upgradesecret

The plan seem to be to wet lease aircraft.
The new airline does not have much room to cut costs.

kevy_boy

But perhaps WestJet did. WestJet already flies YHM to Calgary. They will have to survive the pressure from WestJet first.

nowinyow

Hmm, interesting concept.

Actually, it reminds me of "dog-air", or that one-summer fling of "Greyhound Air". Sometime around 1995 or so, I think.

They flew from 3 eastern cities (yow/yhm and I forget the third) and flew from 3 western cities (yyc/yeg/yvr) The flights were timed to all meet in Winnipeg. Those heading from east to west and those heading from west to east all transferred in Winnipeg.

I flew them once or twice. I think the planes came from Kelowna flightcraft.

The airline folded because Greyhound Canada was purchased by another company that decided it didn't want to be in the airline business.

I wonder if someone just dusted off the old business plan?

drvannostren

Couldn't agree more, you put way more thought into it than I did!

I thought at first a YXX-YHM route would be brilliant as you could discount it from the YVR-YYZ flights. I still think it'd work for people wanting to visit either city and not necessarily make connections. I don't know the YHM/YYZ market very well, but I know YXX and it's surrounding area is CONSTANTLY growing and when Surrey is arguably splitting the difference between YXX and YVR there's a huge population there of families that would travel if it weren't so pricey. You can see that during the summer on the insane YVR-YYZ Sunwing flights.

My other thought was that AC could really make YHM something if they wanted to by pushing most (if not all) of the Rouge flights there. They would incur more expenses for staffing and such, but I think they could make it up in other ways. They could easily build connections into their IT as well, instead of the 45-60 mins at YYZ build in like 2-3 hours and offer an included shuttle bus every hour or half hour during the day. YYG-YYZ-YHM-PUJ leave YYG at 5/6 am, 9-11 between YYZ-YHM, 1200 YHM-PUJ. Obviously I haven't thought it through 100% and it would need lots of financial analysis, but I wonder if it's something worth doing. Many major cities have setups in similar fashion, keeps congestion down at the major hub and then especially if there's delays to the leisure flights the pax are easier to deal with and hopefully quicker to get them moving in weather delays and other irrops.

But back on topic, sorry, I think another airline domestically DEFINITELY won't work, but I think this has just about the same potential. Sure maybe we have room for another charter carrier, but not much more and even then that'd be a tough sell at this point. I wonder though if an airline LIKE THIS, could set up shop in a BUF or somewhere like that, while offering their passengers included bus transportation from the Canadian city thus eliminating the hassle of driving across the border which is something many people either can't or don't want to do.

why fly

wait you forget TANGO and ZIP, AC two failed ventures.

Hello again

I don't know how many airlines have come and gone from YHM since the 70's. Both AC and WJA have both been in and out at least once each. YHM was once going to be the major eastern base for WJA.
I Think any airline that sets up in YHM will simply poach customers from BUF if their fares are cheap enough

Wallace99

I hope it works, I just don't think it will.

They will be using flair airline planes, which probably says more about how poorly oil sands are doing these days than anything else.

Wallace99

Terminal/landing fees are not the same, AC Has lower rates than its competitors at its hub for example.
But the savings will come from operations, if they can pull it off. Higher utilization of planes - YHM which is a 24 hour airport will allow this, so look for odd flight timings.

I'd assume non Union staff, lower pensions, lower over head in general.
- fees for everything, checked bags, hand bags, to talk to someone, probably no 1-800 number, printing tickets, etc etc.

It works everywhere else in the world, there should be a way to do it here as well.

Ben Lipsey

If you think Tango failed you really don't understand our business.

agjil

Just out of curiosity, how does AC rate the end result of the Tango business internally?
Is this something you can share?

Sebring

If I am not mistaken, the 737-400 does not have transcon range when fully loaded, so they will have to hub traffic through Winnipeg between YHM and YXX/YVR. It's an intermediate range aircraft, so for transcon passengers, they will have two segments and a layover instead of a nonstop. With Rouge transitioning to more A321s, any ASM cost advantage a 737-400 based airline might have enjoyed is likely to be largely or completely nullified. A high density A321 can have as many seats as a 767-300. Also, network reliability is going to be a crapshoot for an airline with a small fleet of aircraft that are required to hub in Winnipeg.

zorn

You think we don't understand your business? All of us put together take thousands of flights per year. The fact is that Tango was a complete total failure as an airline and a brand.

That is why the word "Tango" has not been heard in relation to any airline ticket purchased in as long as anyone can remember. Seriously, when is the last time anyone saw "Tango" associated with Air Canada?

I challenge you or any other AC employee to show me anywhere on the AC website any relationship between this archaic so-called "Tango" concept and anything related to the concept of fewest features and most restricted economy class only travel geared to the low yield traveller.

Ben Lipsey

I actually can't tell if this post is facetious or not lol If so, bravo!

Either way you hit the nail square on the head. Tango was an huge experiment (and gamble) back in the days of bundled airfare and Saturday night stay requirements that completely unbundled every conceivable option - you wanted a restricted fare? You got it. You didn't want a seat assignment or a meal? Ok, don't pay for it. You want one way fares? So be it.

Essentially Tango quite successfully proved that fares could be simplified into a set of products that each offered a unique set of attributes. The cost conscious may not care about flexibility, so we offered a product that suited their needs.

When we folded Tango into mainline, it wasn't because the brand failed. The legacy of Tango lives on, not only eponymously in our lowest fare category, but also across the industry as airlines looked to Air Canada and realized the previous one-size-fits-all model could be deconstructed and each customer segment could be served individually. Truly, and without being cliché, the Tango experiment revolutionized the airline industry.

superangrypenguin

Whoa. Hold on a second. I'm no aviation history buff so excusie if I missed something. AC was the first airline to unbundle fares and others looked to AC for this new pricing model?

Ben Lipsey

Pretty much.