Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

[casper]

Originally Posted by lubicon

YYC has a couple of liquor stores in the terminal too (besides the duty free). One on the domestic departures level and one on arrivals.

They domestic one on the Air Canada does sell to domestic passenger. Signs comparing the street price in Calgary with Vancouver, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto etc. Last change to buy before leaving low tax Alberta. (Not certain how true that statement is).

Frankfurt has a nice small grocery store in the pathway to the parking complex. Has wine and spirits plus all the things you expect from a grocery store. Lots of airline employees in the lineup.

[kattiff]

the Lc is being replaced by a new bar.

in December Delta is reducing its sked going down to 3 flights. one day literally has one departure and that's it.

and apparently Wow Air out of Iceland is wanting to fly to YWG we shall see

[MalcolmTucker]

Iceland makes a lot of sense. They need to speed up their terminal expansion though, or Wow will need to operate outside of the two Iceland air waves that pack the place to capacity now.

[esquire]

I guess that explains the DL upgauging...making up for reduced frequency.

[jmt18325]

It makes sense for Delta to do that, as they're cutting down a lot on 50 seat jets. There will be really almost none left at that point.

[RepomanYWG]

The Delta situation is weird as I was chatting with a Delta employee and she was telling my that they are overbooked 7-8 people on EVERY flight. I guess it all comes down to $$. If they can make more operating another route in the US vs flying into YWG, I guess that's what they will do.

Newleaf cancelled their first flight out of YWG (that I am aware of) yesterday going to YYJ. That has been one of their least popular destinations and will be changed to another YXX flight. Core routes until Dec 11 are YHM, YXX, and YEG.

[RepomanYWG]

Originally Posted by Pinus

September 2016 was a record month at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport, as passenger volume increased 15.5% compared to September 2015. This represents the second largest year-over-year increase and the highest in more than a decade.

That's a pretty impressive number. I find it pretty interesting that while passenger volume increased 15.5%, fuel volumes only increased 3% and flight #'s only increased by 1.5%. The weekly 767 had a LARGE impact on that number. Will be interesting to see the October numbers now that the 767 is no longer operating.

[jmt18325]

Also, Air Canada has a lot of A321s in the Schedule where there used to be a lot of E190s here. I also see that Westjet has been using more 738s.

It would be really nice if the WAA would put out the numbers for the quarter.

[CoryB]

On the airport tour this weekend a couple interesting details:

The baggage system, at peak times, is being run close to capacity and they are working on some upgrades.

The demand for overnight plane parking is currently exceeding supply and they have plans to expand it.

The expansion plans for the increased plane parking mean the location of the new aviation museum has changed and it will no longer be where the old terminal was but it will still be part of the airport campus. The specific location was not shared.

They are also working on changes to the baggage screening process to harmonize standards between Canada and the US. This is more a multi-national thing than anything YWG specific however YWG is well positioned to make the changes to their systems when they occur.

There is also a plan in place to upgrade the tugs used for luggage carts to electrical powered ones in the near future.

[esquire]

^ Good to hear re: the Aviation Museum. Seems short-sighted to put it so close to the terminal considering how much space there is for it nearby where it would be unlikely to interfere with airport operations and growth.

[CoryB]

^^ Sort of wondering if the aviation museum might move to the west side of the airport campus, ie on Sturgeon. It is a mostly undeveloped area so not taking away from other uses. A location like that would also give the museum better visibility. Pretty sure the museum needs to also maintain its limited access to the runways for they can bring in new planes as acquired or on loan.

[Pinus]

Originally Posted by CoryB

On the airport tour this weekend a couple interesting details:

The baggage system, at peak times, is being run close to capacity and they are working on some upgrades.

The demand for overnight plane parking is currently exceeding supply and they have plans to expand it.

The expansion plans for the increased plane parking mean the location of the new aviation museum has changed and it will no longer be where the old terminal was but it will still be part of the airport campus. The specific location was not shared.

They are also working on changes to the baggage screening process to harmonize standards between Canada and the US. This is more a multi-national thing than anything YWG specific however YWG is well positioned to make the changes to their systems when they occur.

There is also a plan in place to upgrade the tugs used for luggage carts to electrical powered ones in the near future.

