Very jealous of YUL
Narrow body aircraft can operate the route so that's a huge plus, makes it easier to expand than to devote a long-haul plane. I wish AC would be charitable and move that A330 over to YVR to get BOG lol, they have Avianca now, they can cover it :p. Just kidding obviously, I can dream
. Avianca to me is the strongest of the SA carriers, the rest are not internationally focused at all (or if they think they are, they are failing at it). So getting them at YUL is likely a long term addition that will grow. As opposed to Latam and other airlines; as others have said, these airlines are just less secure. In and out, toy around with routings, schedules, and just not reliable. Hopefully that will change and as places like Brazil mature more economically, the airlines will follow.
Airlines like Lynx and Porter are going insane lately, it's like constant new routes. They are really amping the bloodbath up, Lynx especially. At least Porter has a long history and brand, and just needed the right planes. And then bam! Lynx I'm not so sure about, seems very through a dart and see where it sticks. Their two new route announcements about YYG and YQB are slightly misleading, because once you read the articles, you learn some routes are not non-stop, they have a stopover. The routes are YVR-YYC-YQB, and YYC-YYZ-YYG. No doubt it is better than connecting, changing planes, worrying about timing and bags making the connection. A direct 1-stop flight is the same flight #, same plane (oddly enough same plane is not always the case for direct flights in the industry, but in Lynx's case, it is same plane). There's just something very amateurish nowadays about 1-stop domestic flights for some reason, very Westjet in the 90s kind of vibe (my aunt used to visit her family back in Wynyard SK every year, and she'd fly insane routings like YVR-YLW-YEG-YYC-YXE, so insane!) But it happened way more in the old days even with established carriers, look at one of Air Canada's 90s or 80s timetables and it's full of 1-stop routings. But new aircraft, changing markets, airfares dropping considerably from decades past, all changed the travel market. The milk runs are no longer acceptable, AC and WS barely have any same plane, 1-stop "direct" flights anymore. It's either non-stop or connect. But I guess Lynx thinks it's a solid plan. I feel like WS is going to crush them in YYC, they did not elbow out every other airline just to be toyed with by an airline like Lynx (ahem, Air Canada, British Airways, Air Transat, and Aeromexico all basically got taken out by WS, and these are big players, not a small start up. Not to mention the carriers it has likely scared away from starting up routes; Tokyo, Seoul, Iceland, and Paris are served by WS, so airlines like JL, KE, FI, and AF are less likely). Who knows, I could be way off and Lynx's plan is good, and they will do well and thrive next to WS. But they are still fighting for the same market IMO, average people don't realize that WS has grown up a bit and less provincial, only airport/airlines geeks and regular business travellers see those things. Most basic domestic leisure travellers out of YYC don't even check out Air Canada because it still has a decades-old reputation for being way more expensive and crappy compared to WS (again, business or frequent flyers know better, but most people hold this idea still, it's like the post-9/11 Air Canada troubles are fresh and it's still kind of disliked by people in Calgary). And of course, Air Canada decimated their YYC base because they knew they'd never topple WS. I'm generalizing of course, but the point is still valid. WS basically became the only game in town, had a loyal clientele, kept adding destinations and frequency, just dominating. But many of their potential pax would migrate over to Lynx for a cheaper price, there aren't that many benefits to flying with WS in terms of perks, business class, upgrades, status tiers etc. WS may have brand appreciation and support from Calgarians, but they would jump ship to a Lynx or Flair without thinking about it. You don't have the deep ties like AC has with it's frequent fliers and Elites (some people are next level with their points, upgrades, lounge access, all sorts of perks compared to WS's offering). And WS knows this, so won't want a Lynx to grow and prosper, it's too close to their core and edging in on their turf). We'll see what happens!
Lastly, November stats now posted at YUL, YYC, and YVR (as usual, YYC and YUL post much earlier than YVR, they've been up for a few weeks I think but YVR just posted on Monday). Here's the growth comparison (y/y) from highest to lowest):
Domestic
YVR +6.4%
YYC +6.3%
YUL +3.8%
Transborder
YYC +25.6%
YVR +18.9%
YUL +16.3%
International (non-us)
YVR +25.5%
YUL +19.5%
YYC +9.9%
International (total)
YVR +22.1%
YYC +19.2%
YUL +18.4%
Total
YVR +13.7%
YUL +13.4%
YYC +10.2%
All very strong showings, these three airports have each been doing well at expanding and recovering, this is the second month in a row where the y/y overall growth was so similar between the three. So even though individual components (domestic, transborder, etc.) have lots of variation between airports, overall it really comes out to similar growth. We've gotten to a point where they've each grown a lot and still have individual strengths (ie. YUL with international traffic and YYC with domestic). I am not sure where YYZ is at pax wise since they have the absolute worst website in the world and don't post statistics... It's actually shameful how bad the YYZ website is, it hasn't changed or improved anything in many years. It's like they don't even have a web savvy employee to step in and say "this is bad, we need to update this, we are a major global hub and this website is clunky amateur hour". Especially after they suffered a fairly bad PR problem this past year ie. the delays, the short staffed facilities, the overall dissatisfaction from a lot of pax. The airport authority really had to step up and solve the issue, and get ahead of some of the bad press before the negative impression is engrained. Consequently the YYZ website is in your face with promoting its improvements (it's the only airport website I've seen that provides daily all kinds of statistical metrics like baggage delivery times, # of flights held waiting for/at a gate, on time departures broken down by sector, and lots more). It's so stupid, it really serves no purpose at all for travellers! It's really internal data for use by operations and airport authority personnel, and the only reason YYZ is sharing it is because of the black eye they had. But reporting it daily is non sensical. It's like a childish reaction to some criticism (people get mad because of poor performance and just want good service; if you improve that, you've succeeded). Posting daily analytics is like "SEEEEEEEEE WE'RE ON IT!!!!!!! YOU CAN"T SAY ANYTHING BECAUSE WE ARE BEING TRANSPARENT". Yet they don't post passenger numbers anymore? It's like "we can
either post daily performance analytics
OR monthly passenger stats. But not both, impossible to do both lol... Sorry for the rant, just bothers me that in 2024 there are still websites that are dysfunctional. This isn't 1997 when every website was amateur and basic, it was still early days and graphic capabilities weren't how they are today. In 2024, a very large public landmark like an airport
should have a great website. Yet most airports have meh or average ones, and sometimes downright horrible. SIGH
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