With the cuts noted above, AC is going to be barely serving YYC. Off the top of my head, we'll be left with:
- YVR
- YYZ
- YUL
- LHR
- EWR
- YWG
- YLW (1x DH4 daily)
- YEG (like 2x DH4 daily?)
- YQU
- YMM
And... I think that's it?
Originally Posted by
YYCCL3
Pathetic but not surprising. Capacity on the FRA route has been continually reduced this year and even with some dates with what appear to be low loads they've actively been forcing pax through YUL/YYZ via favourable pricing.
In what way has YYC-FRA capacity been "continually reduced"? It has mostly been 789 for years, and has been 789 for most of this year. Looks like a 788 the last couple weeks, but it's still scheduled as 789 for my flights the rest of this year. Load has been high on the times I've flown it this year, and haven't heard anything from others in YYC or concierges about low loads.
Not sure I follow this "favourable pricing" comment either. When connecting via FRA has been more expensive, in my experience, including this year, it's usually because loads in J are high on the YYC-FRA flight, which might be something like Z2 P0, but plenty of P space via YYZ.
It's hard to say now whether or not KL is a better option. It's nice to have one stop in AMS to just about everywhere in EU/AF, but at the same time if it's more than a 90-120 minute flight the domestic J side in Canada starts to look better with at minimum bigger seats, and potentially a pod...
I can't really think of anywhere in Europe where I'd rather fly via YYZ/YUL than AMS. Even somewhere like MAD/BCN that involves some backtracking from FRA/AMS
- The total time ends up being shorter by connecting at FRA/AMS
- I find the short eastbound TATLs tough to get a decent sleep on
- A lot more AC TATL routes from YYZ-YUL are served by 333s, which have a craptacular J product; I also prefer the 787 pods to the 777s (I know they're almost the same, but there's more room in the 787 footwell, which is important to a tall guy like me)
- YUL often involves a stupidly long connection eastbound since the midday flight arrives too late to connect to many of the TATLs, or if it's a legal connection, it's very tight and prone to misconnects
- YUL often involves a stupidly long connection westbound since the midday flight departs too early for most of the TATLs
- There are very few widebodies on YYZ-YYC - on many trips this year, my choice on a EU-YYZ-YYC has been a 321 or a 321. Or maybe a 321 or 7M8
- YYZ and YUL are also sucky airports. They're not particularly laid out, lots of long walks, lounges constantly overflowing capacity, and OSS is nice in theory, but the number of times it has been unavailable, or we've been sent to secondary because someone wanted to talk about the food we were bringing back or whatever, or you're going to leave the airport because you have a 7-hour layover due to the aforementioned crappy EU-YUL-YYC connections, has rendered it a lot less useful to me
And YVR isn't particularly useful because they don't serve many European destinations from there.
Whereas AMS tends to offer very sane connections and, other than a lack of moving walkways, is generally laid out quite well.