7636 replies to this topic

[North Shore]

I think the big drawback to the south island as an aircraft construction hub is the cost of housing.  Sure, those are high skill, relatively well paid jobs, but you're going to have to attract apprentices to the industry, as well as established craftspeople.  with the price of housing, that'd be a hard sell, despite the lifestyle here.  More likely, IMO, to continue in Calgary, and make some of the components here - similar to the Twotter program.. That would also tie in with the 215/415 program..

[Mike K.]

At-present I don't think if they'd be able to accommodate more than a single fully assembled Q400, and the clearance might not even be high enough? Viking's facility at YYJ is tiny.

[Bernard]

I would expect the Q400 to continue being made in Quebec and Ontario to collect the subsidies from those provinces and the Feds.   I would say there is a less than zero chance the Feds would subsidize any manufacturing in BC

[Mike K.]

What about shipyards and navy vessel contracts?

[Missed Approach]

Noticing a few changes at YYJ this winter......

 

Thin winter ahead with domestic routes out of YYJ. I see WJA only operates twice daily to YEG, down from 3 last winter, also 1 less Encore flight to YVR flight daily and QX also has cut one round trip as DL adjusted its times again. Air North has cut out YLW from it's triangle routing to/from YXY, trips now all via YVR. And I see 2 less round trips to YVR with AC as well. The Q400 fleet seems to have trimmed down the freq of flights out of YYJ these days. Slow season but the charters have started already.....

 

Any rumblings out there of any other changes besides UA leaving? Looking at aircraft arrival times, gate / bridge capacity doesn't seem to be a problem this winter unlike the summer until IROPs occurs. *insert peace offering to the snow gods*

Edited by Missed Approach, 12 November 2018 - 03:02 PM.

[Hotel Mike]

I had posted a while back that the late Horizon flight from SEA-YYJ was no longer flying. That's what I was told when we made reservations coming back from down south. I was misinformed by Alaska Airlines. There is still an 11:10 P.M. flight. So I have changed my connection to not have to fly a red-eye. Cost me a bit more but it's worth it. Because I had been given faulty information the first time, the airline waived any change of schedule fees at least.

Edited by Hotel Mike, 13 November 2018 - 08:59 AM.

[Mike K.]

Did AC operate a 767 to YYZ this year like they did in 2017?

[LJ]

Flying from YYJ to SEA then onward is the biggest clusterfxxx imaginable. The flight to SEA is fine but from then on things spiral straight down. You get off on the tarmac and board a crowded bus. You drive around for a bit and then unload at the international terminal. If you don't have NEXUS you get in a mile long line up of humanity waiting to get into the luggage retrieval area, you collect your luggage, hopefully, then get in another line up to go through customs and immigration. Then you have to go to the "connecting passengers" area, which is not well marked and you drop off your luggage again. Then you get in another long line up (NEXUS won't help you here) and go through security. Then you find out which terminal your connecting flight is departing from, then you find a train that takes you part way, then you get off and take another train to get you to the correct terminal. Then you get off and shleb your way to the gate to get a boarding pass and wait for your flight. But don't worry there is no lounge in this terminal so you won't miss your flight.

 

Will never do that again.

[Kilo95]

Flying from YYJ to SEA then onward is the biggest clusterfxxx imaginable. The flight to SEA is fine but from then on things spiral straight down. You get off on the tarmac and board a crowded bus. You drive around for a bit and then unload at the international terminal. If you don't have NEXUS you get in a mile long line up of humanity waiting to get into the luggage retrieval area, you collect your luggage, hopefully, then get in another line up to go through customs and immigration. Then you have to go to the "connecting passengers" area, which is not well marked and you drop off your luggage again. Then you get in another long line up (NEXUS won't help you here) and go through security. Then you find out which terminal your connecting flight is departing from, then you find a train that takes you part way, then you get off and take another train to get you to the correct terminal. Then you get off and shleb your way to the gate to get a boarding pass and wait for your flight. But don't worry there is no lounge in this terminal so you won't miss your flight.

 

Will never do that again.

 

Hopefully once the various terminal renovations at SEA are complete (in 20xx??) the bus gates will be removed, or at least vastly reduced. Haven't had to connect through SEA since they started the work but I've heard it is a nightmare between the bus gates and the runway reductions. 

[Mike K.]

Ah, so that’s what’s going on. I was wondering why my experiences connecting at SEA never involved a bus or a complicated layover. It was always super easy and stress free.

[Missed Approach]

Did AC operate a 767 to YYZ this year like they did in 2017?

Just the odd flight due to load factors but it was listed as an A321 the whole summer.

