Atlantic Canada airport thread

[Sunnybrae]

A340... NICE!

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Saw this advertised on Instagram yesterday.

I guess the flights would connect via Halifax and Montreal?

[magee_b]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Saw this advertised on Instagram yesterday.

I guess the flights would connect via Halifax and Montreal?

to YOW via Halifax 4 days a week I think... but the return only seems to be workable 1 day a week... so not really anything to be excited about.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by magee_b

to YOW via Halifax 4 days a week I think... but the return only seems to be workable 1 day a week... so not really anything to be excited about.

Agreed. Still easier and more convenient (and probably faster) just to drive the extra 35-40 minutes or so to YFC and jump on the direct Porter flight to YOW

[DyAm00394]

The Atlantic Air Show will be held in Saint John in 2026. https://airshowatlantic.ca

[Sunnybrae]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

The Atlantic Air Show will be held in Saint John in 2026. https://airshowatlantic.ca

Nice!

I do miss the Shearwater shows. F14,15,16,18... Harrier, A10, Snow Birds and Blue Angels. Some amazing shows back in the day!

[J81]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

The Atlantic Air Show will be held in Saint John in 2026. https://airshowatlantic.ca

Not sure if thats a great choice weather wise considering how quickly fog can roll in there.

[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by sailor734

Agreed. Still easier and more convenient (and probably faster) just to drive the extra 35-40 minutes or so to YFC and jump on the direct Porter flight to YOW

As a business traveler this is actually a great addition for me. From Rothesay, YFC is well over an hour extra drive, plus you have to add a 30 minute buffer for the YFC drive just in case.

Those extra 90 minutes at home and a quick puddle jump to Halifax, which was way more options if something goes wrong. Love this.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by nwalbert

As a business traveler this is actually a great addition for me. From Rothesay, YFC is well over an hour extra drive, plus you have to add a 30 minute buffer for the YFC drive just in case.

Those extra 90 minutes at home and a quick puddle jump to Halifax, which was way more options if something goes wrong. Love this.

Rothesay and Quispamsis are only like 10 or 15 minutes closer to YFC than it is YQM. I'd imagine you're looking at flying out of YQM more than YFC.

As a Saint Johner, I think it's really unfortunate that we don't have a reliable or even semi convenient bus that can get us to YFC or YQM for same day flights. I guess it's theoretically possible to do this on Maritime bus, but it's pretty costly, and the scheduling will not work for most flights.

It's one thing to ask a family member or friend to drive you to the airport, or take a cab, but asking them to drive you to Fredericton, let alone take a cab, is a pretty big ask unless it's for a really, good reason.

If we're not going to see the mythical combined International Airport get built between Saint John and Fredericton, I think the least the province and airlines can do is try and invest in a shuttle bus system between the main three CMAs and airports.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by nwalbert

As a business traveler this is actually a great addition for me. From Rothesay, YFC is well over an hour extra drive, plus you have to add a 30 minute buffer for the YFC drive just in case.

Those extra 90 minutes at home and a quick puddle jump to Halifax, which was way more options if something goes wrong. Love this.

Fair enough.

I travel 100% for leisure now and YSJ is roughly 25 minutes from me while YFC is 60-65. I haven't had Toronto or Montreal as my final destination for years so I am 100% connecting through. I've always figured the fewer legs to a trip the less chance for things to go wrong. I would always prefer to use YSJ but not if it involves multiple airlines and extra connections.

I guess everybody's situation and priorities are different

[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Rothesay and Quispamsis are only like 10 or 15 minutes closer to YFC than it is YQM. I'd imagine you're looking at flying out of YQM more than YFC.

As a Saint Johner, I think it's really unfortunate that we don't have a reliable or even semi convenient bus that can get us to YFC or YQM for same day flights. I guess it's theoretically possible to do this on Maritime bus, but it's pretty costly, and the scheduling will not work for most flights.

