Atlantic Canada airport thread

[MonctonRad]

This following info is from the Canada section airport thread.

Westjet is adding the following routes this summer (presumably seasonal).

Moncton/Calgary 3x weekly
Edmonton/Charlottetown 1x weekly

[stephan.richard]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

This following info is from the Canada section airport thread.

Westjet is adding the following routes this summer (presumably seasonal).

Moncton/Calgary 3x weekly
Edmonton/Charlottetown 1x weekly

Will this be mainline or swoop if it’s mainline it will ease connectivity into westjets network.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by stephan.richard

Will this be mainline or swoop if it’s mainline it will ease connectivity into westjets network.

It will be WestJet mainline.

The question is "will we see the return of Swoop service to Edmonton this summer?"

The future of Swoop is very much up in the air. WestJet is purchasing SunWing, and is likely to combine these two brands into a single service focussed on leisure air travel using an ULCC model. How and where they will fly is yet to be determined.

[People_talking]

Beyond hyped for the Calgary Moncton Connection!

I commute back and forth about twice a month so no more connecting in pearson lol!

[MonctonRad]

In response to a query I left on the Canada airport thread, I got this response:

Originally Posted by TheGreatestX

WestJet will be operating YEG-YQM twice weekly.

So YQM will see 3x weekly WestJet flights to Calgary and 2x weekly WestJet flights to Edmonton this summer.

The WestJet retreat to their western Canadian roots is paradoxically going to result in spectacularly improved service from Moncton to western Canada, cutting out the Toronto middleman.

[homebody]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

In response to a query I left on the Canada airport thread, I got this response:



So YQM will see 3x weekly WestJet flights to Calgary and 2x weekly WestJet flights to Edmonton this summer.

The WestJet retreat to their western Canadian roots is paradoxically going to result in spectacularly improved service from Moncton to western Canada, cutting out the Toronto middleman.

Sorry for busting one’s bubble and by no means is it jab at Moncton I hate to say that it will not last but it probably won’t. Realistically how many people in those two cities have an overall desire to travel to Moncton or New Brunswick for that matter. There is no real draw going or coming to warrant 5 flights a week to Alberta. Not to mention You have flights to Halifax and Charlottetown as well. Now the market is saturated with flights to Alberta.

[MonctonRad]

Well, Swoop (WestJet affiliate) operated Moncton/Edmonton 3x weekly last year, so they must have some idea what the market will bear.

Also, WestJet has reduced capacity on their Moncton/Toronto route, and have made a conscious decision to make Calgary their principle hub, so in some sense, the new Moncton/Calgary service is a bit of a replacement for the lost capacity on the Moncton/Toronto route.

Calgary might seem like a strange hub for New Brunswickers, but there are a lot of Maritimers in southern Alberta (or making connections to Fort Mac), and, if your ultimate destination is in the western US (California, Vegas, Arizona, Hawaii), then Calgary makes just as much sense as a hub as Toronto does.

I guess only time will let us know if this is a good business decision or not.

[lirette]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Well, Swoop (WestJet affiliate) operated Moncton/Edmonton 3x weekly last year, so they must have some idea what the market will bear.

Also, WestJet has reduced capacity on their Moncton/Toronto route, and have made a conscious decision to make Calgary their principle hub, so in some sense, the new Moncton/Calgary service is a bit of a replacement for the lost capacity on the Moncton/Toronto route.

Calgary might seem like a strange hub for New Brunswickers, but there are a lot of Maritimers in southern Alberta (or making connections to Fort Mac), and, if your ultimate destination is in the western US (California, Vegas, Arizona, Hawaii), then Calgary makes just as much sense as a hub as Toronto does.

I guess only time will let us know if this is a good business decision or not.

It's also nice for connections to BC. I'm hoping this is still around next time I plan to visit Vancouver Island because it will remove one connection. Moncton > Calgary > Victoria sounds a lot better to me. Anything to get us out of his montreal or toronto connection pit of despair is good news in my books.

[theshark]

Westjet will be offering Moncton -Edmonton 2 times weekly

[MonctonRad]

From the Canada section. A link to the official WestJet announcement confirming

- Calgary/Moncton 3x weekly
- Edmonton/Moncton 2x weekly
- Edmonton/Charlottetown 1x weekly

Originally Posted by hollywoodcory

WS presser is out. Interestingly it does not mention YXE-MSP (unless its being held for its own press release).

https://westjet.mediaroom.com/2023-0...y-takes-flight

[MonctonRad]

Also from the Canada section:

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Porter have just announced their newest destination - Charlottetown!

