Canadian Airport Thread II

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

I wonder if Porter has cut into a lot of WestJet's traffic out east. I travelled Porter to Edmonton from the Maritimes, and we were routed through Ottawa on both trips, and the flights seemed quite busy. (Granted one of my flights was during the Crowdstrike mess last summer so it wasn't really a 'normal' flight)

Could also be some fleet constraints, the Ottawa Sunwing schedule is pretty much status quo from last year, but WG would always used leased Smartwings frames on these routes. I think that was a condition of the merger is they had to stop doing the wet leases, so the frames have to come from somewhere.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

WS appears to have eliminated YOW-RSW, which isn't overly surprising

With transborder traffic tanking, WS’ cutting all non-domestic flying out of YOW except RSW, and “hometown” carrier PD moving in on the route (and with connecting traffic) essentially doubling capacity, makes this unsurprising.

In other news, YYJ are mulling a terminal expansion. I wonder if PD will convert YOW-YYJ to year-round and keep it 3-4 weekly this winter? If retimed for the winter to be a YYJ RON, YUJ would add feed to PD’s afternoon/evening YOW connection bank.

https://www.travelpulse.ca/news/airl...alks-expansion

[SpongeG]

Tway's first landing at YVR

• Video Link

[Dominion301]

PD's cabin crew are unionizing: https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...tion-With-CIRB

Good for them.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Tway's first landing at YVR

Good to see but hard to understand their business model. Flights seem to be on par with current direct options from Air Canada or Korean Air both of whom have networks to feed into and a full suite of services.

[Dominion301]

Assuming a 100% completion factor, in May PD had an 82.4% LF on their year-round MCO routes to YYZ & YOW: https://assets.ctfassets.net/qiecpox...paxs202505.pdf.

[Dominion301]

YOW's June pax stats are out and as expected transborder turned to the negative, albeit not by that much.

Sector / Jun-24 / Jun-25 / % Change
Dom: 330,966 / 352,161 / +6.4%
TB: 47,040 / 46,325 / -1.5%
Int'l: 16,244 / 24,899 / +53.3% - if my calculations are correct that's an 87.4% LF between AF & AC assuming 100% completion
TTL: 394,250 / 423,385 / +7.4%

Sector / YTD 2024 / YTD 2025 / % Change
Dom: 1,535,192 / 1,702,152 / +10.9%
TB: 379,984 / 406,786 / +7.1%
Int'l: 283,594 / 280,103 / -1.2%
TTL: 2,198,770 / 2,389,041 / +8.7%

June % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / June / YTD % recovered
Dom: 96.8% / 88.7%
TB: 96.3% / 105.3%
Int'l: 107.8% / 106.4%
TTL: 97.3% / 93.0%

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2023
Dom: 3,598,460 / +12.4%
TB: 768,251 / +33.3%
Int'l: 430,384 / +35.8%
TTL: 4,797,095 / +17.1% - YOW's now ~300K annual pax below 2019 levels. I bet almost all of that is YOW-YYZ/YTZ O&D traffic.

[Dominion301]

Now that 3H and 5T are no longer sister companies (https://www.exchangeincomecorp.ca/wc...0702070331.pdf), in order for 5T to continue to serve YVP-YFB, they will be doing so on Saturdays once the YUL-YVP route is handed over to 3H in a few weeks.

YOW will actually gain a nonstop to YVP as once weekly on Saturdays the YOW-YFB route will stop at YVP in both directions: https://canadiannorth.com/latest_new...iqaluit-route/

Here's the new YVP schedule:

5T 127 YOW-YVP 1035-1250 6 734
5T 127 YVP-YFB 1330-1440 6 734
5T 128 YFB-YVP 1715-1830 6 734
5T 128 YVP-YOW 1910-2115 6 734

For YUL-YFB pax, it looks like taking an AC YUL-YOW connecting flight will be the only way to get between Montreal and Iqaluit.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Assuming a 100% completion factor, in May PD had an 82.4% LF on their year-round MCO routes to YYZ & YOW: https://assets.ctfassets.net/qiecpox...paxs202505.pdf.

So much for patriotic Canadians avoiding the USA.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by whatnext

So much for patriotic Canadians avoiding the USA.

A few routes to MCO aren’t representative of overall Canadian travel trends.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/.../00006-eng.htm

Canadian-resident return trips by air continued to decline throughout the first five months of 2025, falling by 14.0% year over year in April and by 24.2% in May.

Return trips by car were way down as well. People are definitely changing their travel plans.

