Originally Posted by LittleYHZ (Post 24399851)

Also please spare us the AC is cutting capacity in Edmonton crap - Its cutting LHR on the whole it will deploy something like 15% (the stat was posted somewhere from the horses mouth in a press release/news piece) more seats to the airport this year. Thats not a cut.

Personally I think once there are 787-8s to spare Edmonton will get LHR back for the summer. The higher density configuration will give them back a cost advantage of KLM -AirFrance, HD has allowed them to be more aggressive with KLM-AF in the east.

Originally Posted by CloudsBelow (Post 24399773)

Another pull down from a foreign carrier serving Canada.
US (AA) have cut YOWCLT. There goes another 18,000 seats. FFS

I don't want to give AC more credit than they deserve but Ottawa/Gatineau > South Florida is a (relatively) huge market. CLT feeds Southeast USA. AC extends YOWFLL year-round, goes double-daily on some days .... And now we get the cancellation of YOWCLT. Hard to argue US/AA's decision to cut was not heavily impacted by AC.

In the last 18 months, AA (and US) have pulled over 60,000 annual seats out of Ottawa market. This "undersupplied" talk needs to go away

Originally Posted by yulred (Post 24400046)

Frankly, can't be bothered with developments on one route, but you're entitled to believe what you want. Compare prices on YVR-LAX to YOW-LGA/DCA to get a better idea of what under supply means.

Originally Posted by yulred (Post 24400046)

A carrier that got virtually zero non-leisure traffic (I know several corporate travel agencies that explicitly lobby against it to business clients), is leaving the YOW market.

Originally Posted by yulred (Post 24400046)

Probably has nothing to do with the precipitous decline of the CAD on both their operating costs and leisure passenger demand (vacationing in FLL just became 20% more expensive). So... Yeah, whatever.

Originally Posted by LittleYHZ (Post 24399851)

Air Canada's relative cost of labour (biggest airline expense)

Originally Posted by LittleYHZ (Post 24399851)

The US carriers are at a disadvantage to AC now - while both have to buy fuel in US dollars, AC gets revenue from US Pax in USD that covers a substantial portion of that. Unfortunately US carriers get Canadian revenues in CAD.

So when it comes to employees AC can augment its fuel bill with USD and pay its crews and staff in CAD. The US airlines can pay for nothing in CAD. Air Canada's relative cost of labour (biggest airline expense) is dropping, while it may not have the same fuel gains as the US carriers it has the effect of a broad across the board cost cut at AC.

And if you don't think this is a factor take a look at when the US carriers really started flying to all of the cities in Canada (like YQR and YXE) - it was when the Canadian dollar was much closer to par in a better economy. If you look across the board the US carriers are on retreat. YHZ->ORD is done for example... I never flew on it when it wasn't full... Me thinks this is just the beginning.

Also please spare us the AC is cutting capacity in Edmonton crap - Its cutting LHR on the whole it will deploy something like 15% (the stat was posted somewhere from the horses mouth in a press release/news piece) more seats to the airport this year. Thats not a cut.

Personally I think once there are 787-8s to spare Edmonton will get LHR back for the summer. The higher density configuration will give them back a cost advantage of KLM -AirFrance, HD has allowed them to be more aggressive with KLM-AF in the east.

Originally Posted by LittleYHZ (Post 24399851)

Personally I think once there are 787-8s to spare Edmonton will get LHR back for the summer. The higher density configuration will give them back a cost advantage of KLM -AirFrance, HD has allowed them to be more aggressive with KLM-AF in the east.

Originally Posted by Altaflyer (Post 24310398)

Any extra Yvr would just be leisure traffic.

Originally Posted by AC854 (Post 24400777)

Don't forget. . . . not too many years ago Ac had 3 (that's THREE) daily flights YVR to LHR vs BA 1. Now its 1 a day for AC vs BA's 2. I realize aircraft size comes into the discussion but BA runs 2 x 747's vs Ac's single HD 777.

Originally Posted by Wpgjetse (Post 24400595)

I think you may want to re-think this US $ thing. AC does not have a advantage, but has a disadvantage with the low CDN $. First, US airlines have a lower operating cost(Wages, Fee, Benefits, Labour rules). AC has a lot of capital costs in US dollars. Finally, I would say most of AC US flights are Canadian pax, paying in CDN $, where US airlines flights, mostly have US pax, paying in US $.

Originally Posted by AA_EXP09 (Post 24403354)

No-on AA (sample routes: YYZJFK, YYZMIA, YVRDFW), the amount of Canadian and US passport holders is about equal (for YYZJFK) and Canadians are the majority (on the last 2 routes.)
(not to ignore the slight bias as well, as a dual citizen would be required to enter the USA on a US passport, even if they reside in Canada.)

Originally Posted by CloudsBelow (Post 24400269)

Odd route choices to underpin your supply angle ....... US pulled off of double-daily YOWDCA within months of starting it. DL pulled off of double-daily YOWLGA within months of starting it.

Originally Posted by CloudsBelow (Post 24400269)

Frankly, can't be bothered with inclinations of a couple travel agencies.

Originally Posted by CloudsBelow (Post 24400269)

Oh, OK. So the demand for Canadian air travel to their largest market has declined precipitously? Can one assume we're no longer undersupplied?

Originally Posted by CZAMFlyer (Post 24401526)

BA flies once daily to YVR. In the summer, I believe they increase to 10x/week, but it's certainly not double daily. Not sure what the implications of VS' retreat may mean for frequencies to LHR by AC/BA.

Originally Posted by CloudsBelow (Post 24399773)

Another pull down from a foreign carrier serving Canada.
US (AA) have cut YOWCLT. There goes another 18,000 seats. FFS

In the last 18 months, AA (and US) have pulled over 60,000 annual seats out of Ottawa market. This "undersupplied" talk needs to go away

Originally Posted by winnipegrev (Post 24309427)

Is AMS really more efficient now that Star operates from LHR T2?

Originally Posted by yulred (Post 24404035)

You're free to assume whatever you want to assume.

Originally Posted by yulred (Post 24404035)

Meanwhile KL is adding flights to YEG (incidentally, what this thread is about) - marking a significant increase in international capacity to YEG (KL wiil be offering ~50,500 seats). AF is coming to YVR. TK has increased its capacity to Canada by ~70%, and AC and WS have both increased their capacity by over 6% over the past year (and those are just the examples of the top of my head - wait till Transport Canada's annual report comes out). All of this in a country with a population growth rate of 1.2%. Let me know where these seat fillers appeared from; apparently they didn't exist 1-2 years ago.

Originally Posted by yulred (Post 24404035)

But, as you've pointed out, the only important thing to note here is that US cut 18,000 seats to Ottawa, which basically negates all the capacity increases above because...well...I don't know, but you do.

Originally Posted by yulred (Post 24404035)

As for your biggest market, Canadian travel to the US in Dec 2014 was 8.6% lower than it was in Dec 2013. Go figure. Its on the Statscan website.

Originally Posted by CorSter (Post 24404854)

YOW is a Star Alliance market these days - I doubt YOWPHL will last much longer either.