LUFTHANSA EXTENDS MUNICH – VANCOUVER TO YEAR-ROUND IN NW24
1 min
NW24Star Alliance
Written By Jim Liu
Published at 0200GMT 29MAY24
Lufthansa in last week's schedule update extended Munich – Vancouver service, as this route will once again sees year-round operation, during Northern winter 2024/25 season. From 27OCT24 to 29MAR25, this route is served 3 times weekly, with Airbus A350-900XWB aircraft.
Following schedule focuses on the period of 03NOV24 – 07MAR25.
LH476 MUC1220 – 1350YVR 359 257
LH477 YVR1855 – 1345+1MUC 359 257
I didn't remember YVR-MUC being being year round before, I always remember it being summer seasonal? The article definitely implies it was before... "this route will once again sees year-round operation". It definitely is possible/likely, Jim is usually very good about things, but it's also insane how much route data he goes through to publish that site, and doing all of the comparisons is even more nuts. He always has previous years/seasons to compare to, that would take so much time to compile. His database must be insanely organized to do what he does, I'd love to score a copy of his vast data files LOL. Anyways, I digressed majorly. Whatever the case, good to see LH keep MUC year-round, it's a nice link to take out of the summer only pile.
I noticed something, and just like above, I could be mistaken as I don't have records of past winter scheds. But when I was checking out MUC on the scheds, I started to check out how winter 2024/25 to Europe looked from airports like YVR, YEG, and YYC (YYZ and YUL are in a different league, not worth comparing as they are so vastly different).
YYC - WS already announced maintaining daily flights to LHR and CDG from YYC, plus AC daily to LHR, 4Y daily to FRA, and KL daily to AMS. Pretty standard, the big boost being CDG to daily year round
YVR - Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think AF used to be daily in winter before (year round)? My mind is kind of blurry with past comparisons, the Covid messed with my memory of some things pre-2020. I know the route started summer seasonal, and sub-daily, I just can't remember if it expanded to daily year round just before Covid? This article mentions the summer service increasing just this year?
AIR FRANCE 3Q24 VANCOUVER AIRCRAFT CHANGES
1 min
NS24Skyteam
Written By Jim Liu
Published at 0600GMT 08FEB24
Air France in the third quarter of 2024 plans additional capacity increase on Paris Charles de Gaulle – Vancouver route, as the Skyteam member schedules 369-seater Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on this route, from 02JUL24 to 16SEP24. AF previously planned to operate this service with 324-seater A350-900XWB during this period.
Planned frequency increase from 5 to 7 weekly remains unchanged.
Maybe it's just increasing compared to Covid-era schedules, maybe pre-2020 it was daily in summer, but I still don't think in winter.. The other funny thing about this is that AF and KL are obviously coordinating this closely. YVR-CDG is actually 5x weekly for a 6-week period between late Sep and most of Oct. But then AF goes back to daily, and KL goes from daily to 4x weekly. I remember KL dropping sub-daily in the winter, but I don't remember AF picking up the extra frequency, I thought they just both went sub-daily in winter? This apparent swap in importance surprised me, KLM and AMS have been huge not just for YVR, but also many Canadian cities esp. YEG and YYC. KL really provided some of the strongest links between western cities and Europe. Paris was nowhere to be found for years on western schedules, and airlines like BA never gave much to the region, esp. YYC/YEG. FRA was decent, but KL to AMS was really the strongest of the foreign tails. So seeing them appear to hand the dominant spot to AF is surprising (from YVR, that is). Even though they're essentially the same airline in many ways, it was always that some places were stronger KL and some stronger AF, and much of that has remained. KL will continue to be daily from YYC-AMS and 5x weekly from YEG-AMS over winter, so just YVR goes down and gets replaced by AF. I've heard KL is struggling with AMS and new restrictions to keep down # of flights. It's hard to believe airports actively trying to shoo away business lol, but that's just proof how huge airports like AMS and CDG are. Canadian airports will not be turning away business for a while I hope, unless there's some nut job policities somewhere here, but I sure hope not! Bring in the business, we are underserved!! Forget Madrid, Amsterdam and Venice, give us more lol!
YYC
7x AC to LHR
7x WS to LHR
7x WS to CDG
7x KL to AMS
7x 4Y to FRA
YVR
7x BA to LHR
7x AC to LHR
7x AF to CDG
7x LH to FRA
4x KL to AMS
4x FI to KEF
3x LH to MUC
YEG
5x KL to AMS
YVR and YYC very even on Europe, which has been normal for many years in winter. Just the airline makeup has shifted a bit.