Originally Posted by
HerpaYvr
Saskaboom is over
, I lived for three years in Saskatoon and now I live in Ottawa (Private not government). A lot of people drive the four to five hours to Calgary as there are more choices there and it’s a lot cheaper, usually. I have flown YXE-YOW and the plane, a CRA is never full. I am flying again YOW to YXE next week, and I am sure I will move up front.
Wesjet flies the 737 into YXE and I have counted the people coming off and I cant see how they ca make money on some of those flights with such a large plane as AC with only the CRJ from the west, CRA from YOW and 190/175 four times a day from YYZ and that is it. AC uses small planes for this market. Flights are not full. Back in 2007/2008 flights were full even with CRA from the west, very full, but no more.
UA flies a CRJ to Denver and a CRA to ORD, through Regina. Delta does the same thing going YXE-YQR-MSP. Tough enough on a CRJ to YEG or YXE, it almost killed me going to DEN and I have done that a few times. DEN flights are almost full as its cheaper than AC to mid US markets. When you think about it, a lot of traffic just small planes and less frequency.
Good thing I moved, no longer do I have to worry. Look on the bright side, it’s an extra segment and 500 AP no matter which city you go through!
I don't know if the boom is over exactly. I think there is more going on in the south than in Saskatoon and area right now. I don't know that anyone has ever done Saskatoon to Calgary in 4-5 hours as it is nearly 400 miles!
Both AC and Westjet have significantly increased the number of seats they bring into YQR over the last two years (new YEG, YVR, and YWG flights, for example). Some of that is seasonal but others remain year round, so we are up in numbers from 2007-08. United came into the YQR market with the DEN flights and was so happy with the numbers that they increased the number of flights. Same goes for YQR-MSP on Delta. Delta hasn't done YXE-YQR-MSP for quite sometime now. All flights seem to do well into YQR on the flight loads side. How yields are is unclear. A poster a page or two back notes that there aren't many business travellers on YQR flights. My experience is that on YYZ flights there are quite a few "suits", especially on Sunday/Monday and Friday flights, and that YYC and YEG flights have lots of people travelling on oil/gas related work (even with the slow down in AB). I am not usually a big SK booster, but unless the airlines are willing to lose money on their flights to YQR I don't see why they would increase the number of flights they have going in this market.
I think much of the disappointment over the YQR-YOW flight is that it was doing well on the load side (again, who knows about yields??) but was cancelled in favour of an additional YYZ flight. I know quite a few people who connected through to TATL's, YHZ, and stayed on for the YUL leg, preferring to avoid YYZ. It may well be that AC realized it could sustain an extra YYZ flight if it funnelled all that traffic through YYZ rather than YOW, which is probably why they said in their press release that they wanted to strengthen YYZ as a super hub.