YVR - Airport & Destinations Discussion

[Valley_Refugee]

Vancouver, though the hub city for Western Canada, is smaller in population that even Portland (metropolian totals of each city). When it gets bigger (and yes, it will!) there will be a larger air market, and there'll be scheduled routes we don't have now, I am sure

Vancouver is slightly bigger than portland, Portland has 2.2 million, vancouver has 2.3 million and 2.5 if u include FVRD

The US census areas are positively MASSIVE as well. Seattle's metro is something like 20,000 sq km whereas Metro Vancouver is under 3,000 (a good chunk of which being mountains). Stats Can refuses to merge CMAs, so even Abbotsford won't be counted as part of Vancouver, for now anyways. Both Seattle and Portland's metro figures are inflated, by Canadian standards.

You also have to look at Portland and Vancouver's respective 'roles' in their country. Vancouver is the Western gateway to the Pacific and the third-largest city, and still a major business centre for Canada (and yes, I know, not anywhere near Toronto or big by world standards). Portland might not even rank in the top 5 metros on the US west coast, let alone the country.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by Hourglass

I think you'll find quite a few people taking issue with you calling Cathay a "Chinese" carrier, esp since HK does its own bilateral negotiations and has its own regulatory authority that is completely separate from the People's Republic of China!

Nevertheless, you're right that much of the future growth in transpacific flights @ YVR will be coming from China. There are a bunch of so-called tier 2 cities in China with huge populations. Shenyang, who I warrant many people have never heard of, has a population of 7 million or so.

Back of the napkin calculations suggest that YVR will have around 106 flights per week to Asia this summer -- of which 40% will be to China (60% if you include HK)

Agreed, that's why I kinda put it in its own sentence... however, it is still part of "China." Anyway!

Spot on with your 106 weekly frequencies to Asia this summer.

There is a bit of capacity shifting around but up from 103 frequencies last summer.

NOW back to my NHL app! GO CANUCKS!

[casper]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

my bad. I'm not sure if WJ has any existing partnerships with those airlines, though. It might make more sense for WJ to be with skyteam, as alaska is a junior member of oneworld and can be seen as a local competitor.

Westjet has codeshares with American, Cathay, Japan Airlines, Delta and KLM. So fairly tight working relationship with both Oneworld and Skyteam members. I think they are going to do the same thing as Alaska and not join any alliance, they will just partner and codeshare with anyone who is not already a codeshare partner with Air Canada.

Westjet also has interline agreements (permitting baggage transfer and the ability to sell a ticket that involves flights with multiple interline partners) with several more airlines including: Aeromexico, Air China, Air India, Alitalia, British Airways, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, El Al Emirates, Finnair, Korean Air, Pakistan, Air, Qantas, Qatar and SATA Portugal.

The interline agreements are very common. Air Canada has interline agreements with every major airline (and a lot of minor airlines) in the world regardless of alliance. Westjet just started signing interline agreements in the last year or two. Without the interline agreement if you are making a connection between airlines you were forced to buy two separate tickets and the airline was not responsible for making certain you made your connection.

[mezzanine]

Jebus, 0 for 2. my bad again.

[Johnny Aussie]

Originally Posted by casper

El Al Emirates

.

An awesome name for one of the most unlikely mergers ever.

Classic case of different meaning by a minor punctuation error!

Slow news day... just had a chuckle.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Valley_Refugee

The US census areas are positively MASSIVE as well. Seattle's metro is something like 20,000 sq km whereas Metro Vancouver is under 3,000 (a good chunk of which being mountains). Stats Can refuses to merge CMAs, so even Abbotsford won't be counted as part of Vancouver, for now anyways. Both Seattle and Portland's metro figures are inflated, by Canadian standards.

You also have to look at Portland and Vancouver's respective 'roles' in their country. Vancouver is the Western gateway to the Pacific and the third-largest city, and still a major business centre for Canada (and yes, I know, not anywhere near Toronto or big by world standards). Portland might not even rank in the top 5 metros on the US west coast, let alone the country.

according to wikipedia its rated 23rd or 29th in the country

it does have a few big companies like nike, columbia, tazo are three popular brands from there

[Valley_Refugee]

according to wikipedia its rated 23rd or 29th in the country

it does have a few big companies like nike, columbia, tazo are three popular brands from there

Right...we should compare Portland's place in America to Vancouver's place in Canada, relatively.

