Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

[The Unknown Poster]

Hmm I would think this adds some options and perhaps affordability to those going to Florida (Theme Parks and Cruises).

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by Ozabald

LAS is not a hub airport. It's an O&D airport with minimal connecting traffic. The three largest US airlines in LAS by passenger volume are Southwest, Frontier and Spirit. Outside of Frontier's codeshare agreement with Volaris, these airlines do not have interline agreements.

Long term, it will be interesting if the ATL route stays around after the subsidy runs out. YOW and YHZ which had ATL service prior to the pandemic have not yet have this service restored; and YVR only has seasonal service which is somewhat surprising give its larger corporate sector and much larger film/tv industry. Likely their ATL flight is servicing the Alaskan cruise traffic.

There is also a connection between Winnipeg and Atlanta with the CDC and the NML in Winnipeg. I know a few people who go back and forth between the two cities because of the work on disease control. There is a partnership there.

I think they are playing this smartly. Atlanta is a hub to South America as well as many Central America locations; i.e. Costa Rica. They also service Europe very heavily and connect to Cape Town, Cairo, Lagos and Casablanca with direct flights. While most Winnipeggers aren't likely to be going direct to Atlanta, it offers a lot of other connection points that is going to take a big hit out of Air Canada by my best estimation. Now, if you fly out of YWG, Air Canada, Westjet and Delta are all viable options. Given my last flying experience going to Europe with Air Canada via Toronto, it will change how I fly. I will never want to fly out of Toronto again. It is literally the worst airport in North America. That in of itself might persuade me to look at other options. I'm thinking they have data that would support this move and my best guess would be that it is trying to take a hit out of Air Canada.

[CoryB]

The cooling off period is over. WestJet pilots (includes Swoop) gave 72 hours notice for job action to start May 19, 2023. Management then replied they will be locking out the pilots (aka management's version of a strike).

Not sure exactly how but WestJet says they will continue to operate some aircraft while the strike is happening.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by CoryB

The cooling off period is over. WestJet pilots (includes Swoop) gave 72 hours notice for job action to start May 19, 2023. Management then replied they will be locking out the pilots (aka management's version of a strike).

Not sure exactly how but WestJet says they will continue to operate some aircraft while the strike is happening.

Management will step in to fly the planes

Kidding aside, I wonder what if any long term impact this might have on WestJet? As shoddy as they are, they are realistically the only thing keeping Air Canada honest in our highly regulated, highly protected environment for airlines.

[Atrial78]

It's in Westjet's interest to not prolong this strike and keep its pilots happy. With the increased competition from Porter, Lynx, and Canada Jetlines over the next few years there will likely be a lot of pilot poaching.

When all is said and done I imagine we will end up with AC, Westjet, Porter, and one ULCC. Hopefully Porter will expand to Winnipeg!

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by esquire

Management will step in to fly the planes

Management stepping in to fly planes in the WestJet strike is normally how it would be done but realistically how many management positions could there be for people actively maintaining a commercial pilots license? I am not up on all the ins and outs but my understanding is the annual fee for said license is very high and I would suspect they need to maintain a certain number of hours flying planes and maintaining training, ie learning new things like the 737 MAX. All that is effectively non-work time if you are in management.

Even when you get past what is needed to be a licensed commercial pilot you then start running into the mandated hours of rest and how many on-duty hours they can have. So what non-union pilots WestJet has are still going to be fairly heavily constrained in what they can do.

My thinking is the flights they can operate are likely going to heavily be focused on getting people from one city to a WestJet hub city. And that priority is going to be given to people on return flights of round tickets. Aka people with outbound tickets or one way tickets are likely to just get flight cancellations/refunds and little other support.

[thewave46]

I don't particularly see what leverage Onex has on these pilots.

They're skilled professionals in high demand and there's no great wave entering the workforce soon. We're coming up on peak season of flying in this country. It's not even like Westjet can claim they're a 'Owners Care' airline, or some such anymore.

US airlines have been settling generously with their pilots because the pipeline is barren - they scooped up pilots from their regional affiliates to mainline roles. It sucks for third and fourth tier destinations who are losing regional service. It's not like Westjet has tons of slack from that angle to pull anyway, given their paucity of regional flying.

Air Canada cackles to the bank and some ULCCs get a reprieve for awhile. Maybe AC will fly widebodies to YWG?

[CoryB]

So far six departures and four arrivals have been impacted by the WestJet labour situation.

Oddly the Vegas outbound flight is still taking passengers today. I see it is doing a turn and return so that part makes sense. Just hope the outbound passengers have good alternate plans as I got a feeling the house is going to win on their bet for a return flight.

[CoryB]

WestJet and the pilots union reached a last minute deal. There are expected to be some impacts throughout the weekend but should be back to normal service soon.

[CoryB]

Some speculation going around that the new WestJet pilots contract may include a planned wind down of the Swoop subbrand.

