With due respect to my former home town, YEG just does not generate the traffic in the winter months eastward to justify maintaining a heavy schedule, particularly the transcon to YYZ, and the transat/polar LHR service. Flying the YYZ-YEG route monthly or more frequently for the past 20-years, I have seen the loads in the front cabins [of both AC and CP] spiral downward year by year. [And since the days that elite upgrades were started, and on those occasions that I was noted bookedi nto the front cabin, I think I have yet to be unable to move up to Executive/Business, save those times I was on an L or Q fare this past year.]

At the same time, you must remember that adding improved service using non-stops to YOW also diverts a significant portion of the passenger load that once filled the YYZ services. During the winter, with more uncertain weather, late morning starts are more practical. Anyone wishing to do morning meetings in Edmonton is better off taking an evening flight and overnighting, than trying to leave YYZ at 6:30a or 7:00a, fighiting potential snow clogged highways to get to Pearson, etc.

The more critical schedule for YYZ-YEG is late afternoon and evening, where capacity appears to be stable and quite adequate. Look at it this way, these reductions give Mayor Smith another target to bash in his quest for a third term.