Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW/CYOW)

[fanofYOW]

Originally Posted by mxg308

Huge grain of salt but using the interactive map it still shows YOW-LAS and YOW-PHX as being served. I wonder if that just never gets updated.

They don't update it I find. But PD did say they are bringing back LAS in the future once demand to the US rebounds. PHX was not a fair shot and I'm sure PD knows it. It was a last minute addition, 3x weekly, for 2 months, and barely any feed on the PD side in YOW or AA on the PHX side.

As for YXU, not sure if a winter launch is the wisest but they may be confident enough that it will be year-round so launching anytime may not be an issue. I did see CUN on the route map a year before it got announced so who knows, it may be a S27 addition instead.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

They don't update it I find. But PD did say they are bringing back LAS in the future once demand to the US rebounds. PHX was not a fair shot and I'm sure PD knows it. It was a last minute addition, 3x weekly, for 2 months, and barely any feed on the PD side in YOW or AA on the PHX side.

As for YXU, not sure if a winter launch is the wisest but they may be confident enough that it will be year-round so launching anytime may not be an issue. I did see CUN on the route map a year before it got announced so who knows, it may be a S27 addition instead.

YXU would lean more towards being a biz-heavy route, so it can really (re-)launch at any time of year, especially if it's well-timed for eastbound connections.

It's also possible they start YXU with just sun routes. Right now in the drop-down YXU-CUN & YXU-PUJ show up but they don't yet lead to anything bookable. The drop-down for PUJ shows YOW, YXU, YYZ, YQB, YHZ, YYC & YEG. However, it's possible some of those will be TS codeshares and some too connections to TS (e.g., it's currently possible to book YOW-YYZ-PUJ with a TS codeshare).

[RomanR27]

Unscientific anecdotes, PD245 YOW-YHZ was pretty much full, counted about 125 pax deboarding at YHZ. Only about 60 people on PD244 YHZ-YOW. Only about 60 deboarding YHM-YHZ as well.

I wonder if PD will wait to announce anything YXU/PUJ until a couple weeks from now, I figure the focus this week will be YHU coming online.

Edit: upon landing I see the first Air North 738 of the season parked at gate 24. First outbound is tomorrow.

I can also see a VGDS system at gate 15. I assume there's three there for 15/15A/15B, the only one I can see is for AC889 which is parked

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

YXU would lean more towards being a biz-heavy route, so it can really (re-)launch at any time of year, especially if it's well-timed for eastbound connections.

It's also possible they start YXU with just sun routes. Right now in the drop-down YXU-CUN & YXU-PUJ show up but they don't yet lead to anything bookable. The drop-down for PUJ shows YOW, YXU, YYZ, YQB, YHZ, YYC & YEG. However, it's possible some of those will be TS codeshares and some too connections to TS (e.g., it's currently possible to book YOW-YYZ-PUJ with a TS codeshare).

The Transat vacations site still shows Transat operated A321 for YXU-CUN/PUJ, it would be a serious capacity cut to switch over to Porter for those packages that the airport says always sell out. Unless maybe they plan to add more departure days of the week, thus using smaller aircraft from Porter might make sense. If it's just Porter operating flights for Transat vacations for a few months in the winter, that doesn't really give me any hope that Porter would be looking to London as a market to expand to.

[RomanR27]

Interesting, I always wondered if London was able to fill the 200-seat TS planes. Though they also announced POP from YXU this winter, so maybe PD won't be taking it over then.

It looks like PD has also updated some of the domestic routes for this winter. YVR seems to drop down to 1x daily, and YEG is up to 2x daily - the only TCON to have more than a daily frequency. YWG/YYC remain daily, YHZ is also still 4x with a 1x E2/3x DH4 split. YLW still isn't loaded for winter.

Indeed the morning YYC/YEG have been retimed eastbound - YEG arrives at 1310 and YYC at 1312, with sun departures scheduled for 1405 and 1410 on most days. Perhaps the blanks will be filled in by a potential PUJ announcement.

[fanofYOW]

In YOW now and I’ve never seen it this busy at this time of day (2:50pm). I didn’t count but the PD flights to YYT and YQM are rammed judging by the length of the lines.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

In YOW now and I’ve never seen it this busy at this time of day (2:50pm). I didn’t count but the PD flights to YYT and YQM are rammed judging by the length of the lines.

Yeah while there's still a nearly 1 hour gap between departures from 1225 to 1320, from 1340 to 1440 there's now 15 departures during that 1 hour window (and 18 in 1h20 looking out to 1500) currently on Sundays. In fact, it's presently the busiest 1 hour departure window. Certainly a much different pattern from pre-pandemic when 1700-1800 ruled.

If it weren't for the cancellations, today would have set the new post-March 2020 record, but it can still tie it.

