code share query - AC ?
 

Interesting. Any speculation on what the AC codeshare arrangements will look like? (TK currently operates out of YUL & YYZ).

I don't think that AC would codeshare the TK service to YVR. Air Canada has recently signed a codeshare and partnership agreement with Qatar Airways for the Middle East and some other destinations.

By the way, due to the joint venture agreement between LH, UA, and AC; Air Canada is not allowed to sell point-to-point tickets on the YYZ-IST codeshare, plus they could also not use this service for selling onward connections to Europe.

As of today, it looks like they are only selling flights starting May 2. Curious if this route will be just outright cancelled at one point, since it hasn't even been opened.

If I'm not wrong, TK would start the route at some point, most likely when Canada re-opens their border and removes quarantine for arrivals.
Vancouver is a strategic destination for TK and due to the border closures and Canada implementing 15 days of self-isolation where the first 3 days are spent in a hotel room, I don't think there is demand at this point.

I had been about to move over some Marriott points to book some August flights to/from YVR, when the J award space just disappeared yesterday. That's not a great sign IMO, but of course it could be meaningless.

The new Canadian rules about hotel quarantine are completely about dis-incentivising Canadians from travelling internationally. (borders are of course shut to foreigners already) I can't really see that changing until a significant % of the population is vaccinated, and that's not going to happen by May and probably not before the summer. Simply not the time to be launching a new route...

But longer term there still may be a market for South Asia <--> Western Canada that isn't really well served by anybody.

I'm personally invested b/c I have an Aeroplan J ticket and hoping not to be rerouted on their own carriers given the state of the latter's current service (which may very well change by June but still)...

If cancellation is coming for June I'd rather know it earlier than 2 weeks/1 month prior and rebook for later than fly LH/AC to my final destination in EU. Fingers crossed.

Why do you think YVR is a strategic destination for TK?

YVR is slot limited because the Canadian government wants to protect Air Canada. That's why none of the ME3 is able to fly to Vancouver. TK would have strategic importance carrying the Central Asian population from/to their native country. There is a huge YVR <-> Central Asia market and TK is now part of it.

Also, someone in airliners.net was mentioning that Turkish had spent a lot of effort getting those slots. Initially, the Canadian government rejected TK's slot request, then they provided 2 slots for arrival/departure and after another set of negotiations, they have agreed that they will have 3 slots for arrival/departure.

It seems like the UK is doing better than North America right now. Both Canada and the US are not vaccinating their population fast enough. I really doubt international travel will start going back to normal until Q4 2021 at the earliest now.

AC flies to South Asia, but it's pretty expensive and that's probably due to a lack of competition.

Oh really? I had no idea that is the case.

Looks like it's happening
 

https://biv.com/article/2021/04/turk...-flights-may-2
mentions that the route will start May 2nd. Curious to see how things go.

Looks like they are serious about it:

https://www.turkishairlines.com/en-t...-to-vancouver/

Yep got an email about it, so it's definitely serious.

Starting May 2 per emails, return fares between IST and YVR are over 35% more when originating from YVR vs IST in J, can get lower fares on LH. YVR gets very little competition compared to most other NA gateways.

Would people who live in Vancouver fly into SEA instead? SEA is not a particularly big airport though.