no immediate or future plan to resume YUL-PEK.

[Surrealplaces]

Not surprisingly, a big drop in flights to the US. Down 70% y/y

Passenger bookings on Canada – US routes are currently down by 70% compared to the same period last year.

We didn't really get the true measure in January or February as many of those trips were already planned and paid for. We're going to really see the rubber hit the road now.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

Not surprisingly, a big drop in flights to the US. Down 70% y/y

Passenger bookings on Canada – US routes are currently down by 70% compared to the same period last year.

We didn't really get the true measure in January or February as many of those trips were already planned and paid for. We're going to really see the rubber hit the road now.

70%!!!

This should mean a significant route contraction as the year progresses. Maybe we'll see more European flights from Atlantic Canada as the major airlines move their equipment around (and improved connectivity to Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto from secondary Atlantic Canadian airports). Rumour is that Atlantic Canada may experience a banner tourism year from Canadians (and Europeans) visiting here rather than the US.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

It would be great to see more transatlantic flights for Atlantic Canada, which does have a comparative advantage in terms of its geographic location compared to the rest of Canada.



Halifax has a lot of interesting options on the other side of the Atlantic, and is closer to these places than pretty much any other city in Canada, except St. John's.


Even NB could make some transatlantic flights work. If Saskatoon<->Cancun and Moncton <->Cancun flights already exist, I think a Moncton<->Morocco flight could also work, considering the Francophone demographic and it being an interesting tourism option for New Brunswick travellers, especially French speakers, and the many newcomers to New Brunswick from Françafrique.


If Canadian airlines are going to have to cancel a bunch of Canada<->US routes, I hope the maritimes can see some new transatlantic flights, and not only for Halifax and St. John's.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

70%!!!

This should mean a significant route contraction as the year progresses. Maybe we'll see more European flights from Atlantic Canada as the major airlines move their equipment around (and improved connectivity to Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto from secondary Atlantic Canadian airports). Rumour is that Atlantic Canada may experience a banner tourism year from Canadians (and Europeans) visiting here rather than the US.

Not sure how many Europeans will replace US trips with the Maritimes. Montreal Toronto would seem better placed to benefit from them but for especially the road trippers from Southern Ontario and Quebec the Maritimes will be a prime destination for anyone avoiding the US.

[Dominion301]

Porter and Pascan finally ink a deal to start exchanging pax initially at YQB & YHZ and a few months from now at YHU: https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...on-Partnership

Seems like this is an interline to start, but I imagine will evolve into a full-blown codeshare.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

Not sure how many Europeans will replace US trips with the Maritimes. Montreal Toronto would seem better placed to benefit from them but for especially the road trippers from Southern Ontario and Quebec the Maritimes will be a prime destination for anyone avoiding the US.

According to this CBS piece many Europeans are looking at replacing travel to the USA with travel to Canada. Our tourism marketing organizations should be leveraging this and running some major ad campaigns to encourage it.

https://youtu.be/gl-WRu9POho?feature=shared

[hollywoodcory]

Originally Posted by jc_yyc_ca

I don't have the numbers handy, but didn't the total number of Discover and Condor flights to Frankfurt end up higher than the original YYC-FRA with AC? But to your point, yeah, I thought WS would have taken a run at Frankfurt at some point. WS only has so many 787's maybe they decided it was easier to leave Germany for now?

In 2024 this was correct, YYC-FRA went from 12x weekly to 14x weekly. However this year, FRA is now only 10x weekly (7x 4Y and 3x DE) as Discover replaced some FRA frequencies with a new service to MUC.