Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW/CYOW)

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by YOWflier

I’d much rather more UA frequencies to all current destinations before any theoretical upgauge to mainline.

At least they are adding a third frequency to IAD which will open up a lot of great (better) connection opportunities:
19:30 YOW - IAD 21:11
22:10 IAD - 23:50 YOW

[MountainView]

As others have already mentioned, but:

AIR FRANCE NS24 INTERCONTINENTAL NETWORK CHANGES – 24JAN24
Published at 0800GMT 26JAN24

Paris Charles de Gaulle – Ottawa Previously filed A330-200 service replaced by following aircraft, 5 weekly
31MAR24 – 06APR24 787-9 (787 service maintained)
eff 07APR24 A350-900XWB
eff 19JUN24 Increase from 5 to 7 weekly

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by MountainView

At least they are adding a third frequency to IAD which will open up a lot of great (better) connection opportunities:
19:30 YOW - IAD 21:11
22:10 IAD - 23:50 YOW

That one is key for sure. I’d also like to see a third to ORD area.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by YOWflier

That one is key for sure. I’d also like to see a third to ORD area.

Absolutely!

A late morning/noon-ish depature from YOW to ORD to catch some of the early western bank there. So something like 3x on the E70/75.

DEN would be great, but it would certainly eat at UA's ORD flights and at AC's YYZ flights, so I doubt we see that any time soon.

[MountainView]

There is a Porter E295 parked at the northern portion of the new Porter hangar as of yesterday when I was there. Perhaps their hangar will be operational soon, if it already isn't.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

UA is also going to upgauge 2x daily flights on YUL-EWR from an E70 to a mainline 319. Given the impressive loads we've seen all three routes UA flies out of YOW, I wonder if we'll get mainline at some point on EWR or ORD.

I do see that ORD will be 1x E70 and 1x E75 this summer. EWR is 2x E75 & 1x E70 (plus PD 3x of course). IAD will be all CRJ550 this summer.

Today's departure count: 75, including 12 sun flights

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1

[rocketphish]

Porter, Air France lifting Ottawa airport passenger traffic back to pre-pandemic levels

Mia Jensen, OBJ
January 26, 2024 10:45 AM ET

Passenger volumes at the Ottawa International Airport are expected to return to pre-pandemic levels this year, led by new offerings from Porter Airlines and Air France, an airport official says.

Last year, almost 4.1 million passengers travelled through Ottawa’s airport, a 37 per cent increase from 2022. Despite that growth, numbers have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, which saw more than 5.1 million passengers travelling through YOW in both 2018 and 2019.

“Exceptional growth by Porter to a number of ‘new for them’ destinations such as Vancouver and Edmonton in the west and various destinations in the U.S. utilizing their new Embraer E195-E2 jets, along with a great lineup of sunshine destinations with mainline and charter carriers, were contributing factors to our growth,” YOW spokesperson Krista Kealey told OBJ this week.

Domestic travel at YOW grew by 18 per cent in 2023, but flights to and from destinations outside of Canada saw the biggest bump.

In 2022, only 93,000 passengers on flights between destinations outside of the U.S. and Canada came through Ottawa. The numbers were even worse in 2021, at the height of the pandemic, at 15,597 passengers. Last year saw nearly 317,000 international passengers through Ottawa, an increase of 240 per cent.

Kealey said international growth was led by Air France, which introduced a new direct route to Paris in June.

Transborder travel between Canada and the United States also saw a spike of 202 per cent. The airport recorded over 576,000 passengers in 2023, compared to 190,000 in 2022.

“We’re at about 80 per cent of pre-pandemic volumes, and tracking to reach our pre-pandemic peak of 5.1 million in 2024,” says Kealey.

This year, Kealey said Air France is expected to boost the frequency of its Ottawa-Paris route from five times weekly to daily this summer, contributing to more growth.

Porter Airlines, which Kealey called “YOW’s fastest growing carrier,” also intends to continue expanding its offerings throughout the year, she said.

While leisure travel is recovering well at YOW, business travel continues to lag, particularly from the federal government.

“This doesn’t just pertain to outbound travel by federal officials, but also to those willing to come to Ottawa-Gatineau for in-person meetings,” says Kealey. “The challenge persists, particularly when the individuals they wish to meet are frequently working from home.”

https://obj.ca/porter-air-france-ott...-pre-pandemic/

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Porter, Air France lifting Ottawa airport passenger traffic back to pre-pandemic levels

Mia Jensen, OBJ
January 26, 2024 10:45 AM ET

Passenger volumes at the Ottawa International Airport are expected to return to pre-pandemic levels this year, led by new offerings from Porter Airlines and Air France, an airport official says.

Last year, almost 4.1 million passengers travelled through Ottawa’s airport, a 37 per cent increase from 2022. Despite that growth, numbers have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, which saw more than 5.1 million passengers travelling through YOW in both 2018 and 2019.

“Exceptional growth by Porter to a number of ‘new for them’ destinations such as Vancouver and Edmonton in the west and various destinations in the U.S. utilizing their new Embraer E195-E2 jets, along with a great lineup of sunshine destinations with mainline and charter carriers, were contributing factors to our growth,” YOW spokesperson Krista Kealey told OBJ this week.

Domestic travel at YOW grew by 18 per cent in 2023, but flights to and from destinations outside of Canada saw the biggest bump.

In 2022, only 93,000 passengers on flights between destinations outside of the U.S. and Canada came through Ottawa. The numbers were even worse in 2021, at the height of the pandemic, at 15,597 passengers. Last year saw nearly 317,000 international passengers through Ottawa, an increase of 240 per cent.

Kealey said international growth was led by Air France, which introduced a new direct route to Paris in June.

