Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW/CYOW)

[fanofYOW]

More PD announcement today. YOW gets YDF starting June 10.

Also on the list: YTZ-ORD and YYZ-AUS.

[Richard Eade]

Fabulous! No more having to 'transfer' to get to Gros Morne National Park.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

More PD announcement today. YOW gets YDF starting June 10.

Also on the list: YTZ-ORD and YYZ-AUS.

YOW-YDF 5x weekly: https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...erican-Network

PD are transferring to ORD from MDW.

Not a surprising add YDF as it's got decent seasonal demand. With connections it should do well and will allow tourists to do a YOW-YYT-YDF loop for a trip without having a YHZ connection.

PD 371 YOW-YDF 2050-0040 X26
PD 368 YDF-YOW 0630-0735 X37

That'll connect nicely to the morning bank of departures.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 74

Sun flights count (both transborder & international): 12

Today's cancellation count (so far): 8 - including AC 345, a 5T (looks like it had a replacement flight and the rest are to YYZ/YTZ as the weather in the GTA is for snow and freezing rain.

[MountainView]

Still shocked there is no YOW-YXE or YQR route.
I think YQR would work better... but it would be a new station for Porter (and there are expenses associated with that).

They are announcing Deer Lake fairly late... a lot of people book accoms and car rentals early for travel to NFLD. I wish them well on the route! Landing at 00:40 in Deer Lake is obviously geared for connections through YOW. Nice to see the E2 on the route though.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by MountainView

Still shocked there is no YOW-YXE or YQR route.
I think YQR would work better... but it would be a new station for Porter (and there are expenses associated with that).

They are announcing Deer Lake fairly late... a lot of people book accoms and car rentals early for travel to NFLD. I wish them well on the route! Landing at 00:40 in Deer Lake is obviously geared for connections through YOW. Nice to see the E2 on the route though.

Speaking of connections for the new YDF route, the inbound from YDF connects:
Within 2 hours to:
- YYZ & YTZ
- YQT
- YWG
- YYC
- YEG
- YLW
- YVR
- YYJ
- EWR
More than 4 hours to:
- BOS (oddly not selling this yet, nor via YYZ or a YTZ double connect)
- YSB
- YQG
- CUN (on days 56)

The outbound to YDF connects within 2 hours from:
- YYJ
- YVR
- YLW
- YWG
- YYZ & YTZ.
From 2-4 hours from:
- YEG
- YYC
- YQT
- YSB
- YQG
- YUL (days 57 with TS codeshare)
- EWR
- BOS (are selling this); and
More than 4 hours from:
- FLL (day 1)
- MCO (day 5)

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Speaking of connections for the new YDF route, the inbound from YDF connects:
Within 2 hours to:
- YYZ & YTZ
- YQT
- YWG
- YYC
- YEG
- YLW
- YVR
- YYJ
- EWR
More than 4 hours to:
- BOS (oddly not selling this yet, nor via YYZ or a YTZ double connect)
- YSB
- YQG
- CUN (on days 56)

The outbound to YDF connects within 2 hours from:
- YYJ
- YVR
- YLW
- YWG
- YYZ & YTZ.
From 2-4 hours from:
- YEG
- YYC
- YQT
- YSB
- YQG
- YUL (days 57 with TS codeshare)
- EWR
- BOS (are selling this); and
More than 4 hours from:
- FLL (day 1)
- MCO (day 5)

Thanks for putting this together.

Flight will likely only work with the connections. I feel like YEG and YYC will be bigger hits on this route. With WS offering a flight via YYC.

I think the E2 being on the route is very beneficial for folks who look at airplane type during booking.

[fanofYOW]

^ That's a healthy amount of connections, makes me think the point of YOW-YDF is for feed. PD can easily fill their flights to full if they just opened up connections between more cities. For example, YYG barely have any connecting options in YOW.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

^ That's a healthy amount of connections, makes me think the point of YOW-YDF is for feed. PD can easily fill their flights to full if they just opened up connections between more cities. For example, YYG barely have any connecting options in YOW.

Cutting YYG to 1x daily is enough capacity for local O&D without really needing connections, but certainly limits YYG connectivity.

So with today's addition, PD’s changes for summer 2026 are as follows (looking at late June):

Jet routes:

- MCO reduced from a max of daily to 3x weekly (days 156)
- FLL reduced from a max of daily to 2x weekly (days 16)
- YYZ reduced to 3x on day 6 (believe it was 4x in 2025)
- YVR reduced from 14x to 11x weekly
- YWG increased to 13x weekly (2x daily X6 at 1x)
- CUN added on days 256
- YLW initially added 5x weekly, now at 6x weekly (ops X1)
- YDF added 5x weekly

Net jet change: +7x weekly

Prop routes:
- YTZ reduced by about 12x weekly
- YQM reduced by 1x daily
- YYG reduced by 1x daily
- YQT reduced by 1x daily
- YQG added daily
- YSB added daily

Net prop change: -19x weekly

So as things currently stand, PD’s total YOW summertime capacity is approximately -1,116 seats/week.