[deasine]

Because WS is so involved in carriers of both alliances, alienating its competitor alliances by joining another is the sole reason why WS will not join an alliance. Remember, an alliance is a way of saying you will be codesharing with certain carriers, and frequent flyer benefits will be shared. But it's entirely possible to achieve these partnerships without alliances. Alaska Airline and Delta not only codeshare, but also share frequent flyer benefits which is rather unusual for a non-aligned carrier: Gold members on Alaska get the same benefits as Gold members on Delta, and vice versa.

Even with alliances, carriers nowadays need to build partnerships on top of that, and this would be most definitely required for WS as it establishes as a feeder airline for the spokes of its partners.

Alliances are definitely attractive for businessmen, especially the Frequent Flyer Benefit carrier-wide recognition, but again, this can be achieved through partnerships. But I think WS needs to improve their Frequent Flyer rewards first more than anything... their program just doesn't really make any sense.

So until there's a third scheduled carrier in Canada, and Canadian aviation becomes more alliance-oriented (aside from Star Alliance of course), I can't see WS joining any alliance. And just to clarify what I said earlier, I never said alliances aren't important or valued, I just think they have less emphasis than they did before.

[SpongeG]

construction down by the airport - just to the north - pics by me april 22

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Valley_Refugee

Right...we should compare Portland's place in America to Vancouver's place in Canada, relatively.

yeah its not that big or important compared to here - which is kinda sad that other than importance on a national level we are basically the same city business wise, size wise, population etc.

[hollywoodnorth]

thx for the pics SpongeG that is the Canada Post building!

[SpongeG]

ah ok - was wondering if that is what it was

[Johnny Aussie]

Another decent month

All sectors up in March 2012 compared to March 2011.

Overall up 2.9% (up 5.1% YTD)

Asia Pacific up 5.9% (up 6.4% YTD)
Transborder up 4.7% (up 5.7% YTD)
Europe up 2.4% (up 3.4% YTD)
Other Int'l up 2.1% (up 3.0% YTD)
Domestic up 1.3% (up 4.7% YTD)

[Valley_Refugee]

Any thoughts/buzz on whether AC will serve YVR-BKK when the new 787's come online? I seem to recall Canadian serving this route in the 80's and/or 90's...?

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

yeah its not that big or important compared to here - which is kinda sad that other than importance on a national level we are basically the same city business wise, size wise, population etc.

Just for interest, according to WIKIPEDIA, Portland airport handled 13.7m pax last year, and appears to have only Amsterdam and Tokyo as overseas destinations.

I believe Lufthansa once flew Portland to Frankfurt, but apparently that was dropped several years back. Nevertheless, it surprises me that there isn't a flight to LHR, given that it's such an important destination.

Currently, there are no Mexican destinations listed there, quite the contrary to the case of Vancouver. I guess they all change at LAX

[sacrifice333]

Originally Posted by Valley_Refugee

Any thoughts/buzz on whether AC will serve YVR-BKK when the new 787's come online? I seem to recall Canadian serving this route in the 80's and/or 90's...?

Only North America --> BKK direct right now is from LAX and that doesn't seem to be listed as continuing in 2013.

I was there last month, flew through NRT. Could have gone through HKG, SIN, TPE, PVG, PEK, or CAN (among others).

[incognism]

I'm not surprised PDX doesn't have many International routes. Why would an airline start an ex-PDX TPAC or TATL flight when they can pick up much more o/d traffic from LAX, SFO or SEA (or even DEN for that matter).

It'd be akin to any airline running a YYC-Asia non-stop. Simply won't happen any time soon.

With regards to AC's 787s, I think YVR-SIN might be more likely than YVR-BKK.

[Rogie]

Originally Posted by incognism

It'd be akin to any airline running a YYC-Asia non-stop. Simply won't happen any time soon.

Except that AC will soon be flying YYC-NRT year-round.

[incognism]

Originally Posted by Rogie

Except that AC will soon be flying YYC-NRT year-round.

Oh right, that was seasonal for a while wasn't it? Still can't imagine much more than a 763 flying YYC-Asia though.

My point still stands (albeit maybe without the "Simply won't happen any time soon" statement).

EDIT: 5x summer, 3x winter.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by Rogie

Except that AC will soon be flying YYC-NRT year-round.

You have got to be kidding. AC will be flying YYC to NRT yet they dropped the daily YVR to KIX.

That still pisses me off since I used that direct connection several times a year.