Good stuff. Any indication on if/when a potential expansion of the terminal may take place?

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Pinus

Good stuff. Any indication on if/when a potential expansion of the terminal may take place?

The senior YWG staff leading my tour talked about expanding parking for planes, moving the museum and increasing the capacity of the baggage system which hint towards upward trending passenger traffic but said nothing about expanding the terminal. They also mentioned traffic being in two waves currently, morning and evening. Reading a little between the lines I think the plan would be to work on increasing the mid-day traffic before increasing the size of the terminal.

One other take-away I thought was interesting is that planes coming from communities without pre-screening such as Churchill have a dedicated gate and hallway in the terminal. If you enter on the arrivals area it is in the back left corner near the luggage carousels. Before seeing that I had no idea it even existed.

[Pinus]

Originally Posted by RepomanYWG

The Delta situation is weird as I was chatting with a Delta employee and she was telling my that they are overbooked 7-8 people on EVERY flight. I guess it all comes down to $$. If they can make more operating another route in the US vs flying into YWG, I guess that's what they will do.

Newleaf cancelled their first flight out of YWG (that I am aware of) yesterday going to YYJ. That has been one of their least popular destinations and will be changed to another YXX flight. Core routes until Dec 11 are YHM, YXX, and YEG.[/QUOTE

I would have thought that Victoria would have been a popular destination during the winter? Was Kelowna an unpopular destination as well from Winnipeg?

Also curious to know if you have inside info from airlines and YWG.

[RepomanYWG]

Originally Posted by CoryB

One other take-away I thought was interesting is that planes coming from communities without pre-screening such as Churchill have a dedicated gate and hallway in the terminal. If you enter on the arrivals area it is in the back left corner near the luggage carousels. Before seeing that I had no idea it even existed.

That's basically for planes that are not being bridged. No real reason to walk off the plane, go back up escalators/elevator to the departures level, and then back down again to arrivals level. This way they can just walk right to the baggage area.

[RepomanYWG]

Originally Posted by Pinus

I would have thought that Victoria would have been a popular destination during the winter? Was Kelowna an unpopular destination as well from Winnipeg?

Also curious to know if you have inside info from airlines and YWG.

Seems like for us Abbotsford is picking up the Victoria slack.
Their "core" schedule until Dec 11 for YWG is YHM and YEG on Sunday, YXX and YHM on Monday, YXX on Wednesday, YEG on Thursday, and YXX and YHM on Friday. No flights on Tuesday or Saturday.

[jmt18325]

I missed this news release from the WAA:

http://www.waa.ca/media/news/article...ults-unaudited

Traffic being up 10.6% for Q3 means that there was roughly 100K more people that went through the airport than the same period last year. New Leaf has definitely made a big impact. I'm anxious for them to post the actual numbers.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by RepomanYWG

That's basically for planes that are not being bridged. No real reason to walk off the plane, go back up escalators/elevator to the departures level, and then back down again to arrivals level. This way they can just walk right to the baggage area.

No, the airport staff specifically said the arrivals level walkway was for flights coming from communities without pre-boarding screening of passengers. The reason you want those streamed separately from the departures level is everyone on the level has passed security screening. As you were coming in a flight that was not being bridged but had been screened you could go up to the departures level from the tarmac and not need to pass through screening again. Not knowing where passengers are going they would stream everyone that way.

Originally Posted by jmt18325

I missed this news release from the WAA:

http://www.waa.ca/media/news/article...ults-unaudited

Traffic being up 10.6% for Q3 means that there was roughly 100K more people that went through the airport than the same period last year. New Leaf has definitely made a big impact. I'm anxious for them to post the actual numbers.

I think it is not just New Leaf that is pushing the passenger counts up but the WestJet flights to London seem to be pushing numbers up. I was reading elsewhere that YWG was seeing additional passenger traffic in/out for people connecting to the London flight. Somewhat interesting WestJet does not have a 767 route to a sun destination scheduled out of YWG for the winter.

[MalcolmTucker]

YWG-Hawaii is a seriously long stage. Nearly twice as long as Cancun. As for service to the south, sun season general has lower domestic demand so the fleet just redeploys.

[jmt18325]

Honolulu is only 100 miles closer than London, so yeah.