It's one thing to ask a family member or friend to drive you to the airport, or take a cab, but asking them to drive you to Fredericton, let alone take a cab, is a pretty big ask unless it's for a really, good reason.

If we're not going to see the mythical combined International Airport get built between Saint John and Fredericton, I think the least the province and airlines can do is try and invest in a shuttle bus system between the main three CMAs and airports.

Funny enough YQM has never once provided a better option for me. YFC has over the years provided a better option.

Since most of my travel is corporate paid I am not price sensitive, so potentially that helps. I can also typically build my own schedule around flight times.

[Bishop2047]

Originally Posted by nwalbert

Funny enough YQM has never once provided a better option for me. YFC has over the years provided a better option.

Since most of my travel is corporate paid I am not price sensitive, so potentially that helps. I can also typically build my own schedule around flight times.

I am similar. Live in Freddy and have flown out of Fred/SJ but never once has it made more sense to travel to YQM outside of when covid shuttered all other airports in the province. I do wish that WestJet in Fredericton and Flair in Saint John could become permeant and daily, as anything less than daily is tough to plan around, and I often opt for Porter/AC to stay with a single airline.

Not for any distain of YQM, but because I hate traveling significant distances before/after a flight and will accept a connection to avoid this.

[bridgeoftea]

Originally Posted by nwalbert

Funny enough YQM has never once provided a better option for me. YFC has over the years provided a better option.

Since most of my travel is corporate paid I am not price sensitive, so potentially that helps. I can also typically build my own schedule around flight times.

Most of my flights are personal and YQM is usually the cheaper of the 3 options.
YQM -> YFC -> YSJ.
Which is the big "chicken and the egg" scenario.

YSJ needs to lower prices and add more routes to attract those who look to YFC/YQM. But they probably won't lower prices if they are worried about money. But if they're worried about money, they should add more routes/options. The vicious cycle.

[magee_b]

Originally Posted by bridgeoftea

Most of my flights are personal and YQM is usually the cheaper of the 3 options.
YQM -> YFC -> YSJ.
Which is the big "chicken and the egg" scenario.

YSJ needs to lower prices and add more routes to attract those who look to YFC/YQM. But they probably won't lower prices if they are worried about money. But if they're worried about money, they should add more routes/options. The vicious cycle.

The airport doesn’t control the prices or set the routes though. So, not sure what you’re expecting them to do. Their job is to lobby airlines with a business case to attract new airlines, routes or frequencies. They have in the past done work to standardize fare buckets across the province, but if fare buckets get bought up faster at YSJ due to more limited seats/frequencies then that work doesn’t matter.

Airlines set prices at different price buckets - a few seats at a “discount”, a few at less of a discount, and a few at full price. Those are fairly standardized. But if the airline offers fewer seats/frequencies then there are less discounted tickets available overall, and airports where there are more seats/frequencies will potentially have more better priced options. Competition then plays into this as airlines compete on pricing on those various fair buckets.

I’m sure air Canada is thrilled to just have mostly full flights paying mostly full fares out of YSJ, so without public pressure or internal business case for them to add more frequent flights (and thus more lower fare bucket availability), or competition from other airlines, they won’t.

[bingun]

Pascan adds new flight from Saint John to Québec City

https://www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/new-brun...w-flight-from-saint-john-to-quebec-city/

[J81]

Originally Posted by bingun

Pascan adds new flight from Saint John to Québec City

https://www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/new-brun...w-flight-from-saint-john-to-quebec-city/

Well this is a truly puzzling move.

[Pugsley]

Originally Posted by J81

Well this is a truly puzzling move.

Not really. Quebec City is Pascan's "Hub", so this is likely a way for them to repurpose the aircraft for other destinations through their Hub. So...a flight might go Halifax-YSJ-Quebec City, then on to an existing destination like Val d'or, Ottawa, Rouyn-Noranda, etc. Then back again. Even if it isn't full, they are likely in need to do this regularly to service the aircraft or swap crew, etc....if Quebec City is where their operations are based.