Transborder travel between Canada and the United States also saw a spike of 202 per cent. The airport recorded over 576,000 passengers in 2023, compared to 190,000 in 2022.

“We’re at about 80 per cent of pre-pandemic volumes, and tracking to reach our pre-pandemic peak of 5.1 million in 2024,” says Kealey.

This year, Kealey said Air France is expected to boost the frequency of its Ottawa-Paris route from five times weekly to daily this summer, contributing to more growth.

Porter Airlines, which Kealey called “YOW’s fastest growing carrier,” also intends to continue expanding its offerings throughout the year, she said.

While leisure travel is recovering well at YOW, business travel continues to lag, particularly from the federal government.

“This doesn’t just pertain to outbound travel by federal officials, but also to those willing to come to Ottawa-Gatineau for in-person meetings,” says Kealey. “The challenge persists, particularly when the individuals they wish to meet are frequently working from home.”

https://obj.ca/porter-air-france-ott...-pre-pandemic/

Transborder traffic is actually up ~0.6% to 14% of total traffic compared to 2019. YYC averages about 20% transborder, YEG about 10-11% and YWG less than 10% of total traffic.

November YTD at YEG for international passengers was approx 6.5% of their total traffic, whereas at YOW it was approx 8.7%. And YEG sees > 2,000,000 more total passengers than YOW annually.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

[B][SIZE="4"]

Porter Airlines, which Kealey called “YOW’s fastest growing carrier,” also intends to continue expanding its offerings throughout the year, she said.

This evidently means there's more for YOW still to come for PD in 2024 because the capacity additions to date won't get the airport to 5.1 million when factoring in Flair's big seat capacity cutbacks. YOW-YYT being the most obvious addition. AF of course will be way up, UA up a bit. WS & AC will be pretty much flat. WS might even be slightly negative with the elimination of YYZ.

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

WS might even be slightly negative with the elimination of YYZ.

Is it eliminated though? This route appears to be removed during the summer, however from 28 October Ott-Tor flights are available for booking again on the WS website.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by MountainView

There is a Porter E295 parked at the northern portion of the new Porter hangar as of yesterday when I was there. Perhaps their hangar will be operational soon, if it already isn't.

Driving down Riverside this evening, I couldn't see the plane anymore but the hangar looked lit up inside.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

Is it eliminated though? This route appears to be removed during the summer, however from 28 October Ott-Tor flights are available for booking again on the WS website.

Interesting. We’ll see if it happens though as YUL-YYZ was loaded to rest for summer 2024, only to get pulled again.

Today’s departure count: 67, including 12 sun flights

Today’s cancellation count (so far): 1

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Today’s departure count: 67, including 12 sun flights

Today’s cancellation count (so far): 1

The WG flight to CUN this afternoon departed from gate 17, and the inbound plane was from CYO. I didn't think 17 was a swing gate?

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

The WG flight to CUN this afternoon departed from gate 17, and the inbound plane was from CYO. I didn't think 17 was a swing gate?

Correct, 17 isn’t a swing gate…1-15 can handle international/transborder arrivals. 11-30 can handle international departures.

Guessing the aircraft arrived on another gate and got towed to 17?

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Correct, 17 isn’t a swing gate…1-15 can handle international/transborder arrivals. 11-30 can handle international departures.

Guessing the aircraft arrived on another gate and got towed to 17?

Just listened to the ATC archive and the inbound from CYO indeed taxied to gate 17...emergency vehicles met the plane at the gate so I wonder if an onboard medical emergency necessitated them going to whatever gate they could. Still wonder how that would work logistically for all the other pax with customs.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 68, including 10 sun flights

Today’s cancellation count (so far): 0

YOW-MCO on PD is now loaded year-round and still daily all summer long. Effective 01MAY24, the flight will depart earlier at 1615 vs the current 1730.

Inbound from MCO will arrive at 1657 vs the current 1902. Will be timed perfectly for connections to/from YEG/YVR/YYC.

[mxg308]

Hopefully FLL goes year-round too. Would be great for me personally and eventually YOW can get some B6 connections at FLL? Not sure why that still doesn't really exist?
edit: looks like YYZ-FLL is going year-round.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by mxg308

Hopefully FLL goes year-round too. Would be great for me personally and eventually YOW can get some B6 connections at FLL? Not sure why that still doesn't really exist?

For now YOW-FLL is still listed as seasonal but YYZ-FLL is going year-round along with YYZ-MCO.

YOW-MCO this summer will also be able to handle the following for connections:
to/from YTZ, YYZ, YQT and YHZ.

[fanofYOW]

Fantastic news about PD’s MCO flights.

With a quick Google Flights search, it seems AC is dropping YOW-YYZ to 10x daily this summer from 12x this summer. Could be the beginning of lower AC uptake from YOW?

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

Fantastic news about PD’s MCO flights.

With a quick Google Flights search, it seems AC is dropping YOW-YYZ to 10x daily this summer from 12x this summer. Could be the beginning of lower AC uptake from YOW?

Interesting about AC. If AC keep YTZ 4x all summer, that would keep overall Ottawa-Toronto capacity about the same with them.

EDIT: YTZ still loaded at 4x daily so net frequency is +2 to Toronto. Interesting how aircraft types are now assigned to specific flights and YYZ sees 5x 319 mainline, 1x 320, 3x 7M8 & 1x 321. YYC is now a 7M8 instead of 320/321. YWG is cut to a single CR9 & YQB a single DH4. So as things currently stand, no 223s this summer.

For YOW-MCO, once the expanded DH4 flying starts, see it’ll also connect from YQM on day 7 and to YQM X6.

PD is now without question going to have more daily departures than AC’s 30 this summer but AC will likely still have more seat capacity with the 5x 7M8s, 1x 321 & 1x789.