Originally Posted by
CZBB
If you're including surrounding markets, I think it's fair to include YXX, given its proximity. YCD, YQQ, YKA don't have service to LAS. YLW, SEA & YYJ are all 4 hours away (a different beast altogether).
From my house and I'm pretty typical, it's about 30 minutes further to BLI vs YVR, factor in time to park, and you're down to a 10 min difference. And, if you live in Surrey (the 2nd largest city in BC), BLI is no further than YVR, so I really do think it's fair to consider BLI as a Vancouver metro area airport. I would say that approx 2/3 of the cars parked at BLI airport have BC plates. They don't do it anymore, but G4 actually used to list BLI as "Bellingham/Vancouver"
OK, just back from a G4 BLI-LAS-BLI trip; and 2/3 of the parking lot at BLI has BC plates, which confirms to me that BLI is just another Vancouver airport.
Reflections on flying through BLI vs YVR on G4
1) Parking is pretty expensive for a small airport US$9/day
2) checkin was pretty normal, no kiosks though.
3) crossing the border southbound, no NEXUS on a Friday 5pm took 45 min (northbound on a Monday night, it was instant).
4) drive time from home to BLI (excluding border) was just shy of an hour
G4 had three MD83s sitting at BLI when we boarded; and now serve 6 destinations out of BLI (LAS,PSP,LAX,AZA,OAK,SAN). This has gone from a bit player, to being one of the larger Vancouver/Western USA carriers.
If the Canadian airlines don't want to see a bigger portion of their business get skimmed off by discount carriers like G4 operating just south of the border, something is going to have to give on the differences in taxation and funding of air travel in Canada.