Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

[wags_in_the_peg]

every airport that i travel to has fees built into the ticket, they use to be paid by you at the entrance, i remember 25 yrs ago, blown away YVR was charging me $10 to leave!

[cheswick]

MS Flight Simulator released a Canadian update, including winnipeg. The videos look sweet, unfortunately I don’t have an Xbox or PC.

[kattiff]

Winnipeg Airports Authority raised the fee to $38 just as covid started blaming it to covid and said other airports in Canada would raise as well…don’t think they have yet.

The tenants of the building (the airlines) are asking what improvements have they done to the building t improve it… basically the fee has been to keep the WAA not bankrupt right now.

Also did hear from airport friends a terminal expansion plan idea was of copying Edmontons gates with the arm extension and have two jet bridges on the end.

Btw Pizza Pizza is now open in the old Harvey’s on the arrivals level.

[The Jabroni]

Originally Posted by kattiff

Winnipeg Airports Authority raised the fee to $38 just as covid started blaming it to covid and said other airports in Canada would raise as well…don’t think they have yet.

The tenants of the building (the airlines) are asking what improvements have they done to the building t improve it… basically the fee has been to keep the WAA not bankrupt right now.

Also did hear from airport friends a terminal expansion plan idea was of copying Edmontons gates with the arm extension and have two jet bridges on the end.

Btw Pizza Pizza is now open in the old Harvey’s on the arrivals level.

So basically, looking at Edmonton's terminal, they went from this...



To this...



I'm okay with that!

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by esquire

$38 just to walk through the terminal is nuts, and now it's a hindrance to additional service. Kind of makes me wish we had kept the old place and just tacked on a few new gates instead.

Keep in mind this fee likely has nothing to do with the new terminal building. There are lots of other pieces to airport operations such as maintaining the deicing bays and related equipment. There is the fire fighting gear, the snow clearing gear, etc. While some of that doesn't see a lot of use, thankfully, it still needs to be maintained and standards kept up with.

Originally Posted by kattiff

Winnipeg Airports Authority raised the fee to $38 just as covid started blaming it to covid and said other airports in Canada would raise as well…don’t think they have yet.

The tenants of the building (the airlines) are asking what improvements have they done to the building t improve it… basically the fee has been to keep the WAA not bankrupt right now.

It mostly went unnoticed as COVID effectively shut down the airport but shortly before then WAA had started work to stage for a major repair/upgrade/replacement of the baggage handling system. If you have never had a tour of the backrooms of the airport it is definitely something to see if you can. There are actually two separate screening lines, one dedicated to US bound flights and one all other flights. The US side has their own distinct handling process but that was all that was said. The $38 a person charge covers things like that.

Originally Posted by esquire

What do all the other airports in the country do in lieu of charging $38 a head?

I would imagine busier airports can afford lower improvement fees due to the volume of passengers.

[CoryB]

Went to book one of those nice LAX direct flights this past weekend. Found out Delta was selling seats on the WestJet plane (they codeshare) for almost half the cost! Not sure exactly what was up with that but definitely appreciate the cost savings on the flight. The most ironic part? As soon as I had the flight booked on the Delta side it was showing on my WestJet account.

[pspeid]

^^ Anything for a Chili's Express, eh??

[DavefromSt.Vital]

I noticed on the weekend that they were doing some paving on some of the taxiways. That costs money too.

[DavefromSt.Vital]

One question for those who have booked to LAX. Is this a "direct" flight (i.e. You don't leave the plane, but it stops along the way) or non-stop?

[Wpgstvsouth94]

Originally Posted by DavefromSt.Vital

One question for those who have booked to LAX. Is this a "direct" flight (i.e. You don't leave the plane, but it stops along the way) or non-stop?

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6553777

[DavefromSt.Vital]

Originally Posted by Wpgstvsouth94

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6553777

Yes, I have seen articles like that, but if it is only "direct" rather than "non-stop" (both terms of art in the airline industry), where is the stop along the way? Calgary?

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by DavefromSt.Vital

One question for those who have booked to LAX. Is this a "direct" flight (i.e. You don't leave the plane, but it stops along the way) or non-stop?

It looks to be non-stop, based on a Google Flights search.

Given the estimated flight time, I would expect WS1314/1315 to be non-stop, as it is only a 3 1/2 to 4 hr flight.

There is not too many ‘direct but with stops’ flights in North America today. A handful exist to overseas destinations to my knowledge, but that is it.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by DavefromSt.Vital

One question for those who have booked to LAX. Is this a "direct" flight (i.e. You don't leave the plane, but it stops along the way) or non-stop?

WestJet and Air Canada use "non-stop" and "direct" interchangeably as the same thing. It has only been Sunwing and Air Transat that have used "direct" to mean "may stop before your destination" and "non stop to mean "plane only takes off and lands once".

In terms of YWG-LAX by WestJet it is definitely non-stop. When you are booking on the WestJet site you can see options that are non-stop and ones that connect through other cities such as Calgary.

[Biff]

It is direct (no stops). I booked for mid November - depart at 7am arrive at 8:50am.

[esquire]

Just to clarify, here's a helpful infographic:



I agree with thewave46, true "direct" flights are so rare now in the North American context that the media may not be up on the distinction. They say direct in their stories (in the broad sense that the plane goes "directly" from YWG to LAX) but they really mean non-stop.

[Biff]

Well then...our flight is non-stop.

[DavefromSt.Vital]

Actually, eastern Canada's second airline, Porter, has traditionally used direct flights with at times multiple stops along the way, bouncing along various small places.

They have been transitioning to non-stops on some of their routes in preparation for the arrival of their new jets. The current propeller planes they fly out of the Toronto Island have a limited range. The jets will fly out of Pearson.

e.g. My son and I live in Toronto and went to Touchdown Atlantic in Nova Scotia this summer. While we got off the plane in Halifax, others stayed on to go to St. John's, NL. On the way back the reverse was true with the plane originating in St. John's.

BTW, several of us asked the flight attendants if the first round of jet routes would include Winnipeg. She wasn't sure but it appears to be on their radar...

[esquire]

^ Now that you mention it I vaguely recall some speculation surrounding Porter when they started flying to Thunder Bay... some thought the flight might eventually carry on to Winnipeg as a "direct", but that never happened.

[DavefromSt.Vital]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Now that you mention it I vaguely recall some speculation surrounding Porter when they started flying to Thunder Bay... some thought the flight might eventually carry on to Winnipeg as a "direct", but that never happened.

The current Porter propeller Dash 8-400s are too slow to make it competitive and Thunder Bay is about the end of the fully loaded range. You may recall when there was a Liberal convention in Winnipeg they had to fly special trips with partial loads from Ottawa and Toronto to make it to Winnipeg. Further, when coupled with a stop in Thunder Bay and the related refueling, unloading, loading, etc. and the slower nature of propeller planes, it would not have been commercially competitive.

The new jets will at least match the Air Canada ones for speed and range.

[CoryB]

Porter had talked about making Winnipeg a hub between its western and eastern networks when it was trying to get support for expanding Toronto island airport so it could operate Bombardier C Series planes from there.

Since that time Bombardier gave the C Series aircraft to Airbus which rebranded it to the 220 and Porter did not receive approval for the island expansion and shifted their jet operations to Pearson. And with Bombardier no longer looking for customers for the C Series the related political advantages for Porter disappeared and they shifted their jet order to the Embraer E195-E2.

Porter though needs to figure out what sort of market it is chasing in the west.