PD will be launching seasonal daily YYG-YOW service on May 17th until October on the DH4. Interestingly unlike YFC, YQM and YHZ, the YYG service will not be a thru to YTZ but will offer connections over YOW to/from YTZ, YYZ & YQT.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/p ... 73000.html

[MonctonRad]

flightconnections.com has updated the routes available to fly out of Moncton, since the addition of Calgary and Edmonton to the schedule:



Not too bad, but we still sorely lack a regularly scheduled route to either NYC or Boston. There are also no European routes on the schedule, but I remain hopeful that some day there might be a seasonal service of some kind to Paris (Acadian connection).

It should be noted that the flight to Mont Joli is actually a one stop direct to Wabush NL. Similarly, the flight to Deer Lake is actually a one stop to St. John's NL.

[MonctonRad]

St. Hubert Airport (YHU) in suburban Montreal is getting a new passenger terminal and will be served by Porter and Pascan.



This may in fact be the principle Porter hub for Montreal.

Terminal overview

- Modern design aesthetic, featuring natural light and high-quality materials
- 21,000 sq. m. (225,000 sq. ft.)
- 9 bridged aircraft gates
- Lounge-style seating for all passengers
- Food and beverage concessions, and retail vendors
- A Net-Zero facility with all building systems to fully operate on electric power
- State-of-the-art passenger and baggage processing, and security installations

I wonder if this means we might start seeing Porter jet service to YHU from Maritime cities like Fredericton, Moncton, Halifax and Charlottetown. If this becomes a Porter hub, this could become another connector point for flights to western Canada and to the USA. This is a potentially exciting development for travellers interested in avoiding congestion at Montreal-Trudeau.

[Nashe]

I love flying Porter. Great service, and they have bailed me out a few times when AC dropped the ball. (As they often do) If they can just get a few more locations (US / South would be nice) I'd use them a lot more often.

Just last week my final-leg AC flight from YUL to YQM got delayed 3x before finally being cancelled due to crew beyond shift window. AC put us up overnight and gave us food vouchers, but failed to follow up and let us know about any alternate booking (they promised an email overnight). We just booked Porter right away and were home the next day mid-afternoon... if we'd stuck with AC we'd have likely gotten stuck in YUL or YYZ for the storm that was coming.

[MonctonRad]

Another nugget regarding the YHU (St. Hubert) expansion by Porter:

https://news.paxeditions.com/news/ai...ng-new-service

More than 10 potential YHU routes have been initially identified, spanning from Vancouver to St. John’s, N.L., the airline says.

The airline also intends to connect YHU with both of its Toronto hubs - Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (YTZ) and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ).

Routes will be served with a combination of 78-seat De Havilland Dash 8-400 and 132-seat Embraer E195-E2 aircraft.

Again, I would not be surprised to see at least one NB route to YHU from NB.

[magee_b]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

St. Hubert Airport (YHU) in suburban Montreal is getting a new passenger terminal and will be served by Porter and Pascan.



This may in fact be the principle Porter hub for Montreal.



I wonder if this means we might start seeing Porter jet service to YHU from Maritime cities like Fredericton, Moncton, Halifax and Charlottetown. If this becomes a Porter hub, this could become another connector point for flights to western Canada and to the USA. This is a potentially exciting development for travellers interested in avoiding congestion at Montreal-Trudeau.

I read that the group which runs YUL has exclusive rights to be the sole commercial international operator for Montreal. So there would be no international flights from YHU unless they were “charters”.

[Taeolas]

It would be a tough fight, but if Porter (which probably didn't even exist when the exclusivity agreements were made) and/or YHU wanted to add US or International services, then they could probably work out something to make it happen.

But it's likely a long term plan for Porter at this stage; they'll see how YHU works out as an eastern hub serving atlantic/eastern Canada and expand from there in the years to come as the business develops.

[DyAm00394]

Federal Transport Minister Wants More Collaboration Between N.B. Airports

https://huddle.today/2023/02/28/fede...-n-b-airports/

"Omar Alghabra made the comments during a speech to local business leaders hosted by the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce on February 28.

The address, which sounded suspiciously like a stump speech, listed a number of significant investments the federal government has made to the region, including $195 million in Saint John and Rothesay in 2022.

Alghabra followed his speech with an announcement of approximately $10 million for the city for investments in the remaining two phases of the Harbour Bridge Rehabilitation Project and an upgrade for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to inspect cargo arriving at Port Saint John.