[Missed Approach]

I had posted a while back that the late Horizon flight from SEA-YYJ was no longer flying. That's what I was told when we made reservations coming back from down south. I was misinformed by Alaska Airlines. There is still an 11:10 P.M. flight. So I have changed my connection to not have to fly a red-eye. Cost me a bit more but it's worth it. Because I had been given faulty information the first time, the airline waived any change of schedule fees at least.

Yah, last AS flight now leaves SEA at 940pm into YYJ for 10:11pm.....then leaves at 725am, no more 6am flight. Minimal effort AS 

[Citified.ca]

An Air Canada Rouge 767-300ER flying above Vancouver Island. The airline will re-instate a daily service between Victoria and Toronto utilizing the 282-passenger wide-body jet on May 1st of 2019.

 

282-passenger 767-300 wide-body jet returns for Victoria-Toronto flights in 2019

https://victoria.cit...lights-in-2019/

[jonny]

Flying from YYJ to SEA then onward is the biggest clusterfxxx imaginable. The flight to SEA is fine but from then on things spiral straight down. You get off on the tarmac and board a crowded bus. You drive around for a bit and then unload at the international terminal. If you don't have NEXUS you get in a mile long line up of humanity waiting to get into the luggage retrieval area, you collect your luggage, hopefully, then get in another line up to go through customs and immigration. Then you have to go to the "connecting passengers" area, which is not well marked and you drop off your luggage again. Then you get in another long line up (NEXUS won't help you here) and go through security. Then you find out which terminal your connecting flight is departing from, then you find a train that takes you part way, then you get off and take another train to get you to the correct terminal. Then you get off and shleb your way to the gate to get a boarding pass and wait for your flight. But don't worry there is no lounge in this terminal so you won't miss your flight.

 

Will never do that again.

 

Apparently it's faster to leave and then re-enter the airport rather than go through the connecting passengers security area (which is maybe 20% as big as it needs to be, at best). 

 

I've never really had an issue until just last week, but we usually take a very early flight out of Victoria and don't usually check luggage so that saves some time. This last time we got caught behind a flight from Shanghai and they had only one security line open...it was brutal. 

 

Never, ever had to take a bus at SEA. That joke of an airport they call LAX, on the other hand...

[Hotel Mike]

Hey Missed Approach, there is Horizon Flt.2376 which leaves SEA at 11:10 P.M. to YYJ.

[vortoozo]

Yeah, I'm booked on a Horizon flight leaving YYJ at 5:40am or thereabouts in January, so it's not permanently gone.

Edited by vortoozo, 14 November 2018 - 12:58 PM.

[Missed Approach]

Hey Missed Approach, there is Horizon Flt.2376 which leaves SEA at 11:10 P.M. to YYJ.

Could be back then, I was going over their timetable (til Dec 31 and that one didn't show for the time period the timetable had and the last time I floated their website they didn't have the red eye listed. Happy to see the freq back. Ill go back and look. Thx

Edited by Missed Approach, 14 November 2018 - 01:50 PM.

[Missed Approach]

Yeah, I'm booked on a Horizon flight leaving YYJ at 5:40am or thereabouts in January, so it's not permanently gone.

 

Timetable has changed in the new year .... back head to head with DL and their 535am dep from YYJ with only three flights a day now. Ouch. not back to 4 daily till June.

Edited by Missed Approach, 14 November 2018 - 01:56 PM.

[jonny]

I think the big drawback to the south island as an aircraft construction hub is the cost of housing.  Sure, those are high skill, relatively well paid jobs, but you're going to have to attract apprentices to the industry, as well as established craftspeople.  with the price of housing, that'd be a hard sell, despite the lifestyle here.  More likely, IMO, to continue in Calgary, and make some of the components here - similar to the Twotter program.. That would also tie in with the 215/415 program..

 

They sure do make an awful lot of airplanes in Seattle. Geography doesn't play the role it used to in manufacturing, with modern day global supply chains. 

 

The bigger drawback is this ain't a blue collar town. Another issue is that despite being on an island, we don't really have a port. 

 

Anyway, interesting news about the Q400. Seems like a shortsighted move by Bombardier, but no surprise there. In a matter of a couple of years all they'll be making is ski-doos, it seems. 

 

 

 

“There’s no question, the writing’s on the wall – we’ve go to move,” Curtis said.

“We don’t know yet what we’re going to do, and until we get in there and talk with the folks about what’s the market opportunity, we don’t have any decisions.”

Any future production site will “absolutely not” leave Canadian soil, he said. “We wouldn’t outsource it.”

Longview, whose subsidiary Viking Air Ltd. makes turboprop aircraft such as the Twin Otter, intends to maintain supply chains for the Q400 series that currently stretch from China to Ireland to Mexico, he added. 

“Our members are worried about it being moved to B.C.”

 

https://www.design-e...ada-1004032006/

[spanky123]

^ Hasn't Viking slowly been moving production to Calgary anyways?