Personally, I am quite disappointed with this change. Flying frequently from cities outside FRA to YYC, this change makes it practically impossible to travel in one day without the super early morning wake-up. We used to fly 1050 flight from CDG to FRA to connect with the 1400 or so flight to YYC and be in the house by 1700. Now, I have to go with the 1130 departure to YUL, connect and get home somewhere around 1900. Alternatively, get up a 400 to make the 700 connector in FRA.

Flying to LHR is not really an alternative since there is no Star Alliance carrier that is based in England so all the connections are through Lufthansa/Austrian/Swiss hubs.

I am not sure how moving the flight up helps connect to Western Canada ski markets as mentioned above, you can't ski the arrival day anyway. Landing in YYC around 1600 still leaves lots of time to get to Banff or connect to another flight for the Okanagan. That seems like a "red herring" response to me. I guess this is what happens when you are not considered a competitive market.