AC681

Dash 8 Q-400 NextGen aircraft on routes within Western Canada, replacing 50-seat CRJ aircraft. The new ultra-quiet, Q-400 aircraft featuring 74 all-leather seats with roomy overhead bins will initially be scheduled on the following routes:

Calgary-Fort McMurray February, 2013
Calgary-Regina February, 2013
Calgary-Saskatoon February, 2013
Calgary-Yellowknife April, 2013
Calgary-Grande Prairie March, 2013
Calgary-Victoria March, 2013
Calgary-Edmonton March, 2013
Edmonton-Fort McMurray March, 2013
Edmonton-Yellowknife April, 2013
Edmonton-Winnipeg May, 2013

Source

http://aircanada.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=590

TheGreatestX

aka anticipated WestJet Encore routes

j_the_p

Yikes. Those are longish routes on a prop. 2 hrs 10 mins YYC-YZF on a CRJ. What does it end up being on the Q?

InTheAirGuy

Holy crap, and the new Latitude fare to Fort McMurray, comes in at $4,500!

Folks, drink your booze before you get on the plane! That's one expensive beer!

SFO777

west coast routes??

100,000miler

Note there are 2 different configurations of Q400s. The ones that fly between YUL and YTZ have 18 rows and hence more leg room. Most of the others have 19 rows and less leg room.

I can only imagine AC will put in an extra row on the YTZ-YUL service once they get more business on that route. Most flights are less than half full from my experience.

Still the Q400 is a vast improvement over the dreadful RJs.

HangTen

I have deja vu.

This is the same pattern both Air Canada and Canadian tried in the early days of Westjet. They add capacity on the routes they think Westjet wants to try and then they cut fares, even though they aren't making much money or even any money in the first place!

I don't think Westjet Regionals plan is to come into the market with the same costs as Jazz!

I am thinking that Westjet must be pleased that Air Canada has told them exactly how they are going to be countered about 9 months ahead of time. That's very considerate!! Westjet already operate all these routes and make lots of money on them with 737's.

Now they can move their limited Q400's elsewhere for the time being as it is a BIG country and BIG transborder market and leave the 737's on most of those routes which must be doing ok as Westjet makes more profit than everyone else already.

Now it's a 737 against not even a CRJ jet but a turbo prop!! Woo hoo! It's just like the 90's when Westjet used 737-200's against Dash 8's, F28's and 146's and we know how well THAT worked out!

If they do substitute flying it will free up 737's to do longer haul flying and open up more opportunities.

I would have taken a 70 seat JET to go head to head against Westjet Regional, but maybe that's too easy a move!

CdnFlier

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9790; en-GB) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.523 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Those are going to be very long Q flights... Especially on YZF where everyone else flies 737s.

I'd hoped for CRAs to YZF but looks like no luck. Also, still no renewed YZF-YVR service which is a pity.

yul36

18 rows is an operational thing, given the short runway at YTZ. Flights are weight restricted.

arf04

Interesting thoughts. I wonder what the effect of WS's new premium economy will be? If they price it right, then they should be able to steal lots of AC's former T+ business. Given that the feed from smaller centres may well be on identical aircraft for both airlines it won't matter that a higher than economy level of service isn't available. The playing field will be equal except that with WS it might be possible (if they price right) for pax to buy a decent seat for less than the 'chance' at an upgrade once they transfer at the hub to larger aircraft.

It strikes me that WS is really well situated to steal much of AC's business traffic if good value premium economy fares are offered. AC has clearly signaled that the $30-$40k per year traveler is not worth the bother. I'm sure other airlines will be happy gain the revenue. AC seems to be acting very similar to a car dealership that I tried to buy a vehicle from this summer in YQR: another dealer a 3-hour drive away was offering the vehicle for $1200 less. The local guy wouldn't budge, even when I offered to meet in the middle as he said there wasn't enough profit in it, so I took a little road trip. Isn't any profit good? Apparently not for AC, nor for my local dealer. Once customers who make you money are deemed not worth pursuing, then things surely are not on a good path.

nave888

I have mixed feelings here...

I like most of the routes- I think alot of the intra-alberta will really benefit from the Q400- it's larger but not so much as to cause a decrease of frequency. Also, they're faster (which is handy on the longer YYC-YMM flights, for example), but not as fast as jets, which really aren't necessary on such flights.

This being said, I think this will be a tough sell on certain flights. YEG- YZF and YWG- These are pretty long, with YWG at well over 2 hours! It's not much of a change from the CRJ, but If I wasn't such an airplane fan and I saw a propeller plane booked on a YEG-YWG flight, I'd be inclined to book onto a jet plane with westjet!!

PhotoJim

Yay, Regina and Saskatoon are now on the coast!

In our part of Canada, we consider Vancouver and Victoria to be "west coast" but anything Thompson-Okanagan and east wouldn't be.

PhotoJim

If people try them, they're realize that they're fine. I flew one YYZ-YFC and back last May and I thought it was a comfortable ride. It wasn't appreciably slower from the YYZ-YFC CRJ-200 flight I took last year, but it was more comfortable.

As a bonus, the back of turboprops tends to be the quietest, so there is an incentive to sit back there (aside from there tending to be more bin space ).

HerpaYvr

When the "BIG ONE" hits, yes you will be much closer to the West coast or even on the West Coast, then you will get the rain

PreferBulkhead

If the BIG ONE is merciful it will take YXE and YQR with it!