7635 replies to this topic

[Missed Approach]

This airport should be the hub of the Island. 500-600k catchment, if marketed right. That's easily 2.5 million or even 3 million annually, but again, if marketed right. 

Yet Geoff says this ..... after getting 3 Million from the feds.....

 

“Victoria International Airport is a vital economic generator for the Greater Victoria Region. The pandemic has been financially devastating to the airport industry and aviation sector as a whole. This funding announcement is welcome news which will assist YYJ to reinstate lost air service, attract new air service, build passenger demand, and continue to operate a safe and efficient airport with world class safety and health standards. Air connectivity is a key to economic prosperity and we look forward to help building back the visitor economy.” 

 

–       Geoff Dickson, President and CEO, Victoria Airport Authority

 

Quoted from

 

https://canadianavia...ivity-and-jobs/

Edited by Missed Approach, 31 July 2021 - 04:21 PM.

[Barrrister]

Way too many people flying to way too many places these days.

[Mike K.]

Weren’t you saying you were going to LA to get your shots?

[pontcanna]

Minivan crashes through airport security fence, delays flights

August 7, 2021



Some flights were delayed at Victoria Airport after a vehicle entered an area for planes.

Witnesses say they heard a loud crash as an individual used a minivan to crash through the security fence at around 10:30 a.m. and then drive onto the tarmac — the area where planes load and unload passengers — at Victoria Airport Saturday.
 

More: https://www.cheknews...flights-863502/

 

[todd]

Way too many people flying to way too many places these days.

https://travel.gc.ca...ling/advisories

Edited by todd, 08 August 2021 - 07:39 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

After 17 months of being shut to non-essential travel, Canada has reopened its borders to allow fully vaccinated American tourists to come for a vacation. But don’t expect a flood of American tourists to descend on Vancouver Island right away.

 

Victoria’s airport isn't one of the nine in Canada allowed to have international flights arrive. And although the border opened Monday, the opening doesn’t include ferries — meaning the Coho and Clipper are left out.

 

https://vancouverisl...rries-1.5541402

 

 

 

The reopening of the borders and the expected greater flow of passengers by air will lead the government to enable international flights at five other Canadian airports: Halifax-Stanfield, Jean Lesage de Québec, Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier, Winnipeg and Edmonton, which will join to those of Montreal-Trudeau, Toronto-Pearson, Calgary and Vancouver.

 

https://www.aviacion...tional-flights/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 August 2021 - 10:45 AM.

[vortoozo]

 

Victoria’s airport isn't one of the nine in Canada allowed to have international flights arrive.

 

 

I wouldn't worry too much about that in the short term. Alaska, the only carrier likely to operate an international flight until the winter season, isn't exactly in a hurry to restart their Canadian routes. They're not serving Calgary or Edmonton, Canadian airports that they normally service that *are* accommodating international flights. Their YVR service is relegated to one daily SEA turn. Calgary is currently scheduled to restart in November, and Edmonton next March. YYJ is currently on their schedule starting in October, pending approval to operate the route.

[Mike K.]

This is also an opportunity for a route reset. Half a million people with a single US destination is unheard of in this era.

[vortoozo]

This is also an opportunity for a route reset. Half a million people with a single US destination is unheard of in this era.

 

Well, the resumption of seasonal service to Vegas was announced, so that plus Seattle is two.

I think there's a few other regional airports serving a population of 500,000+ with only seasonal service to the US, eg Hamilton, Quebec City, Saskatoon. So already we're ahead of them having year-round service. The issue of course is whether YYJ is the best use of available aircraft for the carrier. We know that United & Delta decided it wasn't. United can service YYJ via AC codeshare through Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal or Toronto. And presumably American has traffic data for YYJ with their Alaska codeshare and have also decided it's not worth sending an aircraft here over wherever else it is that they fly. Air Canada is happy to serve via Vancouver or Toronto. Westjet via Calgary, as they do with most Canadian cities. So I'm not sure what else might be coming our way other than the new Canadian discount carriers if they so feel inclined. But, they only operate larger aircraft so I doubt we'd see anything that's not seasonal and less than weekly.

Edited by vortoozo, 10 August 2021 - 02:25 PM.

[Mike K.]

Hamilton uses YYZ, and Quebec City had several US destination pre-pandemic. Saskatoon had multiple US destinations pre-pandemic, too.

 

We're hugely under-served.

[vortoozo]

Hamilton uses YYZ, and Quebec City had several US destination pre-pandemic. Saskatoon had multiple US destinations pre-pandemic, too.

 

We're hugely under-served.

 

The airlines would disagree with you. Two major US airlines served YYJ and decided that there wasn't enough demand to keep doing so, pre-pandemic. If there was enough demand, they would have continued to do so - that's what they are in the business of doing. United had mused about eventually trying a different route, but certainly weren't confident enough that there was enough demand to do so compared to other uses for their aircraft. The market dictates demand, not people on an internet forum.