In May, return trips by automobile declined by 38.1% on a year over year basis

This being said, you will always have a certain number of Canadians travelling to the US. Expecting the number to be zero is ridiculous. I myself will probably vacation in Florida this winter during the holidays, as I do every year. When you have property down there, you’re kind of tied to it. I have cut down my shoulder season travels to the US northeast, however.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Now that 3H and 5T are no longer sister companies (https://www.exchangeincomecorp.ca/wc...0702070331.pdf), in order for 5T to continue to serve YVP-YFB, they will be doing so on Saturdays once the YUL-YVP route is handed over to 3H in a few weeks.

YOW will actually gain a nonstop to YVP as once weekly on Saturdays the YOW-YFB route will stop at YVP in both directions: https://canadiannorth.com/latest_new...iqaluit-route/

Here's the new YVP schedule:

5T 127 YOW-YVP 1035-1250 6 734
5T 127 YVP-YFB 1330-1440 6 734
5T 128 YFB-YVP 1715-1830 6 734
5T 128 YVP-YOW 1910-2115 6 734

For YUL-YFB pax, it looks like taking an AC YUL-YOW connecting flight will be the only way to get between Montreal and Iqaluit.

Overall, even if 3H is taking over YUL-YVP, this sucks for Montreal. We are losing an airline (5T) and a destination (YFB).

Wonder why 3H doesn’t run YVP-YFB in parallel with 5T? Too much capacity?

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Overall, even if 3H is taking over YUL-YVP, this sucks for Montreal. We are losing an airline (5T) and a destination (YFB).

Wonder why 3H doesn’t run YVP-YFB in parallel with 5T? Too much capacity?

Probably. YUL-YFB back in my 7F days would average about 20 pax a flight while the YVP-YFB O&D would average around 7 pax on the same leg. I’ll be curious to see if 3H and 5T continue to interline at YVP.

I’ll also be curious to see whether YOW-YVP traffic grows a bit from probably no more than 500 O&D pax per year with the addition of a nonstop for the first time ever.

[Myst]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Overall, even if 3H is taking over YUL-YVP, this sucks for Montreal. We are losing an airline (5T) and a destination (YFB).

Wonder why 3H doesn’t run YVP-YFB in parallel with 5T? Too much capacity?

Not a major change for YUL. Not sure how significant it is seen as in YFB.

Pragmatism is key for travel to the North. I hope where things go down the road is both the service that is needed, and sustainable.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Myst

Not a major change for YUL. Not sure how significant it is seen as in YFB.

Pragmatism is key for travel to the North. I hope where things go down the road is both the service that is needed, and sustainable.

Not just YFB, but also all the communities beyond YFB in Nunavut's Baffin region. Maybe this will become a case of reverse leakage with people from Montreal driving to Ottawa instead of the 1/2 million trips per year the other way around. With the ridiculous airfares AC charges on YUL-YOW, interlining makes YUL-YFB one-way now cost over $1400, while out of YOW there's currently a seat sale on with a one-way YOW-YFB under $600. The only way that'll change is if 5T can reach a codeshare deal with AC.

[Myst]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Not just YFB, but also all the communities beyond YFB in Nunavut's Baffin region.

Definitely. But 5T doesn’t fly to YYZ, either.

The big hardship is the cost of getting to the south. And that doubly goes for the smaller communities. If you can get to the south, at least there are alternatives.

A single daily 737-400 all pax could carry almost 57,000 passengers each way per year. Iqaluit’s population is about 7000. All of Nunavut’s population is under 40,000. As an airplane fan, I’d like more flights everywhere, but economies of scale are hard to make happen in the north.

[thenoflyzone]

Porter selling and leasing back 4 more E195s.

They need the money it seems.

https://canadianaviationnews.ca/port...5-e2-aircraft/

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

Porter selling and leasing back 4 more E195s.

They need the money it seems.

https://canadianaviationnews.ca/port...5-e2-aircraft/

Pretty sure their entire E2 fleet has been sale-leaseback.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

edit: sounds like this direct service does indeed connect through Montreal.

This CTV article clearly stated that, "Pascan Aviation has announced it is adding direct flights between Saint John, N.B., and Québec City."

Yet, there seems to be a lack of clarity as to if this will be a direct flight between Saint John, NB and Quebec, PQ, or if this will be a route that connects Saint John with Quebec City via Montreal.

Furthermore, to quote from the YSJ press release, "As part of its commitment to refining its schedule and strengthening regional air access, Pascan will now offer direct service between Saint John and Québec City, adding more convenience for both leisure and business travellers."

However, the Pascan website is currently only showing a route between YSJ and YQB with a connection in Montreal, but perhaps the Pascan website has yet to be updated? I could see CTV making a mistake about it being a direct flight, but Saint John Airport Authority itself?

