eponymous_coward

Flying for Fun

BLI (not just the airport) is heavily dependant on the Canadian Market. When the CAD weakens towards the USD, fewer Canadians travel across the border as the bargains dry up. The $89 BLI-LAS fares were a bargain when the dollar was closer to parity. With WS flying from YVR & YXX it is often just as cheap, if not cheaper and for many, a lot less inconvenient than crossing an international boundary. . BLI-Hawaii is still relatively good comparatively. At the long-term parking losts at BLI British Columbia License plates still outnumber Washington State license Plates but I believe the spread has diminished.

James

BW Flyer

Yeah you are right! I have also seen more options on the SEA to ANC route last year. I actually checked out DL's schedule and pricing last month when I had to go up to Anchorage, but decided to stick with AS because of schedule (pricing was pretty much the same). I would have never looked up other airlines' schedule and pricing on this route a few years ago, but the MP has de-valued so much recently that I am open to any alternatives even on a AS-dominated route.

CZBB

E75 is about the only thing the AS group hasn't sent to BLI. Q400, 737s and even OO CRJs have showed up at one point or another.

G4 don't offer connections, so I don't really see how this flight works for the leisure market (If it were part of an ANC-BLI-LAS flight it might make more sense); this is a pure O&D play. If you used it for a cruise, now you've just arrived at Canada Place, but your car is at BLI which isn't at all convenient. Alaska will respond, although I suspect it will be from PAE not BLI.

And in a very weird way, the Saudi's indirect apology for Khashoggi have ensured that AS are unlikely expand at BLI for the next little while (Low oil price = lower Canadian Dollar = lower demand @ BLI).

AS and G4 still have a big advantage (due to US flying across the border taxes - vs driving for free) operating into US (only) leisure markets from BLI vs their competition trying to do the same thing from YVR or YXX. So, I don't expect the Canadian ULCCs to really put that much of a dent into G4's base market of LAS/PSP/IWA/SAN. ANC just strikes me as a very very different market - time will tell.

BW Flyer

I thought Anchorage and beyond is a big tourist destination in the summer months, and G4 could be trying to get a piece of that seasonal leisure market, assuming there are Canadians who want to visit AK?

CZBB

Other than cruises, Canadians don't visit Alaska, they go to the Yukon/NWT. We have plenty of frozen tundra of our own.

cragAK

Well going the other way if I were to visit Vancouver or other parts in BC/AB starting closer to the border would be great, but then I priced a rental car out of Bellingham vs Seattle. At 2x the going daily rate it's still cheaper to fly to Seattle :

eponymous_coward

I'm surprised there's any play at all here; G4 couldn't make HAWAII work. Hawaii is a magnitude better tourist destination than Alaska. There's no YVR service by AC, so I don't think this is meant to draw from the Vancouver area. This feels like one of G4's random "throw it against a wall and we'll cut the route in 3 months if it doesn't stick" kind of deals.

beckoa

AC does have daily summer service on YVR-ANC. AS used to.

Flying for Fun

I have visited ANC on more than one occassion; yet I have not been North of 60 in Canada. Given AS & G4 I would fly AS every time, regardless of final price.

James

Chugach