[Mike K.]

It wasn’t the demand side that was lacking, it was the scheduling that made it difficult for passengers. They airlines never took their routes out of YYJ seriously, and the airport has such an awareness problem that airlines have to market the airport, not just their routes.

When you approach YYJ along the 17 you have no idea you’re even approaching an international airport. YYJ should be marketing its flights and services on several of those highway billboards but it doesn’t.

[Victoria Watcher]

one united or delta plane a day was never going to work without the marketing behind it.

^ agree the airport should have some fun with billboard advertising: Las Vegas: 3 hours away.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 August 2021 - 05:32 PM.

[vortoozo]

It wasn’t the demand side that was lacking, it was the scheduling that made it difficult for passengers. They airlines never took their routes out of YYJ seriously, and the airport has such an awareness problem that airlines have to market the airport, not just their routes.

When you approach YYJ along the 17 you have no idea you’re even approaching an international airport. YYJ should be marketing its flights and services on several of those highway billboards but it doesn’t.

 

Major airlines have teams of employees specialized in network planning & revenue management. They determine where and when the best use of their assets are, considering both O&D (originating / destination) and connecting passengers. It's their function to consider each destination and optimize use of their assets in order to optimize revenue and profit. To assume that all the major US airlines decided to take every other market seriously except Victoria is asinine. The flights were scheduled the way they were for a reason. Connectivity, other requirements for the aircraft and crews, etc. United at one point offered 2 daily flights, one at midday and another that remained overnight. When they dropped to one flight, they scheduled the one that made most sense to them. Delta had multiple daily flights at all times of day. It wasn't a scheduling issue.

 

If those aircraft hours made more sense flying between Chicago and Lansing then it did between Seattle and San Francisco, then that's where the priority is going to be.

 

You keep saying it's not a demand issue, but then you say the airport needs to advertise in order to encourage more demand. You are literally saying that the demand isn't there and needs to be created.

[Mike K.]

The demand for the services to those cities is there, but it’s being routed via other airports too often, and to the detriment of direct flights.

I mean I talk with the guys who use these routes, and guys in the airline industry itself. I’m not just coming up with wild ideas. YYJ-SFO lasted a decade before they pulled it as more people over time were choosing connecting flights with better scheduling.

YYJ needs more passenger demand, period. It leaves a million passengers on the table annually. That added million bums in seats can support more routes that would otherwise be unsupportable.

[G-Man]

The United flight to SFO was almost always busy before they changed the schedule so you couldn't go there for meetings and come back same day. The problem was the aircraft size they were using. Also Victoria is a significantly larger market to Saskatoon so we should have more than they did.

[Mike K.]

At the end of the day, if a flight from YYJ-YVR-SFO means you can catch a better connection out of SFO than you otherwise would via YYJ-SFO, you'll take it. Same thing on the flight back. The SFO flight I'd catch back to Victoria was at the end of the day, like near midnight if memory serves. That's not going to cut it when you arrive in SFO at 5PM with a family of three kids.

[lanforod]

^ with a family of 3 kids, the priority is cutting down on 2 things: number of flights and length of layover (though too short is a factor too). Avoiding that extra leg to YVR (or even more time consuming, a ferry trip over) is very helpful when possible.

 

I change the day I fly or airline long before I add another flight (yes, family with 3 kids).

Edited by lanforod, 11 August 2021 - 08:05 AM.

[Mike K.]

And I wish we'd have more choices. A region with a half a million people has historically only had one viable US connecting point, and that was Seattle. When Alaskan cut back the number of flights post 9/11 that was a huge blow to connectivity, and relegated passengers to many hours of waiting as seven or eight flights/day were cut to something like 3 or 4 before eventually rising to 5 at peak periods (I think?). I would also luck out and miss by a hair the ~5PM flight (or whatever it was) to YYJ and had to wait for the 11:30PM flight.

 

It was even worse if you had to connect via Delta, as they only offered two or three flights max.

[vortoozo]

At the end of the day, if a flight from YYJ-YVR-SFO means you can catch a better connection out of SFO than you otherwise would via YYJ-SFO, you'll take it. Same thing on the flight back. The SFO flight I'd catch back to Victoria was at the end of the day, like near midnight if memory serves. That's not going to cut it when you arrive in SFO at 5PM with a family of three kids.

 

If the existing demand can be served over the YVR connection, then so be it. That's the hallmark of the hub and spoke model. United makes the same amount of $ regardless of whether you fly YYJ-SFO or YYJ-YVR-SFO due to their revenue sharing agreement with Air Canada. It's much more efficient to run larger aircraft in banks then it is to operate individual point to point flights on smaller aircraft. Fewer operational and upfront costs, fewer emissions, etc.