First Air / Canadian North

Old Jun 1, 2019, 9:24 am
  #1  
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First Air / Canadian North

So now that it appears 7F and 5T may actually succeed in their umpteenth attempt to merge, it seems as good an occasion as any to start an all-purpose thread for northern Canada’s two least favourite airlines and/or the offspring of their unholy union.

Does anyone else fly these two a lot? What’s your take on the merger? General public consensus in Nunavut is that it’s bad news for everybody who lives here and will lead to higher fares and fewer flights on many routes. I could maybe see at least a better schedule on the “bigger” routes with jet service like YOW-YFB and YFB-YRT-YZF rather than the current stupid set-up where both carriers have their flights at the same time. (The one bright side of the short-lived 7F/5T codeshare disaster back in 2015 was having an afternoon/evening YOW-YFB-YOW flight.) But smaller communities will probably be shafted.
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Old Jun 1, 2019, 12:41 pm
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I have no idea about a merger but why is there a First Air plane at BNA? That is the last airline I expected to see in Nashville!
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Old Jun 2, 2019, 7:20 am
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Originally Posted by defrosted
I have no idea about a merger but why is there a First Air plane at BNA? That is the last airline I expected to see in Nashville!
Why? Probably a charter, just curious.
Peterborough to Nashville?
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Old Jun 18, 2019, 7:22 pm
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Originally Posted by nolens volans
So now that it appears 7F and 5T may actually succeed in their umpteenth attempt to merge, it seems as good an occasion as any to start an all-purpose thread for northern Canada’s two least favourite airlines and/or the offspring of their unholy union..
Has there been an update from Transport Canada / Transportation Ministry about the merger? Last I heard they were still asking for the public to provide input about it.

Edit: Seems like you predicted correctly. Press release issued by Makivik Corp. and article by CBC just released this afternoon.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north...oved-1.5181975

Last edited by WesternCDN; Jun 19, 2019 at 2:58 pm
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Old Jun 24, 2019, 8:24 am
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Originally Posted by WesternCDN
Edit: Seems like you predicted correctly. Press release issued by Makivik Corp. and article by CBC just released this afternoon.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north...oved-1.5181975
Yes I just saw that too. Rather a lot of terms and conditions attached to the merger - no price increases "except those related to operating costs" (LOL), no "reductions on weekly schedule options" on "all routes of the airlines' combined network" (whatever that translates to), infrastructure access for new airlines entering the market (??), &c. I suppose we'll see if these conditions are in fact followed and for how long...

The foremost question on everyone's mind, of course, is whether this will all mean fewer buddy passes.
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Old Jun 24, 2019, 12:20 pm
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Originally Posted by nolens volans
Yes I just saw that too. Rather a lot of terms and conditions attached to the merger - no price increases "except those related to operating costs" (LOL), no "reductions on weekly schedule options" on "all routes of the airlines' combined network" (whatever that translates to), infrastructure access for new airlines entering the market (??), &c. I suppose we'll see if these conditions are in fact followed and for how long...

The foremost question on everyone's mind, of course, is whether this will all mean fewer buddy passes.
Wonder if this could lead to the return of AC or possibly the start of WestJet in the market? Somebody commented on the Nunatsiaq article that AC was looking into reopening an office here but not sure what their source on that info was.
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Old Jul 4, 2019, 8:38 am
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Originally Posted by defrosted
Why? Probably a charter, just curious.
Peterborough to Nashville?
It was a charter, 7F does a lot of charters. A friend of mine worked that flight and enjoyed two days in Nashville. Not sure how they make money leaving their plane sitting for several days every time they do these, but I guess that's the joy of operating older A/C.
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Old Jul 15, 2019, 5:08 pm
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Follow-up article last week on Nunatsiaq quotes that the new Canadian North will be retaining it's Aurora Rewards program. Hopefully it still allows for dual earning on Aurora/Aeroplan. I enjoy that benefit now, even though the mileage earnings on Aeroplan are fairly minimal (given the price of tickets), and also like that every once and a while I earn enough for a free flight on 5T. I wonder if they'll continue as Aeroplan partners, and if so, how many reward seats they'll release per flight? I think 2 is the status quo, no?
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Old Oct 8, 2019, 12:50 pm
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Sooo... the new combined schedule for winter 2019/2020 is out. Probably of most interest to Iqalungmiut who fly south a lot is the new YFB-YOW sched:
- different flight times on weekdays (good, I guess): the down flights are now at 1145 1450 and 1845 2150, the up flights are at 0715 1025 and 1415 1725
- there is now only 1 flight on Saturday and Sunday (bad), at the old 1345 and 0915 times
And the YFB-YVP-YUL flight still exists, thank god.

In general they seem to be trying to tighten capacity as much as possible and keep fares high. The last few months (especially August) have been a nightmare of sold-out flights, though this was partly because of fleet maintenance.

I haven't even looked yet at the carnage that is no doubt being wreaked on the communities.

P.S. No idea whether it's related to the merger, but Aeroplan availability now seems to be even crappier than before and they've jacked the fees way up.
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Last edited by nolens volans; Oct 8, 2019 at 12:56 pm
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Old Feb 23, 2022, 10:05 am
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Canadian North announced direct twice weekly YFB-YYZ flights for this summer, runs from June to September. Good for additional southern connections!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north...onto-1.6361318
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