Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

[Calfan12]

WestJet announces direct flights between Winnipeg and Los Angeles. Manitobans will soon be able to catch a direct flight from Winnipeg to the City of Angels.

WestJet is creating a new route to Los Angeles starting Oct. 31 that will operate three times a week all year, the airline said in a news release Wednesday.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...eles-1.6553777

It’s nice that Winnipeg YWG is a getting a new few times weekly flights to Los Angeles LAX.

But WestJet Calgary YYC & Vancouver YVR - Los Angeles LAX flights likely won’t be effected by it that much.

Although Edmonton YEG- Los Angeles route on WS might be (if) YWG - Los Angeles LAX route has demand, as YEG- LAX market is smaller compared to YYC / YVR to LAX are larger.

[cheswick]

Good news for the local film industry. They’ve said a direct LA flight would help bolster production in the area.

[CoryB]

I would like to thank Netflix and Justin Trudeau for making the direct YWG-LAX flight happen.

The massive new soundstage Netflix is building on Inkster and the relatively low Canadian dollar makes Winnipeg an ideal market for Netflix to churn out B grade content with lesser or unknown talent on screen. That the on screen talent pool is a step down is fine as it is the behind the camera jobs that matter more locally.

[USA]

Great news on YWG-LAX. All the news stories are stating WJ will have 22 non-stops from Winnipeg this winter. Right now my count is 17 with the most recent announcements - 5 more non-stops to be announced soon?

[BariasEC]

Looks like Westjets new strategic direction is bearing fruits.
As anticipated, very beneficial to western Canadian airports.

Air Canada’s absolute control of central/eastern airports and their obvious favouritism for AC finally led to this shift.

The better connected we are in the west, the less we need to connect through the chaos at YYZ or YUL…

Would love to see Winnipeg connecting western Canada to Europe directly.

[pspeid]

Another flight option Winnipeg to Toronto:

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/08/...z_Mv3WZds-4_MY

[(sub)urban]

Originally Posted by USA

Great news on YWG-LAX. All the news stories are stating WJ will have 22 non-stops from Winnipeg this winter. Right now my count is 17 with the most recent announcements - 5 more non-stops to be announced soon?

By my count we've got:

1. Calgary
2. Edmonton
3. Vancouver
4. Regina
5. Saskatoon
6. Ottawa
7. Thunder Bay
8. Toronto
9. Halifax
10. Las Vegas
11. Los Angeles
12. Orlando
13. Phoenix
14. Montego Bay
15. Cancun
16. Puerto Vallarta

If you include Swoop's additional 6 non-stop routes, you get 22 though:

1. Orlando (Sanford)
2. Phoenix (Mesa)
3. Hamilton
4. Abbotsford
5. Kelowna
6. Ottawa

I imagine that's what they're meaning although it would be cool if WestJet came out and announced another 6 routes.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by (sub)urban

By my count we've got:

1. Calgary
2. Edmonton
3. Vancouver
4. Regina
5. Saskatoon
6. Ottawa
7. Thunder Bay
8. Toronto
9. Halifax
10. Las Vegas
11. Los Angeles
12. Orlando
13. Phoenix
14. Montego Bay
15. Cancun
16. Puerto Vallarta

If you include Swoop's additional 6 non-stop routes, you get 22 though:

1. Orlando (Sanford)
2. Phoenix (Mesa)
3. Hamilton
4. Abbotsford
5. Kelowna
6. Ottawa

I imagine that's what they're meaning although it would be cool if WestJet came out and announced another 6 routes.

Surprising to me that MSP and ORD aren't on those lists. MSP would allow for a lot of codeshares through Delta (already a WJ partner). ORD would just add a bunch of connections though I guess AA is no longer a partner with WJ

[esquire]

MSP is already covered by Delta which is a popular choice with US businesspeople headed here. I wouldn't expect WS to start competing on that route.

WS seems mainly focused on high volume leisure-oriented US destinations, as compared to AC which tends to cater to business travelers. So to that extent I would not expect WS to fly to MSP/ORD unless they decide to change their strategy. You will probably see more southern destinations before that happens. At least that's my guess.

[thebasketballgeek]

With all the talk and news about international flights to Winnipeg I still believe we can be far more capable of handling international travel and should seriously consider getting a few more connections using our sister cities. I mean let's take a look at the sister cities we have and their respective international airports.

