Originally Posted by
hollywoodcory17
Just thought I'd post an update. In this weeks OAG filing, WS has now removed YYC/YYZ-LGW until June 5th. Should hit the booking system by tonight. No LHR fillings yet.
BA last operated to YYC in 2019, from March-October.
That year was the one summer where all three of those airlines (AC/BA and WS) had J class service on YYC-LON, all of them had good LF's. Even TS had good loads too. I've heard mixed reasonings on why BA reduced back to seasonal from poor load factors, to the RR engines, to even a BA employee mentioning they didn't want to pay for deicing? (Could have been a mix of all of those factors). BA only cancelled the route a few months ago but I imagine they will be back in YYC at some point in the future, just not the next few years.
The simple answer is BA found another route somewhere where they could use that bird and make more money.
I am not convinced from Calgary Heathrow makes sense as a destination that is served by three or four airlines. A good percentage of traffic on that route is oil industry traffic and heading into the middle east. That industry is going to take time to recover.. The economy cabin is going to have a good amount of tourists, people visiting family in India, Europe or the middle east.
My guess is AC and WS will be back on the route. Who knows about Transat. But I think BA is done. If WS can get the slots for nothing, they should do Heathrow it gives them more options for onward connections.
I think WS should be studying something in the Middle East a few times a week with a good local partner.