In my Three Cities, Two Airports model on its dedicated thread, I described this somewhat in terms of the positioning of YFC and YSJ in terms of being on the Western frontier of Atlantic Canada - making it ideal for this sort of "micro hub" for a smaller player like Pascan (or back in the day Porter).

Example: Two aircraft through Saint John could be as follows:

Ottawa-Saint John-Halifax
Quebec City-Saint John-St. John's

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by Pugsley

Not really. Quebec City is Pascan's "Hub", so this is likely a way for them to repurpose the aircraft for other destinations through their Hub. So...a flight might go Halifax-YSJ-Quebec City, then on to an existing destination like Val d'or, Ottawa, Rouyn-Noranda, etc. Then back again. Even if it isn't full, they are likely in need to do this regularly to service the aircraft or swap crew, etc....if Quebec City is where their operations are based.

In my Three Cities, Two Airports model on its dedicated thread, I described this somewhat in terms of the positioning of YFC and YSJ in terms of being on the Western frontier of Atlantic Canada - making it ideal for this sort of "micro hub" for a smaller player like Pascan (or back in the day Porter).

Example: Two aircraft through Saint John could be as follows:

Ottawa-Saint John-Halifax
Quebec City-Saint John-St. John's

I noticed quite a few Canadians go down to Boston for the recent Coldplay concert, and it seems people aren't quite as ashamed about travelling to the US as they were a few months ago.


excuse the abbreviation. 😅

Something like Quebec City<->Saint John<->Boston or Halifax<->Saint John<->Boston could be quite good routes for Pascan and NB Tourism, once tensions begin to ease with the Americans and Canadians are much more interested in travelling to the US. I hardly think things will stay like this long term.

Perhaps New York could also work and there could be quite a lot of options for routes between the cities Pascan currently serves. YSJ in the middle of some routes would be a lot better for tourism in NB than what Porter offers with their Fredericton<->Toronto<->Boston route, as a NB would be in the middle of the route.

I think the goal should be to get NB airports in the middle of more routes, and government subsidies should be on the table to help make these routes happen.

Speaking of hubs and new routes, perhaps a Quebec City<->Moncton<->Paris flight could fill a niche in the market not currently served. Moncton is one of the fastest growing cities in the French speaking world, and Francophone immigration and Francophone university students will remain a big part of Moncton's growth. Perhaps other airports in France could even more-so help fill a niche not currently served by the market... there's quite a lot of options.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by Pugsley

Not really. Quebec City is Pascan's "Hub", so this is likely a way for them to repurpose the aircraft for other destinations through their Hub. So...a flight might go Halifax-YSJ-Quebec City, then on to an existing destination like Val d'or, Ottawa, Rouyn-Noranda, etc. Then back again. Even if it isn't full, they are likely in need to do this regularly to service the aircraft or swap crew, etc....if Quebec City is where their operations are based.

In my Three Cities, Two Airports model on its dedicated thread, I described this somewhat in terms of the positioning of YFC and YSJ in terms of being on the Western frontier of Atlantic Canada - making it ideal for this sort of "micro hub" for a smaller player like Pascan (or back in the day Porter).

Example: Two aircraft through Saint John could be as follows:

Ottawa-Saint John-Halifax
Quebec City-Saint John-St. John's

To me it sounds more like they need to get the aircraft to Quebec City anyway and if they can fly with a few paying passengers it's all gravy.

I still don't see the route has having any significant demand.

[dhottawa729]

I think this is fantastic news especially as this is the first and only flight connection from Quebec City to the maritimes, thereby offering a different destination choice for travel rather than trying to repeat the same routes from each NB city competing for the same passenger pool. Quebec City opens of a lot of new onward connections, in addition to it being a great final destination in itself! I applaud Pascan for their faith in Saint John.