[RomanR27]

Nice to see another E2 route! Given the large bank of west coast morning departures that return to YOW in the late afternoon and early evening, these evening east coast departures with the early morning return to YOW are a nice way to add capacity without needing more frames. YLW going to 6x already is a good sign. The YDF addition doesn't need an extra frame to operate, but the YLW addition is either going to replace something else, or is a sign that there may be more to come. The lack of a Friday turn on YLW seemed to correspond with the YOW-MCO-YOW-CUN-YOW turn. That turn, as well as the morning YWG, YEG, YYC, YVR and YYJ flights all remain at this point.

Looking at the Friday departure count in peak summer, since this post at 93 we have had +YSB, +YQG, +2 YYC on WS, -2 YVR (-1x AC, -1x WS) and now additions of YDF and YLW on Friday, bringing us to a benchmark of 97 if my math is correct.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Nice to see another E2 route! Given the large bank of west coast morning departures that return to YOW in the late afternoon and early evening, these evening east coast departures with the early morning return to YOW are a nice way to add capacity without needing more frames. YLW going to 6x already is a good sign. The YDF addition doesn't need an extra frame to operate, but the YLW addition is either going to replace something else, or is a sign that there may be more to come. The lack of a Friday turn on YLW seemed to correspond with the YOW-MCO-YOW-CUN-YOW turn. That turn, as well as the morning YWG, YEG, YYC, YVR and YYJ flights all remain at this point.

Looking at the Friday departure count in peak summer, since this post at 93 we have had +YSB, +YQG, +2 YYC on WS, -2 YVR (-1x AC, -1x WS) and now additions of YDF and YLW on Friday, bringing us to a benchmark of 97 if my math is correct.

Does that 97 factor in PD’s reductions to YTZ, YQM and YYG essentially cancelling out AC’s additions to YTZ, YFC & YQM? What about the 4th daily UA to IAD? That one is cancelled out by the removal of the second daily YQT.

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Does that 97 factor in PD’s reductions to YTZ, YQM and YYG essentially cancelling out AC’s additions to YTZ, YFC & YQM? What about the 4th daily UA to IAD? That one is cancelled out by the removal of the second daily YQT.

All that was already loaded in - there's a breakdown in the original linked post. Although to your point, I'm surprised the benchmark is that high given we never cracked 90 last summer and a lot of stuff has felt zero sum. I'll have to find a breakdown from last summer and compare where the additions come from.

AC889 was 15/20 J and 16/21 PY. AC888 was 12/20 J and 18/21 PY.

[MountainView]

Was looking ahead for a potential trip I need to make to YYT and Porter is showing 2x daily on some of the days. I was looking July 7-9, and on July 9 there is:
YYT - YOW
06:05 - 07:38 PD296
13:45 - 15:18 PD298

On the 7th there was just the regular 20:45 dep from YOW, but quickly looking looks like on the 6th there is 2x YOW-YYT.

Maybe a few of your smarter schedule folks want to take a look!
Cheers

[MountainView]

I ran my script to get the Porter schedule July 8 and July 15. It's a Wednesday...which maybe wasn't the best choice as I see some flights do not operate (MCO, FLL, CUN, and the YDF to YOW, also only 1x YVR). All data from Porter's website.

I feel like I missed a city pair or something. Please point out if I am missing something.

July 8 departure from YOW:



July 15 arrival into YOW:

[RomanR27]

Nice, appears YYT is indeed up to 11x weekly. Really surprised that wasn't included in the YDF press release. Nicer timings for O&D traffic for sure.

I believe the YWG flight was originally 12x weekly too, but as Dominion301 noted above it's now 13x weekly, with second flight ops x6. I also see YYC is up to double daily (originally was 13x weekly - second flight was x6).

PD297 YOW 0845 1250 YYT x256
PD298 YYT 1345 1518 YOW x256

So YWG morning flight added day 2, YYT flight added days 1347, YLW added day 5, and YYC added day 6 accounts for another fin's worth of flying.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Nice, appears YYT is indeed up to 11x weekly. Really surprised that wasn't included in the YDF press release. Nicer timings for O&D traffic for sure.

I believe the YWG flight was originally 12x weekly too, but as Dominion301 noted above it's now 13x weekly, with second flight ops x6. I also see YYC is up to double daily (originally was 13x weekly - second flight was x6).

PD297 YOW 0845 1250 YYT x256
PD298 YYT 1345 1518 YOW x256

So YWG morning flight added day 2, YYT flight added days 1347, YLW added day 5, and YYC added day 6 accounts for another fin's worth of flying.

Yes!
It's great for O&D.

I went to YYT last June and purposely booked via YHZ because I didn't want to land at 00:45 and have to be at a function for 08:30.

The YYT departure at 06:00 I also did not take/like as an O&D customer.

[BanjoUnchained]

Looks like WestJet is making some adjustments to it's (summer?) schedule. WS614 from Calgary and WS609 to Calgary seem to have disappeared.

[MountainView]

Adding... I find it strange there is no YYC departure in the evening from YOW in July.

I'll be going there in the first week of March via Porter.

[RomanR27]

It still looks like 33x weekly at peak summer with 5x flights on weekdays (including an evening departure at 2015 - WS619). There is no evening flight on the weekend.

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by MountainView

Adding... I find it strange there is no YYC departure in the evening from YOW in July.

I'll be going there in the first week of March via Porter.

I said this regarding Porter.
Adding this as an Edit.