Calgary International Airport II

[Bigtime]

Wee_in_YYC got the 77L crossing in front of the moon on arrival:


C-FIUA by Wee in YYC, on Flickr

[YYCspotter]

^wow amazing shot

[Denscity]

Ya those engines do look huge!!

Good God that is amazing.

[cyeg66]

"Traffic, nine o'clock high!" Just an hour ago, got to see the 77W rotate at the end of rwy 30, just behind YEG tower. What a beaut! Wing flex, shiny toothpaste tube, etc. Ridiculously quiet, too.

[Cage]

Originally Posted by YYCspotter

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region...s-to-expand-service/stories/201401100150

looks like Pittsburgh, PA is targeting Calgary as one of the destinations it wants nonstop service too. I couldn't see it happening for a couple of reasons, very little O&D, and I can't think of any airline that would want to fly the route.

Nova Chemicals has its HQ in Pittsburgh, Admin office in Calgary, and major plant in Blackfalds (North of Red Deer). Their international traffic is measured at about base of 6k per month; so besides Paris seasonal, YYZ, and the sun destinations; their is not a whole lot of traffic to pick up. Consequently if the Airport ran an analysis of top 5-10 international markets not all ready served, Calgary would come up due to the Nova Chem link.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by YYCspotter

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region...s-to-expand-service/stories/201401100150

looks like Pittsburgh, PA is targeting Calgary as one of the destinations it wants nonstop service too. I couldn't see it happening for a couple of reasons, very little O&D, and I can't think of any airline that would want to fly the route.

I used to work for a drilling contractor that was quite active in that area (5-6 rigs from an 80 rig fleet worldwide), there was at the time a huge amount of gas drilling activity in that area (I'm out of the loop on drilling these days). I also know of at least one person that was relocated by a major O&G company from Calgary to Pittsburgh. So there may be a market there. I remember having to connect through SLC on my return from there.

[YYCspotter]

Originally Posted by Full Mountain

I used to work for a drilling contractor that was quite active in that area (5-6 rigs from an 80 rig fleet worldwide), there was at the time a huge amount of gas drilling activity in that area (I'm out of the loop on drilling these days). I also know of at least one person that was relocated by a major O&G company from Calgary to Pittsburgh. So there may be a market there. I remember having to connect through SLC on my return from there.

There may be a market, but with only 11 PDEW a nonstop route would rely heavily on connections.

It's about as likely as YYC-DXB.

I can echo cyeg66's comment on these engines being quiet, this one sounds even quieter than the 77W. Literally half as loud as the AA MD-80's.

• Video Link

[YYCspotter]

Expect things to change in 2014....

The Harper government has put AC on notice regarding Gulf carriers wanting more access to Canadian airports. Harper knows he can spin this into votes in the next election. You can expect a passenger bill of rights announcement before the next election too.

AC has asked for time to allow new aircraft to come online. The agreement is they have until August after which you can expect an announcement from the government on additional access to Canadian airports from Gulf carriers.

EK is expected to get YVR & YYC x3 flights weekly each

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canad...ng-aggressively-after-ac-business-3.html

Just saw this over on Flyertalk. Maybe there actually is something going on with the Gulf carriers gaining more rights. It also sounds like AC has stopped fighting against the Gulf carriers gaining more right and sort of just accepted that its going to happen. Hence why they want until August before new landing rights are announced for the gulf carriers.

I hope our 77W upguages for LHR and FRA and are not sardine cans. That would be bad especially in the case of BA with such a premium product.

[Bokimon]

I think a seasonal service to PIT can work. If there is little O&D, that city and its state should aggressively market themselves to Alberta to lure more of us.
Pennsylvania is awesome! The best amusement parks in the world are there!
Plus several building materials have their plants and manufacturing based there too as some coworkers from my office had to go down there last year for their convention or product launches. I think there are some amount of construction/design business that exists between YYC and PIT.

Otherwise some US carrier can route an existing city with a PIT tag along at the end such as YYC-MSP-PIT etc. I thought I have seen cases on our FIDS at the airport that some routes seem to have the likes of LGA, BOS or CLT slapped on as a continuation leg after the destination.
I also miss that airport channel on TV where they would list the FIDS for us to see from home! That weather advisory would keep looping back where I first thought it was actually the ATIS.