Today's departure count: 95

Today's cancellation count (so far): 2

Maybe next Sunday it'll hit 96 or 97.

[RomanR27]

Interesting about YYT and YQM as both are currently 11x weekly but will be winding down to daily coming up, despite the fact that theoretically the next couple months should be their peak.

Also noticing some more PD reductions post Labour Day:
- EWR down to daily from 13x weekly
- YQG down to 5x weekly from daily
- YHM down to daily from 2x daily
- CUN completely pulled from 06SEP-05OCT
- YWG down to 10x weekly from 13x

[RomanR27]

March 2025 DoT stats are out. The only full month of PHX we had, and even with March Break, some bleak loads.

Porter
FLL: 12234/14784 = 82.8%
MCO: 12755/14784 = 86.3%
TPA: 3974/4488 = 88.5%
RSW: 2921/3432 = 85.1%
MIA: 2420/3432 = 70.5%
PHX: 2134/3300 = 64.7%

EWR: 3472/6084 = 57.1%
BOS: 2646/4836 = 54.7%

Air Canada
FLL: 4998/6426 = 77.8% -- northbound 94.2%, southbound 61.3%
MCO: 1295/1512 = 85.6%

United
EWR: 8155/10176 = 81.0%
ORD: 10239/12402 = 82.6%
IAD: 8534/10842 = 78.7%

Jazz
DCA: 2312/3344 = 69.1%

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

Interesting about YYT and YQM as both are currently 11x weekly but will be winding down to daily coming up, despite the fact that theoretically the next couple months should be their peak.

Also noticing some more PD reductions post Labour Day:
- EWR down to daily from 13x weekly
- YQG down to 5x weekly from daily
- YHM down to daily from 2x daily
- CUN completely pulled from 06SEP-05OCT
- YWG down to 10x weekly from 13x

Those DH4 cuts would provide the capacity needed to fund a daily YXU. We shall see what happens. I do see YTZ increases by 1x on days X56 after Labour Day. PHX never stood a chance in the current environment and it being a close-in add certainly didn’t help.

Today’s departure count: 89

Today's cancellation count (so far): 5

YDF is now showing up on the FIDS fully spelled out.

AC 888 on gate 15B today, AC 345 on 28 and AF 327 on 17B

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

March 2025 DoT stats are out. The only full month of PHX we had, and even with March Break, some bleak loads.

Porter
FLL: 12234/14784 = 82.8%
MCO: 12755/14784 = 86.3%
TPA: 3974/4488 = 88.5%
RSW: 2921/3432 = 85.1%
MIA: 2420/3432 = 70.5%
PHX: 2134/3300 = 64.7%

EWR: 3472/6084 = 57.1%
BOS: 2646/4836 = 54.7%

Air Canada
FLL: 4998/6426 = 77.8% -- northbound 94.2%, southbound 61.3%
MCO: 1295/1512 = 85.6%

United
EWR: 8155/10176 = 81.0%
ORD: 10239/12402 = 82.6%
IAD: 8534/10842 = 78.7%

Jazz
DCA: 2312/3344 = 69.1%

Thanks for posting! Are these bi-directional?

Nice to see Porter with 55,140 seats transborder in March.

Air Canada with only 11,282 and United with a nice 33,420 (to only 3 destinations).

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Today's cancellation count (so far): 2

If anyone on here is looking to book AC/Jazz YTZ-YOW, be wary about 7872. Flew Porter down on Sunday morning to see the Jays game and was planning to fly AC back... 7872 was cancelled (looked after at its history... wow!) and ended up being put in a taxi at AC's expense to Pearson to fly back from there on Rouge.

[AuxTown]

Originally Posted by MountainView

If anyone on here is looking to book AC/Jazz YTZ-YOW, be wary about 7872. Flew Porter down on Sunday morning to see the Jays game and was planning to fly AC back... 7872 was cancelled (looked after at its history... wow!) and ended up being put in a taxi at AC's expense to Pearson to fly back from there on Rouge.

Same thing happened to me with AC7876 after seeing the WC game on Friday. It was cancelled Saturday morning but they were able to squeeze me onto the earlier flight. Luckily, I got their message at 11pm to tell me it was cancelled! Otherwise, I would have been screwed.

[fanofYOW]

Very curious as to why PD isn’t trying to fill BOS and EWR more with connecting pax. Is the yield good enough that they are happy with 50% loads or something?

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

March 2025 DoT stats are out. The only full month of PHX we had, and even with March Break, some bleak loads.

