Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW/CYOW)

[YOWflier]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

He thinks anything less than multiple widebodies at YOW is some conspiracy, rather than businesses making business decisions.

We already have businesses making business decisions with multiple widebodies at YOW.

But yes, some of us are looking for appropriately scaled seasonal (especially) increments. There’s still some room.

Originally Posted by RomanR27

So that is a whopping 26x weekly CUN flights across PD, WS, AC and TS at peak, with both PD and WS having at least daily service.

Evidently I’m the only one at YOW with less than no interest in going to CUN.

[WayneShuster]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

I don't care what the STL forum is saying or not saying. Canadian airports have a history of having service way above similar sized cities in the US. A town with the same population as YHZ in the States see nothing more than feeder flights to the hubs. There is one exception though in Canada, YOW. I'm sure you're on the YHZ and YYC forums every time a new carrier announces a new launch wondering how these airports are getting all their service and how these profit driven airlines are filling their flights, but you're not because "in YHZ and YYC it makes sense because blah blah blah blah blah". Spare me. Laughable, embarrassing.

That same kind of attitude prevails towards YWG. It can always work better elsewhere because everywhere is better than YWG blah blah blah. Well with WS supposedly making YWG a hub and the establishment of an aircraft maintenance facility, we can hopefully finally get some Transatlantic flights back.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Indeed it's today, operating days 27 at peak. First Sunday TS LGW flight today, and then the week after this coming week it will be at its peak 3x weekly when the Tuesday flight comes online.

Curious the loads on the feeder flights

I actually saw the inaugural TS to YUL pushing back at about 14:30.

YSB needs better timings to connect from more stuff like a YSB RON.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by YOWflier

We already have businesses making business decisions with multiple widebodies at YOW.

But yes, some of us are looking for appropriately scaled seasonal (especially) increments. There’s still some room.

Not a lot of widebodies to Europe. Just AF daily year round. Everything else is seasonal and/or not widebodies.

But honestly I would rather have frequency over size. A daily flight can always upgauge. Very hard for 3-4x 787 per week to go daily. Having to share the slot pair with Halifax kinda sucks.

[SimpleEng]

Regarding Canadian airports having more international flights than comparable cities in the states, I think multiculturalism is a big factor. Canadian cities just have a lot more international traffic with more personal and business ties to Asia, Europe, etc.

Here's a comparsion of YOW with some smaller US cities. Pretty amazing that Ottawa's international (transborder + international) traffic is almost as high as SLC which is a Delta hub!

Airport              Metro      CSA        Domestic     Intl          Total
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
YOW Ottawa [ref]     1,466,000  n/a [1]    3,700,000    1,200,000 [2] 4,900,000
ORF Virginia Bch     1,505,000  n/a [3]    ~4,843,000   <50,000 [4]   4,893,000
MKE Milwaukee        1,575,000  ~2,060,000 ~5,660,000   ~210,000 [5]  5,874,000
JAX Jacksonville     1,360,000  ~1,897,000 ~7,430,000   ~145,000 [5]  ~7,573,000 [6]
CLE Cleveland        2,165,000  ~3,770,000 ~9,580,000   ~420,000 [5]  10,004,000
BNA Nashville        1,350,000  ~2,402,000 ~24,990,000  ~726,000 [5]  25,716,000
SLC Salt Lake City   1,226,000  ~2,600,000 26,658,000   1,500,000     28,158,000

Notes — all figures are calendar year 2025

• [1] Ottawa CSA: Canada uses the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) framework, not the US CSA system. Ottawa-Gatineau CMA = 1.47M; no direct CSA equivalent.
• [2] YOW intl: combines US transborder (0.7M) + overseas (0.5M) = 1.2M, per Ottawa Airport Authority 2025 annual report.
• [3] ORF/Hampton Roads: no formal CSA designation for this metro area.
• [4] ORF intl: no regular scheduled international service until late 2025 (seasonal Cancun); essentially all-domestic.
• [5] Dom/intl splits: estimated from totals and known route data. US airports do not typically publish this breakdown in annual press releases.
• [6] JAX 2025: fiscal year Oct 2024–Sep 2025 figure; full calendar year 2025 not yet published.
• CSA populations: US Census 2024 estimates where available; Cleveland-Akron-Canton CSA based on 2020 census (~3.77M). Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha and Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem CSAs lightly updated from 2020 base.

[fanofYOW]

^ Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 91

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1

[G650ER]

Some interesting movements today included a DeHavilland Canada factory Q400 here for Cansec. A RAF C-17 arrived and a Polish Air Force 737-800. Tomorrow a German Air Force A319 is scheduled.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by SimpleEng

Regarding Canadian airports having more international flights than comparable cities in the states, I think multiculturalism is a big factor. Canadian cities just have a lot more international traffic with more personal and business ties to Asia, Europe, etc.