• Beersheba, Israel: Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) which is 90 km away
• Chengdu, China: Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)
• Jinju, South Korea: Gimhae International Airport (PUS) which is 70 km away
• Kuopio, Finland: Lappeenranta Airport (LPP) 274 km away. Helsinki airport is 386 km.
• Lviv, Ukraine: Unfortunately not possible for the forseeable future.
• Manila, Phillipines: Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MLN)
• Minneapolis: Already covered.
• Reykjavík, Iceland: Keflavík Airport (KEF)
• San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico: Monterrey International Airport (MTY) 30 km away.
• Setagaya, Tokyo: Haneda Airport (HND) 23 km away from Setagaya Station.
• Taichung, Taiwan: Taichung International Airport (RMQ)

Immediately Beersheba, Jinju, Kuopio, and Lviv are eliminated due to distance from airport and external factors. This leaves us with the following cities and sorted by region population.

Setagaya (Tokyo)
Manila
Chengdu
San Nicolas de Los Garza (Monterrey)
Taichhung
Reykjavik

I believe this city and airport are capable of supporting the rest of the flights. Especially the Manila, Monterrey, and Reykjavik connections.

The most challenging one to get would obviously be Tokyo. However, one thing to note is that Canada doesn't have a direct flight to the Handeda Airport as both Vancouver and Toronto's flights go to Narita. Setagaya is also the largest ward in Tokyo, so it's definitely not the worst ward to be a sister city with. Still speaking realistically I give this a 1% chance to ever happen lol.

Chengdu is interesting because most people don't even know of its existence despite having a population of 16 million people. For a city of its size it is sorely lacking international flight connections. This is definitely selection bias, but there are a surprising number of U of M students I know that are from Chengdu and the Sichuan province. It's definitely worth the try to obtain a direct flight to China. Chengdu also feels similar to Winnipeg in a way that its an isolated market far away from other major Chinese cities.

Finally for Taichung I mean it's Taiwan's second most important city, and in terms of international flights the city focuses predominantly on Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan. The city has no North American flights, so why not have a flight as close to the centre of North America as possible /s.

If Winnipeg were to even get 3 of these (especially Manila) it would be monumental to the cities standing as a major player in the Canadian aviation context.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by BariasEC

Would love to see Winnipeg connecting western Canada to Europe directly.

I think it was summer of 2019 WestJet was running YWG-Gatwick flights. I think the lack higher paying travelers and the move from the older 767 planes to new 787 planes forced the shift to have those flights out of YYC. The 787 fleet is used on domestic and perhaps US routes out of YYC so it makes sense to focus maintenance operations out of there.

Originally Posted by esquire

MSP is already covered by Delta which is a popular choice with US businesspeople headed here. I wouldn't expect WS to start competing on that route.

WS seems mainly focused on high volume leisure-oriented US destinations, as compared to AC which tends to cater to business travelers. So to that extent I would not expect WS to fly to MSP/ORD unless they decide to change their strategy. You will probably see more southern destinations before that happens. At least that's my guess.

Something to keep in mind is Delta is really limited by their pilots union on how many smaller planes/routes they can operate. YWG-MSP would fall into that category. If Delta could strike a deal with WS to have it take over that route with its Dash-8 fleet. They could offer higher route frequency and still let people connect on to other Delta flights from MSP including to Europe.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Something to keep in mind is Delta is really limited by their pilots union on how many smaller planes/routes they can operate. YWG-MSP would fall into that category. If Delta could strike a deal with WS to have it take over that route with its Dash-8 fleet. They could offer higher route frequency and still let people connect on to other Delta flights from MSP including to Europe.

The big draw for Delta is the US domestic connections from YWG, hence the early morning flight from YWG. Europe doesn't work so well, because one can't transit the US without clearing customs twice on the journey (transit without visa is not a thing there), nor is MSP a huge international hub in Delta's network.

[esquire]

^ My impression is that US businesspeople coming to Winnipeg (but also other locales in MB/SK) are DL's bread and butter on that route. Now more than ever given that UA no longer comes here. But they do a decent amount of leisure travel from YWG, I've taken that flight and seen numerous local families headed south on vacation, etc., and people do take onward connections to Europe given that DL often has very competitive prices relative to AC. There is still a decent range of international flights from MSP on DL.

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

With all the talk and news about international flights to Winnipeg I still believe we can be far more capable of handling international travel and should seriously consider getting a few more connections using our sister cities. I mean let's take a look at the sister cities we have and their respective international airports.