Porter
FLL: 12234/14784 = 82.8%
MCO: 12755/14784 = 86.3%
TPA: 3974/4488 = 88.5%
RSW: 2921/3432 = 85.1%
MIA: 2420/3432 = 70.5%
PHX: 2134/3300 = 64.7%

EWR: 3472/6084 = 57.1%
BOS: 2646/4836 = 54.7%

Air Canada
FLL: 4998/6426 = 77.8% -- northbound 94.2%, southbound 61.3%
MCO: 1295/1512 = 85.6%

United
EWR: 8155/10176 = 81.0%
ORD: 10239/12402 = 82.6%
IAD: 8534/10842 = 78.7%

Jazz
DCA: 2312/3344 = 69.1%

Based on those numbers PD only operated 39 EWR roundtrips in March or essentially 10 weekly minus a couple of cancellations. Interesting bidirectional discrepancy with AC on FLL.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by fanofYOW

Very curious as to why PD isn’t trying to fill BOS and EWR more with connecting pax. Is the yield good enough that they are happy with 50% loads or something?

BOS is a Delta hub, which is a minority owner of Westjet. EWR is a United hub which has an anti-trust exemption for its dealings with Air Canada. Aer Lingus (the only international flights that makes sense to connect in BOS) has a longstanding codeshare agreement with Air Canada.

[Dominion301]

Sunday's departure count ended up clocking in at 94 with 3 cancellations.

Today's departure count: 81

Today's cancellation count (so far): 2

AF 327's on 17A today and TS 382 is on 14.

Originally Posted by MountainView

If anyone on here is looking to book AC/Jazz YTZ-YOW, be wary about 7872. Flew Porter down on Sunday morning to see the Jays game and was planning to fly AC back... 7872 was cancelled (looked after at its history... wow!) and ended up being put in a taxi at AC's expense to Pearson to fly back from there on Rouge.

Today it's 7690 that's cxx.

[RomanR27]

I think I had posted back at the end of April when PD announced their new winter destinations, the e-mail sent out said LIR starts on November 1st, despite being loaded to begin mid-December. Looks like they've finally actually loaded that, coupled with a frequency increase for the rest of the winter from the previously loaded 4x weekly. I don't see any Costa Rica packages from YOW available thru TS yet. Curious since they clearly had it planned that they still waited almost six weeks to actually load it in for booking.

* 3x weekly from 01NOV-15DEC (days 357)
* 6x weekly from 16DEC-02JAN, 14FEB-20MAR (days x2)
* 5x weekly from 03JAN-13FEB, and then onwards from 21MAR as it tapers off

I also see GCM/NAS have been reduced to 1x weekly, except for the two weeks over Christmas and the Feb-March peak. In both cases, the weekday frequency is the one cut and the weekend frequency remains.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

Those DH4 cuts would provide the capacity needed to fund a daily YXU. We shall see what happens. I do see YTZ increases by 1x on days X56 after Labour Day. PHX never stood a chance in the current environment and it being a close-in add certainly didn’t help.

Today’s departure count: 89

Today's cancellation count (so far): 5

YDF is now showing up on the FIDS fully spelled out.

AC 888 on gate 15B today, AC 345 on 28 and AF 327 on 17B

Also of note to fund additional winter DH4 flying, YHU-YHM also reduces to 1x daily.

[Dominion301]

YOW's May pax stats are out with very solid gains including transborder. It's also the first time ever for international to break the 30K mark between May and October (solidly above the 29K I'd estimated if TS to LGW were to only pull an initial 75% LF) and the first time since March 2020 where YOW's 12 months rolling pax total is above 5 million.

Sector / May-25 / May-26 / % Change
Dom: 328,143 / 360,259 / +9.8%
TB: 50,566 / 52,928 / +4.7%
Int'l: 22,061 / 31,131 / +41.1% - with that huge gain, that's a good sign that TS' "new" LGW route is starting off with loads north of 82%
TTL: 400,770 / 444,318 / +10.9%

Sector / YTD 2025 / YTD 2026 / % Change
Dom: 1,349,991 / 1,442,738 / +6.9%
TB: 360,461 / 346,311 / -3.9%
Int'l: 255,204 / 319,241 / +25.1%
TTL: 1,965,656 / 2,108,290 / +7.3%

May % of traffic recovered vs 2019 / YTD vs 2019
Sector / May / YTD % recovered
Dom: 98.4% / 92.8%
TB: 94.9% / 102.4%
Int'l: 168.3% / 132.9%
TTL: 100.9% / 98.8% - only the 2nd time I believe that traffic has recovered to pre-pandemic in a month

12 Months Rolling / % Change vs Year End 2024
Dom: 3,747,031 / +9.2%
TB: 712,161 / -4.0%
Int'l: 549,678 / +26.7% - projecting out to the end of 2026, it's now within the realm of possibility that international will break not just 1/2 million for the 1st time, but 600,000 too.
TTL: 5,008,870 / +8.7%

"new = returning after a 12 year hiatus.