Originally Posted by zahav
I agree with what many others said, we have not made out that bad all things considered. The double whammy of Chinese flights dropping off and the Ukraine war blocking access to India for AC really crushed big segments of our market. And as others have also said, other airports suffered as well in their own way. Just looking at overall traffic isn't always the only story. Look at YYC. WS has really beefed up there, adding some real solid international flights, dominating domestic routes ex-YYC, and locking down transborder and leisure. But what people don't get when they see WS increasing YYC like crazy is the corresponding loss from other airlines. AC absolutely gutted their network there, across all sectors. Even before Covid, the random international airlines dropped off (British Airways, Hainan, Aeromexico, Lufthansa, am I missing any?). I am not saying this to bad mouth YYC or imply they are doing poorly. Rather just emphasizing that airports like YVR and YYC are seeing positives and negatives. WS building up their YYC fortress has boosted traffic all around, but it's come at the cost of basically every other airline there. So even though the loss of China is a huge issue for YVR, getting adds like BKK, SIN, DXB are fantastic, and a sign of confidence to experiment on such bold routes. Bringing back routes like DUB might be small, but it's a route that could easily be shelved, yet still operates (ditto with KIX). Then you have the great international carrier presence, which is stronger than ever (minus China), and an improvement over pre-Covid even (ex. Qantas finally going year round, adding Fiji Airways, adding Air India, Aeromexico going to 3x daily, Icelandair going year-round, both KL and AF operating 777-300s, LH still flying the 747). These might not be huge, but they are choices these airlines made when there were other options available. So any little bit is positive, especially for non-domestic airlines. International airlines have the whole world as potential candidates to devote resources, they don't have hubs in Canada like AC does, they have no allegiance or infrastructure anywhere but in their home airports (ie. LH in FRA and MUC). They fly where they make the most money, and don't stick around if a route is a dud. It's not personal, it's business. So keeping and attracting international carriers is a big coup, even if it doesn't make up for losing China or various AC routes in terms of pax, it is a positive endorsement.
PS, YVR.ca used to have a cool feature where you used a pulldown menu to show the connections process between various sectors (ie. Arriving From: International, Connecting to: US, and it would tell you exactly what to do (ie. do not enter customs hall, proceed to US connections, you will not pick up your bags, etc.). You could select which airline you were arriving on, which you were departing on, and it generated specific instructions for the chosen connection. It is not always clear when people do and do not collect bags between international connections, or when to clear customs if connecting to the US from international, when you exit a secured area and when you can connect within security, etc. And it has changed from years past, new facilities built, etc. So that tool was very helpful. They have a map now, but it has way less detail, and isn't as clear for people who aren't airport savvy. Very odd they got rid of it... Or maybe I am just blind and braindead, so if anyone else knows the feature I mean, and can find it, let me know
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