Separately was reading that United is underway to majorly ramp up their presence in Denver where they are already a major hub airline. The article indicates they are working to add an additional 12 gets over roughly the next 12 months and plan to add more cities. No hints given as to what cities those may be but considering YWG was one of those cities in the past and the just announced route additions included restoration to a US city which was suspended for the pandemic does give a small hint YWG could be on the list, possibly when the fall/winter schedule changes get announced.

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Some speculation going around that the new WestJet pilots contract may include a planned wind down of the Swoop subbrand.

Separately was reading that United is underway to majorly ramp up their presence in Denver where they are already a major hub airline. The article indicates they are working to add an additional 12 gets over roughly the next 12 months and plan to add more cities. No hints given as to what cities those may be but considering YWG was one of those cities in the past and the just announced route additions included restoration to a US city which was suspended for the pandemic does give a small hint YWG could be on the list, possibly when the fall/winter schedule changes get announced.

Swoop was utterly horrible. I'm sad that a discount carrier might be gone, but honestly, I've had nothing but awful experiences with them and I probably wouldn't have flown with them again anyway.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Jammon

Swoop was utterly horrible. I'm sad that a discount carrier might be gone, but honestly, I've had nothing but awful experiences with them and I probably wouldn't have flown with them again anyway.

I always did my best to avoid LCCs/ULCCs mainly because if there is a flight cancellation/disruption, you are hooped. You often have to wait a couple days for the next flight, which is not ideal. By contrast, the mainline carriers can typically get you there with minimal disruption, usually just a bit late.

[CoryB]

The reality is Swoop was never a true LCCs/ULCCs as it was basically older WestJet fleet being operated by more junior staff at lower pay levels.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by CoryB

The reality is Swoop was never a true LCCs/ULCCs as it was basically older WestJet fleet being operated by more junior staff at lower pay levels.

But that was basically their proposition to consumers. Fly Swoop and give up certain things in exchange for a lower price... whether the lower price was 5% lower or 50% lower than competitors was a toss-up.

[(sub)urban]

Does YWG have a runway long enough to run 787s here? I flew with KLM from Calgary to Amsterdam recently and noticed that they've got non-stop flights from Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. At that point, I can't help but wonder if a YWG route is really that far out of question, assuming our airport can handle larger aircraft.

Of course, Winnipeg is a fraction of the tourist destination that Vancouver/Calgary is for Dutch folks, but even still. They fly to Calgary daily, I can't help but think a weekly non-stop europe flight would be well received.

[esquire]

The airport can handle larger aircraft. The longest runway is 11,000 feet and it regularly receives larger widebodies right up to 777s and 747s for cargo traffic and diversions... those typically need up to 10,000 feet to take off while fully loaded. The passenger terminal has one gate which is capable of handling widebodies. The bigger challenge is filling the plane up with paying passengers out of a market the size of Winnipeg's.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by (sub)urban

Does YWG have a runway long enough to run 787s here? I flew with KLM from Calgary to Amsterdam recently and noticed that they've got non-stop flights from Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. At that point, I can't help but wonder if a YWG route is really that far out of question, assuming our airport can handle larger aircraft.

Of course, Winnipeg is a fraction of the tourist destination that Vancouver/Calgary is for Dutch folks, but even still. They fly to Calgary daily, I can't help but think a weekly non-stop europe flight would be well received.

We could handle A380s if the terminal could accommodate. Even the AN225 if it was still operational, although there are no official figures available for takeoff roll at the 750 or so odd feet of elevation that YWG sits at.

I thought that at one point there were flights to AMS from here, but maybe they were run by CP air or something... too young to remember those tho.

[esquire]

Yes there were, for quite a few years. CP Air was very AMS-focused back in the day.

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by esquire

Yes there were, for quite a few years. CP Air was very AMS-focused back in the day.

Direct to Honolulu...sigh.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by (sub)urban

Does YWG have a runway long enough to run 787s here? I flew with KLM from Calgary to Amsterdam recently and noticed that they've got non-stop flights from Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. At that point, I can't help but wonder if a YWG route is really that far out of question, assuming our airport can handle larger aircraft.

Of course, Winnipeg is a fraction of the tourist destination that Vancouver/Calgary is for Dutch folks, but even still. They fly to Calgary daily, I can't help but think a weekly non-stop europe flight would be well received.

KLM probably won’t increase Canada flying because Schiphol Airport will likely have the number of slots (takeoffs/landings) reduced by the government of the Netherlands in the near future.

Winnipeg needs the right equipment for a successful Europe flight. The Airbus A321XLR is the best option in the future. It is small enough in capacity to fill reliably, but has long enough range to make Western Europe possible from YWG.

However, the only future operator who would consider it is Air Canada. AC will likely try other routes prior with the A321XLR prior to a YWG flight, unfortunately.