• Beersheba, Israel: Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) which is 90 km away
• Chengdu, China: Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)
• Jinju, South Korea: Gimhae International Airport (PUS) which is 70 km away
• Kuopio, Finland: Lappeenranta Airport (LPP) 274 km away. Helsinki airport is 386 km.
• Lviv, Ukraine: Unfortunately not possible for the forseeable future.
• Manila, Phillipines: Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MLN)
• Minneapolis: Already covered.
• Reykjavík, Iceland: Keflavík Airport (KEF)
• San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico: Monterrey International Airport (MTY) 30 km away.
• Setagaya, Tokyo: Haneda Airport (HND) 23 km away from Setagaya Station.
• Taichung, Taiwan: Taichung International Airport (RMQ)

Immediately Beersheba, Jinju, Kuopio, and Lviv are eliminated due to distance from airport and external factors. This leaves us with the following cities and sorted by region population.

Setagaya (Tokyo)
Manila
Chengdu
San Nicolas de Los Garza (Monterrey)
Taichhung
Reykjavik

I believe this city and airport are capable of supporting the rest of the flights. Especially the Manila, Monterrey, and Reykjavik connections.

The most challenging one to get would obviously be Tokyo. However, one thing to note is that Canada doesn't have a direct flight to the Handeda Airport as both Vancouver and Toronto's flights go to Narita. Setagaya is also the largest ward in Tokyo, so it's definitely not the worst ward to be a sister city with. Still speaking realistically I give this a 1% chance to ever happen lol.

Chengdu is interesting because most people don't even know of its existence despite having a population of 16 million people. For a city of its size it is sorely lacking international flight connections. This is definitely selection bias, but there are a surprising number of U of M students I know that are from Chengdu and the Sichuan province. It's definitely worth the try to obtain a direct flight to China. Chengdu also feels similar to Winnipeg in a way that its an isolated market far away from other major Chinese cities.

Finally for Taichung I mean it's Taiwan's second most important city, and in terms of international flights the city focuses predominantly on Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan. The city has no North American flights, so why not have a flight as close to the centre of North America as possible /s.

If Winnipeg were to even get 3 of these (especially Manila) it would be monumental to the cities standing as a major player in the Canadian aviation context.

Chengdu CTU won't happen either as Sichuan Airlines CTU- Vancouver YVR route currently is still 1x weekly & going to 2x weekly in October, which is still limited.Plus (if) Sichuan Airlines were to add another route in Canada- Toronto YYZ, Montreal YUL or Calgary YYC would be on their list 1st.

China/Asia flights are for Winnipeg YWG is unlikely anytime soon,as since the pandemic Canada's 3rd /4th busiest airport Montreal YUL & Calgary YYC still doesn't have a China route resumptions yet/plus not much Asia flights either from both but with only a Air Canada YUL - Tokyo NRT , Japan route operating a few times weekly currently.

Until the China/Asia markets for YUL /YYC recovers more & along with YYZ & YVR back to daily frequencies. After that maybe.

A Seasonal Europe flight route from YWG is more likely.

[esquire]

Most of those sister cities aren't ones I'd expect to see with international connections to Canada. I think Reykjavik is the only place with a realistic shot, mainly as a way of funnelling leisure travellers to Europe on connecting flights. Manila is too far. None of the other ones seem at all realistic except of course Minneapolis, which has been operating as a route for nearly a century.

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by CoryB

I think it was summer of 2019 WestJet was running YWG-Gatwick flights. I think the lack higher paying travelers and the move from the older 767 planes to new 787 planes forced the shift to have those flights out of YYC. The 787 fleet is used on domestic and perhaps US routes out of YYC so it makes sense to focus maintenance operations out of there.



Something to keep in mind is Delta is really limited by their pilots union on how many smaller planes/routes they can operate. YWG-MSP would fall into that category. If Delta could strike a deal with WS to have it take over that route with its Dash-8 fleet. They could offer higher route frequency and still let people connect on to other Delta flights from MSP including to Europe.

No WestJet wasn't forced to shift 787 flights of Calgary YYC . They chose YYC as its was their main hub with the most WS flights in Canada year round & where they can fill 787 planes more with a lot of both connecting & O&D passengers.And plus WestJet's new wide-body maintenance hangar completed in 2019 can accommodate the 787 & along with 737 planes, which I agree does make sense to focus on maintenance operations at YYC . https://cana.ca/project-details/West...de-Body-Hangar

[LeftCoaster]

I'm fairly certain if WestJet had their choice they wouldn't be relegated to running their 787s from the (distant) 4th largest international gateway in Canada, so yes, safe to say they were forced to retrench into YYC.

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

I believe this city and airport are capable of supporting the rest of the flights. Especially the Manila, Monterrey, and Reykjavik connections.