Or would staying on the plane technically make Saint John->Montreal->Quebec "direct service"? If that's the case, I think they should have said something like , "now offering improved service between Saint John and Québec City" in their statement, instead of direct service.

If anyone has the knowledge to clarify this, it would be appreciated.

Based on the wording in the press release, I'm still expecting it to be a direct flight between Saint John and Québec City.

It would be nice to see YSJ have the potential to become a micro hub for Pascan... and once the relationship mends with the US, it would be nice to see some routes to nearby Northeastern American metropolises could be added to the mix. Porter had (and maybe still has) a route to Boston that connects via Toronto, that takes more time than just driving to Boston from Fredericton or Saint John.

Pascan would have a lot of options for multi leg connections to Boston and New York once the market for US tourism comes back, which would be a lot more attractive options for people in NB than routes to the US Northeast that connect via Montreal and Toronto. Plus, maybe Québec City or Montreal<->Saint John<->Halifax routes on Pascan's smaller planes could be more viable than past failed routes by Flair and Porter between Québec City and Halifax, and Montreal and Halifax?




Maybe even Deer Lake, NL, St. John's, NL and Saint Pierre and Miquelon could get added to the mix for Pascan eventually? I imagine there is some interest in travel to Saint Pierre and Miquelon among Quebeckers, and vice versa.

Pardon, the abbreviation, Ozabald, GreatCircleMap.com gets confused with Saint John's proper spelling

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

edit: sounds like this direct service does indeed connect through Montreal.

This CTV article clearly stated that, "Pascan Aviation has announced it is adding direct flights between Saint John, N.B., and Québec City."

Yet, there seems to be a lack of clarity as to if this will be a direct flight between Saint John, NB and Quebec, PQ, or if this will be a route that connects Saint John with Quebec City via Montreal.

Furthermore, to quote from the YSJ press release, "As part of its commitment to refining its schedule and strengthening regional air access, Pascan will now offer direct service between Saint John and Québec City, adding more convenience for both leisure and business travellers."

However, the Pascan website is currently only showing a route between YSJ and YQB with a connection in Montreal, but perhaps the Pascan website has yet to be updated? I could see CTV making a mistake about it being a direct flight, but Saint John Airport Authority itself?

Or would staying on the plane technically make Saint John->Montreal->Quebec "direct service"? If that's the case, I think they should have said something like , "now offering improved service between Saint John and Québec City" in their statement, instead of direct service.

If anyone has the knowledge to clarify this, it would be appreciated.

Based on the wording in the press release, I'm still expecting it to be a direct flight between Saint John and Québec City.

It would be nice to see YSJ have the potential to become a micro hub for Pascan... and once the relationship mends with the US, it would be nice to see some routes to nearby Northeastern American metropolises could be added to the mix. Porter had (and maybe still has) a route to Boston that connects via Toronto, that takes more time than just driving to Boston from Fredericton or Saint John.

Pascan would have a lot of options for multi leg connections to Boston and New York once the market for US tourism comes back, which would be a lot more attractive options for people in NB than routes to the US Northeast that connect via Montreal and Toronto. Plus, maybe Québec City or Montreal<->Saint John<->Halifax routes on Pascan's smaller planes could be more viable than past failed routes by Flair and Porter between Québec City and Halifax, and Montreal and Halifax?

Direct means same plane, not necessarily non-stop.

What's the new leg here as I'm not familiar? Did they already do Saint John to Montreal and they are adding a new flight to Quebec City? Or did both legs already exist and this is just a marketing thing to allow them to sell same plane service to Quebec City from Saint John?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Plus, maybe Québec City or Montreal<->Saint John<->Halifax routes on Pascan's smaller planes could be more viable than past failed routes by Flair and Porter between Québec City and Halifax, and Montreal and Halifax?

This is a bit of a strange question. Apparently Flair did cancel Halifax-Montreal but that direct connection is served by Porter, Air Canada 4x daily, and maybe others. It's a major route.

Quebec City is a bit of an odd duck with weaker domestic connections than you'd expect for a city of that size. I was recently in the area talking to folks there and they tend to go to sunshine destinations on holidays or Maine in the summer rather than other parts of Canada. Part of the issue is they can take a direct highway south to Maine but the drive to parts of NB with stuff to see is longer by car even though it's about the same distance geographically. The flight connections are limited and expensive. Flying domestically in Canada is often much more expensive than flying much farther distances out of country, presumably because those international routes are less regulated and more competitive. The domestic Canadian airline industry is not open to foreign competitors.