Although his focus was on government investments, the question and answer session afterward was dominated by the fate of the provinces’ airports and the state of the airline industry, which has suffered significant service readjustments post-Covid-19.

More collaboration between regional airports
Alghabra drew smiles when he answered a simple “yes” to the question of Transport Canada’s support of a collaborative New Brunswick aviation strategy between Fredericton, Saint John, and Moncton airport authorities.

When asked what measures he’s taking to give the Canadian Transportation Agency additional strength to enforce penalties and provide compensation to passengers who are impacted by travel service disruptions, Alghabra claimed the issue would be addressed in Parliament soon.

He said the government will table this spring a new proposal to overhaul and strengthen the Passenger Bill of Rights “to ensure that airlines are encouraged to uphold customers’ rights and incentivize them to deal with complaints a lot faster than having customers go to the Canadian Transportation Agency.”

He said some of last year’s travel woes can be attributed to the imbalance between the sudden surge in demand for flights following Covid-19 and the airline industry scrambling to all the people laid off during the pandemic. He added that last year’s experiences revealed vulnerabilities in the system.

“We are, as a government and as Transport Canada, working on fundamentally overhauling the system, including overhauling the Passenger Bill of Rights, including providing the Canadian Transportation Agency with more tools, authorities and powers, so they are able to investigate and ensure that customer’s rights are protected.”

The question comes as Toronto’s Pearson Airport announced it was limiting the number of flights during peaks such as the upcoming March break travel season.

When asked about the return to normal airport service by major carriers, the minister said that “while parts of the country are experiencing significant return to pre-pandemic travel volumes, many in the regional airports have not yet gotten there. And we’re seeing airlines focus on the busiest routes rather than the regional routes and this is something that is a concern of mine. In every meeting I have with major airlines I stress the importance of the return to connectivity for many regional communities that their economies depend on, and essential travel depend on.”

Regional connectivity still weak
Alghabra also said pandemic loans to airlines did have conditions to maintain regional connectivity.

“And that’s why many airports had a regularly scheduled flight and perhaps not the same scheduled flights that they had pre-pandemic, they had a minimum one or two a week… it’s because we requested it as part of the package that we provided to airlines.”

“Air Canada has paid back its loans and right now they don’t have an obligation. So, right now we are looking at what else can we do as a government,” including a recent meeting with New Brunswick’s Transport Minister Jeff Carr about the issue.

Alghabra said they discussed what the government can do to create incentives or a “welcoming environment” for airlines to come to regional airports.

He acknowledged that the airline sector is going through a challenging period from both a reputational and operational standpoint, but that he’s seeing a “light at the end of the tunnel” which is a lot more competition than has been seen in the space in a while, with existing airlines reinvesting and new entrants making their way into the market like Jetlines Canada.

When asked if airport rents could be lowered, or be completely reinvested back into airports, rather than only 60 percent of the money, Alghabra noted that last fall’s Supply Chain Task Force report recommended that half of airport rent payments be waived short-term, to reserve that money for reinvestment in infrastructure.

He agreed that airports didn’t make much money during covid due to travel restrictions, and that the government was considering this recommendation.

He acknowledged that having a reliable, functioning airport system is fundamental for economic stability and supply chain strength".

Another thing to mention: Telegraph Journal posted a new article today talking about the Transport Minister saying he is keeping an eye on the Saint John Airport's new development/expansion plans for a logistics park and more.

[habs33]

WestJet officially cancels flights between Moncton and Toronto starting in May

Travellers looking to head to Toronto from Moncton, N.B., have one less option at the airport with WestJet confirming that as of April 30, it will no longer fly between Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport and Toronto Pearson Airport.

Officials with WestJet say the company is going in a new strategic direction and as a result, encore services between the two cities will be completely removed from their schedule.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by habs33

WestJet officially cancels flights between Moncton and Toronto starting in May

I knew this was coming. It's not just Moncton. WestJet has essentially abandoned intercity air travel in eastern Canada. There will now only be 1x daily service between Toronto Pearson and Halifax, Ottawa and I think Montreal. It's just insane!

The new strategy is a western Canadian one, and the only WestJet flights out of Moncton will be seasonal ones to Edmonton and Calgary (bypassing Toronto). I am assuming we will be keeping the Swoop flights to Hamilton.

I wonder if Air Canada or Porter will step in to replace the lost capacity to Pearson. I fully expect Porter jet service to Pearson out of Moncton at some point in the near future.