HerpaYvr

if you don't want those 25% off Coupons I can use them. I have given up travel out of YQF between February until September of this year. Then in September, October and November my YQF flights were either cancelled or delayed.

I do complain and AC sends their standard apology email with a discount code. It cost me more to drive to YYC and pay for parking, but I can no longer trust the YQF service, it's no longer reliable.

ac777

Cancelled flights from and to YXH is becoming the norm IMHO. So much so, that I am leaving tonorrow evening (if flight goes) and taking the red eye to YYZ to connect with my YYZ-ZRH flight. In the good old days I would have taken the 0520 and easily connect but now I cannot depend on it and since it is two different bookings, AC will have no responsibility for missed connections.
Maybe they will extend the runway to have jets coming!!

SparseFlyer

AC takes responsibility if it's two 014 tickets, or if it's an AC to AC connection.

gregster

Westjet appears to see an opportunity: http://westjet2.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1296

airbus320

^
Great news...finally some competition YQL-YYC.......

traacs

I to am happy that West Jet is going to fly to YQL in March and 3 times per day. Since AC gave the contract to Air Georgian things have gone down hill with cancelled. delayed flights in and out of YQL .
When Mountain Air serviced the route for AC it was terrific

West Jet does know how to fill the planes . Each and every plane going to PSP in the last weeks have been full and AC considers this a seasonal route and starts flying it to late in the season.

FriendlySkies

Nine daily (not sure if just weekdays, or weekend as well) will be interesting for YQL. I certainly hope it works well for them and I can take advantage of their much lower prices next time I visit family in YQL!

airbus320

AC has been quiet since this announcement.......

YYC009

What do you expect them to say? AC has a product offering that hasn't changed much in many years and it works well for them. Sure we have our own gripes about the difference in service between the past Central Mountain Air and current Air Georgian. But in recent years, all smaller airlines are hurting as the pilot vacancies open up at the larger carriers that offer more money. CMA doesn't even own the Saab's yet and still needs to figure out their own hiring. Plus the Westjetters can't be too happy about Westjet contracting out their brand again. Unionization coming.

On the YYC-YQL/YXH/YXC markets AC offers better frequency and a known product. On the YYC-YLL route, it is just 9M that currently operates that; clearly AC doesn't feel the need to introduce a third carrier to compete on that market. Not sure about YXS but it seems to be served well by AC ex-YVR on larger aircraft?

I think their will be too much capacity for some of these markets and something won't survive long term. Possibly the answer is Central Mountain Air. In the sense that they will cut their own metal routes but service the routes under the contract agreement through Westjet Link where they don't have to worry about selling tickets, only about flying planes.

At the end of the day, I don't expect much of a response from Air Canada. This is a tiny market in a big world. Status quo remains.

And I am not sure about how much further expansion Westjet Link can offer long term. Name other small airports that can support 34-seater flights? On other boards people are speculating about Spokane, Kalispell, Billings, Swift Current, Prince Albert, Peace River, Bonnyville, Nelson/Trail, etc. etc. etc. At the end of the day, I am not sure that it is reasonable for it [Westjet Link] to expand much, and is probably why Air Canada hasn't expanded much in these regional routes with the exception of YQF, which it still has a monopoly on this route.

I would love a YYC-GEG route though... AC Express on a BEH twice a day? Or Westjet Link once a day on a Saab (what is the acronym for Saab 340?)?

YYC009

Oops, regarding my post above, I initially believed it was Central Mountain Air that Westjet is using. It is actually Pacific Coastal Airlines. CMA could be in trouble...

yytleisure

So let's see, ignore all concerns in the thread about terrible reliability of current service (known product lol), offer totally unrelated criticism of a new competitor and say anything to somehow justify that everything is just fiiiine. This is the attitude I feel oozing from AC and is so... perplexing...

RangerNS

Again, what would you expect them to say?

"Yeah, we've been screwing you for years, with impunity. Sorry, not sorry. Now with Westjet on the scene we will suck less. We promise. --30--"

ewok22

It will be great to have an alternative here in YXH, I never expected good service from AC but fair service would have been palatable, Air Georgian has been a huge disappointment the past couple of years I only hope we can now support all the extra seats Westjet will be giving us. Competition is a good thing if the market supports it.

yytleisure

My response was about his commentmore than ACs non comment. He gave the corporate speak and that's worse than nothing. Slightly.

I would expect AC to have known about this before we did and have some sort of plan in place by now.. not necessarily say "we suck" but have a viable plan to improve the poor reliability and communicate that. Not even communicate. Just make noticeable improvements like actually flying the scheduled flights that people will notice.

Medhatter

I am just wondering if anyone knows if Air Georgian uses one plane for the Canbrook, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Calgary runs. The reason I ask is today the 5:20 flight (7230) was cancelled last night and now I received notification that AC 7234 now is delayed to 17:10 from 16:05 which will make me miss my connection. When I used the track inbound flight on the app it looks as if the delay started Friday morning on the AC 7230 which was 40 min late and it snowballed to as much as 3 hours late into Red Deer. It now seems they are trying to catch up.