A bit of multiculturalism. Sure. But also the US is larger and has so much more domestic traffic. There just aren't as many places to fly to in Canada. You'll see the same phenomenon in all countries with smaller populations. I would think airports in Australia and New Zealand have similarly impressive proportions of international service. Or taken to the extreme, most flights in say Switzerland, Greece or the UAE would be international.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by G650ER

Some interesting movements today included a DeHavilland Canada factory Q400 here for Cansec. A RAF C-17 arrived and a Polish Air Force 737-800. Tomorrow a German Air Force A319 is scheduled.

I spotted a C17 departing heading east this morning at around 0910. That must have been the RAF's bird.

Today’s departure count: 87

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1

[RomanR27]

Noticed AF has reduced CDG to 3x weekly from 08NOV-05DEC this fall, all on the 772. I believe there was a couple one-off weeks last winter that saw 3x flights, but not for an extended period like this. Still showing back to 5x the week of 06DEC and then daily for three weeks over the holidays from 13DEC, and then 5x post-holidays (though I'd imagine post-holiday is subject to change still)

On the international side, this should be offset by AC's LHR service actually having a capacity increase for November (3x weekly 333 vs the 3x weekly 788 last winter is about 270 seats additional seats total each week), plus PD running a daily CUN, 3x weekly PVR, and 1x weekly AUA/NAS, none of which operated last November.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Noticed AF has reduced CDG to 3x weekly from 08NOV-05DEC this fall, all on the 772. I believe there was a couple one-off weeks last winter that saw 3x flights, but not for an extended period like this. Still showing back to 5x the week of 06DEC and then daily for three weeks over the holidays from 13DEC, and then 5x post-holidays (though I'd imagine post-holiday is subject to change still)

On the international side, this should be offset by AC's LHR service actually having a capacity increase for November (3x weekly 333 vs the 3x weekly 788 last winter is about 270 seats additional seats total each week), plus PD running a daily CUN, 3x weekly PVR, and 1x weekly AUA/NAS, none of which operated last November.

I'm pretty sure the 3x weekly period for AF last year was also about a month in duration. Might be one week longer this time, but it'd be a marginal difference...we could check the old thread as I think you mentioned the adjustments last year too . Daily starting on 13DEC for the holidays - isn't that a few days earlier than last winter?

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

I'm pretty sure the 3x weekly period for AF last year was also about a month in duration. Might be one week longer this time, but it'd be a marginal difference...we could check the old thread as I think you mentioned the adjustments last year too . Daily starting on 13DEC for the holidays - isn't that a few days earlier than last winter?

I went back to FR24 and it's only a loss of two frequencies actually, the same period last year had a pair of weeks at 3x, and the other pair at 4x. The 5x week leading up to the daily service is the same. Daily service started 14DEC last year, I think it's earlier than the first year they ran this because of where Christmas lands, it ends on 02JAN this year. It's been a three-year period in each of the last two seasons as well. All that to say, that's a rather minor reduction that should be eaten up by the AC LHR November upgauge alone, before even factoring in the PD flying. I wonder if AC will end up moving up the launch of PUJ/CUN once they finalize the winter schedule as well, and if that will bleed into November.

It also looks like they've scaled back 77W ops in July and August a bit, but there's still a fair amount in September/October, as well as in June. So it's possible they'll load the 77W in the winter as it gets closer on days where they see higher traffic.

[Truenorth00]

Eventually isn't the war going to hit air travel? Especially in Europe and Asia where av fuel supply is hit?

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

I went back to FR24 and it's only a loss of two frequencies actually, the same period last year had a pair of weeks at 3x, and the other pair at 4x. The 5x week leading up to the daily service is the same. Daily service started 14DEC last year, I think it's earlier than the first year they ran this because of where Christmas lands, it ends on 02JAN this year. It's been a three-year period in each of the last two seasons as well. All that to say, that's a rather minor reduction that should be eaten up by the AC LHR November upgauge alone, before even factoring in the PD flying. I wonder if AC will end up moving up the launch of PUJ/CUN once they finalize the winter schedule as well, and if that will bleed into November.

It also looks like they've scaled back 77W ops in July and August a bit, but there's still a fair amount in September/October, as well as in June. So it's possible they'll load the 77W in the winter as it gets closer on days where they see higher traffic.

Not too surprising.

Winter season there’s always frequency of changes :like a little bit of cuts / reductions , on all Airlines✈️ flying nonstop between Canada & Europe✅.

[Dominion301]

A bit belated but here's another article about TS' LGW inaugural and photo from LGW: https://airserviceone.com/new-route-of-t...r-transat-between-london-lgw-and-ottawa/

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 87

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Today’s departure count: 87

Today's cancellation count (so far): 1

Today's AC889 was completely full except for two business seats. AC888 tonight is 29/31 J and 20/24 PY. AC889 is only 12/30 J and 17/24 PY tomorrow, however AC888 is completely full.

The Wednesday/Saturday flights being served by a mix of 788/789 has been extended into July as well.

[Dominion301]

Today’s departure count: 90

Today's cancellation count (so far): 2

[JonToms]

Air Service One Article on YOW

For anyone who is interested here is an interesting article from Air Service One on YOW.

https://airserviceone.com/ottawa-has-rec...rate-to-europe-for-1st-time-in-15-years/