The most challenging one to get would obviously be Tokyo. However, one thing to note is that Canada doesn't have a direct flight to the Handeda Airport as both Vancouver and Toronto's flights go to Narita. Setagaya is also the largest ward in Tokyo, so it's definitely not the worst ward to be a sister city with. Still speaking realistically I give this a 1% chance to ever happen lol.

I think Reykjavik is very attainable, if it weren't for covid I would not be surprised if they flied seasonal summer to YWG already. The rest are quite unlikely. Manila makes sense on the surface with the large Philippine pop in Manitoba, but it's only 4% longer to connect in YVR and its a notoriously price sensitive flight.

Also, just a note, YVR flies to both Narita and Haneda during normal times. ANA has shifted its YVR-HND flight to NRT for a short time because it is a better connecting airport and Japan is still mostly closed to foreigners, It is expected to shift back to HND next summer if Japan can properly open up, it was supposed to this winter but clearly the opening up has been slow.

Originally Posted by Calfan12

Chengdu CTU won't happen either as Sichuan Airlines CTU- Vancouver YVR route currently is still 1x weekly & going to 2x weekly in October, which is still limited. Plus (if) Sichuan Airlines were to add another route in Canada- Toronto YYZ, Montreal YUL or Calgary YYC would be on their list 1st.

Safe to say YYC or YUL are never getting a Chengdu flight. YYC couldn't even support 3 flights a week to Beijing and ACs YUL China flights are really just ACs relief hub to YYZ.

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

I'm fairly certain if WestJet had their choice they wouldn't be relegated to running their 787s from the (distant) 4th largest international gateway in Canada, so yes, safe to say they were forced to retrench into YYC.



I think Reykjavik is very attainable, if it weren't for covid I would not be surprised if they flied seasonal summer to YWG already. The rest are quite unlikely. Manila makes sense on the surface with the large Philippine pop in Manitoba, but it's only 4% longer to connect in YVR and its a notoriously price sensitive flight.

Also, just a note, YVR flies to both Narita and Haneda during normal times. ANA has shifted its YVR-HND flight to NRT for a short time because it is a better connecting airport and Japan is still mostly closed to foreigners, It is expected to shift back to HND next summer if Japan can properly open up, it was supposed to this winter but clearly the opening up has been slow.



Safe to say YYC or YUL are never getting a Chengdu flight. YYC couldn't even support 3 flights a week to Beijing and ACs YUL China flights are really just ACs relief hub to YYZ.

Actually Calgary YYC - Beijing PEK,China/ Asia nonstop flights a few times weekly is more likely to work for WestJet or Air Canada (if) it’s timed right for Connecting flights at both ends.

On Hainan Airlines YYC - PEK route just didn’t work out as it was mainly O&D passengers.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ My impression is that US businesspeople coming to Winnipeg (but also other locales in MB/SK) are DL's bread and butter on that route. Now more than ever given that UA no longer comes here. But they do a decent amount of leisure travel from YWG, I've taken that flight and seen numerous local families headed south on vacation, etc., and people do take onward connections to Europe given that DL often has very competitive prices relative to AC. There is still a decent range of international flights from MSP on DL.

That makes sense, now that you mention it.

The domestic airlines of each country are focused on domestic passengers.

I am still curious about how much European connecting is done from YWG to MSP given that one arrives at MSP at ~8-8:30am and the outbound Europe flights happen at 4pm or later for a red-eye flight. That's a long day. Starting one's journey in the afternoon from Winnipeg and connecting to Europe via Toronto/Montreal seems a little less painful from a layover point of view.

Inbound from Europe isn't so bad, as they're back by early to mid-afternoon and can connect to YWG on the evening flight.

I would be interested to see if Icelandair could make a MAX8 flight work via KEF, even if just seasonally. They fly the MAX8 to MSP, so the plane has the legs for it and the economics are better than the 757. From KEF, one can go anywhere in Europe pretty seamlessly. Alas, I probably shouldn't hold my breath for it until YEG gets service back.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by esquire

Manila is too far.

Manila - Winnipeg is about 12,000km great circle distance. It requires the longest-legged aircraft to run that route. So, that's a 787, 777, or A350. At that extreme range, one uses a lot of fuel just to haul all the fuel for the trip, so unless someone is paying the premium for that direct service (unlikely in the case of Manila), connecting in YVR saves untold tons of fuel, despite it only being ~1500km closer.

There's no business case for it.

My guess is that YWG will get KEF or some London service long before Manila. Maybe when the A321XLR comes online at Air Canada? Who knows.