From that distance you can't even hear the 77L so I don't think that counts unless you are closer to the rwy. Maybe if it was going off 35, it would be a better comparison to noise.

Good news about potential updates to the bilaterals. A seasonal 3x/week mid east flight could perhaps work for our city. I won't complain with that! It is a start and it doesn't have to be the likes of EK, QR would be better as they have 787s that could better fit the market of our size, unless they want to do a YEG-YYC combo ontop of their 16hr leg lol.

The E190 is the only aircraft I could think of that could possibly work for PIT. Probably still too many seats.

Originally Posted by Bokimon

From that distance you can't even hear the 77L so I don't think that counts unless you are closer to the rwy. Maybe if it was going off 35, it would be a better comparison to noise.

That is not my video. My sound comparisons are from each of the planes climbing almost directly over my house in Panorama, about 2 miles off the departure end of 29.

[tuffyy]

I would be curious to see the EK impact on Alberta.

As we seem to discuss every couple of month's I would suspect it will impact the European operations as many (BA, KL and even AC) rely on a large amount of traffic bound to the middle east (Primarily India). As we all know EK would draw all if not most middle eastern bound traffic away from the small markets of YYC,YEG and YVR.

BA could be fine with its 787 operations, KL on the other hand might see the biggest impact with its less efficient A330 and 777 aircraft and the AC 77W ops would surely take a hit. FI in YEG should be fine since it has no Mid east links and relys on onward Euro connections.

Im surprised to see they still want in YVR with EK operating into nearby SEA already.

It'll be good to see the airline enter the market but I can hear AC crying foul already.

[Bokimon]

I'm all for consumer choices when picking an airline to fly and also more variety of destinations that we can get to on a direct flight.
The middle east players seem to have a world domination agenda for their aggressive growth and scare tactics, so even though I'd like an EK arrival, I hope our Gov will hold them to a short leash and keep up the 'take it or leave' stance with whatever options that open up to them. Its better than nothing I guess and a 3x/week seasonal for instance IMO shouldn't do that much damage to the existing services we already have from our European carriers. Maybe a little competition I suppose..

Okay fair enough, if flying over your house then I say you'd hardly even notice that a plane was passing by. On somedays I too can hear the magdogs reversing and that is all the way from my condo tower in the beltline! It might have to do with how sound travels in certain conditions and other ambient noise. But I hear the roars every once a while. Or the 732s for that matter.

Nick and cyeg66... ever seen an altimeter in Calgary lower than this morning's 28.83? I'm Googling and I can't see a lower pressure in Calgary... ever. It looks like the sky is falling apart.

Originally Posted by Bokimon

Okay fair enough, if flying over your house then I say you'd hardly even notice that a plane was passing by.

Again, I'm only 2 miles right off the end of 29. You can hear everybody from anywhere in your house here, be it 737NG, 732 or MD-80. It's not overly bothersome, but most certainly noticeable. It's a direct line of sight downhill to the airport.

[cyeg66]

Sure, YBW's 2878.
Only in Calgary will the wind go from 080@10 kts to 230@35G45 in under a minute like they did at Springbank today. KLM didn't like flying thru that same storm front one mile final for 29. Decided to go around and give it a better shot.

[Cage]

Just saw this over on Flyertalk. Maybe there actually is something going on with the Gulf carriers gaining more rights. It also sounds like AC has stopped fighting against the Gulf carriers gaining more right and sort of just accepted that its going to happen. Hence why they want until August before new landing rights are announced for the gulf carriers.

Take the FT quote with grain of Salt. The timing does not work out WRT requirement to amend the canada UAE bilateral. Also the UAE has to split their rights equally between Etihad and emirates, there fore EK could not get both yyc and yvr 3wk. Finally the first priority for EK is daily DXB-YYZ.

Potential timeline is sign bilateral in August with phaesd implementation listing several years. Like year one daily from yyz for both EK and EY followed by yvr and yyc opened up in years 2 or 3.

ETA, the above prognostication is just my best guesstimate, not based on any hard information.

Cage what do you think will happen to AC YYC-EWR when the E90 goes? Will UA pick it up? Rouge? Seems like there might be some premium pax there as opposed to California, LAS, Florida, etc.