Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by (sub)urban

Does YWG have a runway long enough to run 787s here? I flew with KLM from Calgary to Amsterdam recently and noticed that they've got non-stop flights from Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. At that point, I can't help but wonder if a YWG route is really that far out of question, assuming our airport can handle larger aircraft.

Of course, Winnipeg is a fraction of the tourist destination that Vancouver/Calgary is for Dutch folks, but even still. They fly to Calgary daily, I can't help but think a weekly non-stop europe flight would be well received.

Yes Winnipeg YWG has a long enough runway to handle the Boeing 787,777 ,A330, A350 & A380.

But as for a Europe International flight from YWG, an A330-200 probably could work *if* it's 1-3 weekly like Edmonton YEG ,where their nonstop Europe flights is operated by the KLM A330 plane mostly.

[kattiff]

new Winnipeg Airport rumor

WestJet looking at doing Winnipeg to Detroit

Northwest use to do that flight on a weekend in the summer many many many years ago

[esquire]

What is with these random Westjet American destinations? I guess Detroit at least offers decent connections to the US East Coast as an alternative to YYZ.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by esquire

What is with these random Westjet American destinations? I guess Detroit at least offers decent connections to the US East Coast as an alternative to YYZ.

Nothing random about it, there is a partnership between WestJet and Delta. Westjet is just connecting you through Delta hubs.
Even LAX WestJet lands at the Delta terminal for easy connections.

Detroit and Atlanta are Delta hubs, the goal is to feed the hubs and provide a greater number of connections through their partnership.
Definitely helps that the government has guaranteed of these routes.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by esquire

What is with these random Westjet American destinations? I guess Detroit at least offers decent connections to the US East Coast as an alternative to YYZ.

Government is paying for it and they are just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.

Detroit is a weird one to me. I'd rather have more flights to Phoenix, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Denver, Los Angeles.

Can connect pretty much anywhere in the world from those places and Toronto, Vancouver.

Kind of surprised there's not a push for DFW. Know a lot of snowbirds in my sphere that are taking up in Texas triangle (Austin/SA, DFW, Houston) region as opposed to Arizona.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

Detroit is a weird one to me. I'd rather have more flights to Phoenix, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Denver, Los Angeles.

Considering Phoenix has been around forever there is likely fairly strong data on the type of passengers. As PHX is an American Airlines hub and not a Delta hub that is likely a factor for WestJet.

Along those same lines ORD in Chicago hubs both American and United but not Delta.

Denver is a United hub and they are actively in the process of doing a major renovation and bringing back cities and adding ones that never had routes before. My bet is United starts YWG back up soon.

New York is so heavily slot constrained it is unlikely for YWG to get a direct flight. We simply lack the volume of high fare paying customers to justify slots.

We currently have LA and Atlanta, both Delta hubs, and demand for LA has been strong but not sure there is enough demand to justify adding flights.

What is interesting about Detroit is that it is a Delta hub city. While it may not be a hot destination for travel for YWG on its own it definitely could make connections to the American north-east, including New York City, easier.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by CoryB

Considering Phoenix has been around forever there is likely fairly strong data on the type of passengers. As PHX is an American Airlines hub and not a Delta hub that is likely a factor for WestJet.

Along those same lines ORD in Chicago hubs both American and United but not Delta.

Denver is a United hub and they are actively in the process of doing a major renovation and bringing back cities and adding ones that never had routes before. My bet is United starts YWG back up soon.

New York is so heavily slot constrained it is unlikely for YWG to get a direct flight. We simply lack the volume of high fare paying customers to justify slots.

We currently have LA and Atlanta, both Delta hubs, and demand for LA has been strong but not sure there is enough demand to justify adding flights.

What is interesting about Detroit is that it is a Delta hub city. While it may not be a hot destination for travel for YWG on its own it definitely could make connections to the American north-east, including New York City, easier.

It might, but accessing a major hub for American and United would be further ahead on my list than that. If there were UA flights to Denver and we could get to ORD on AA that would be great.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

It might, but accessing a major hub for American and United would be further ahead on my list than that. If there were UA flights to Denver and we could get to ORD on AA that would be great.

My understanding is a lot of the US based airlines are constrained by pilots or contracts on where they can fly. This makes YWG route expansion fall to Air Canada and WestJet. If WestJet is prioritizing Delta hub cities it comes down to just Air Canada for Chicago or Denver.

[kattiff]

Apparently WestJet is making Winnipeg a crew base!

[Atrial78]

Originally Posted by kattiff

Apparently WestJet is making Winnipeg a crew base!

This is possibly related to Westjet integrating both Swoop and Sunwing back into the Westjet brand. If Westjet retains most of their routes it would mean even more Westjet flights in Winnipeg. There is some overlap between many of the seasonal routes both Westjet and Sunwing fly - I could see Westjet eliminating the redundancy, possibly opening a spot for one of the new ULCC's to come in.

[hehehe]

Originally Posted by Atrial78

This is possibly related to Westjet integrating both Swoop and Sunwing back into the Westjet brand. If Westjet retains most of their routes it would mean even more Westjet flights in Winnipeg. There is some overlap between many of the seasonal routes both Westjet and Sunwing fly - I could see Westjet eliminating the redundancy, possibly opening a spot for one of the new ULCC's to come in.

Some speculation is that there'll be more YWG routes with this new base. ATL 5x weekly is already crazy. YWG has always been a bit of a mini hub for WS though with the YXE/YQR/YQT encore flights.

[CoryB]

Re WestJet Encore flights, it makes sense to use YWG as a hub for those planes as you can get as far east as Ottawa with a lower passenger capacity and you could hit as far west as Calgary.

In terms of the combined WestJet, Swoop and Sunwing, my guess would be fewer choices each day by higher frequency on the existing destinations and perhaps new destinations. It is important to keep in mind Sunwing was a vertically integrated airline for the TUI Group to the maximum extent that was allowed under Canadian law. They heavily focus on getting passengers to sun destinations where they operate their RUI resorts and heavily promote package deals for airfare + accommodations. The merger of Sunwing into WestJet saw that same ownership group take up a stake in WestJet.

Overall if there are roughly the same number of sun destination flights in a week from YWG but the range of destinations expands at the sacrifice of same day capacity on some routes that is likely a win.

[drew]

^ Westjet had pretty terrible sun destination options from YWG this past winter, only some spots in Mexico IIRC, and $$$. AC had nothing. Sunwing had better Caribbean options from Winnipeg, but overall certainly less than YWG would normally expect (probably COVID hangover).

I hope Westjet gives us better service for upcoming winter seasons, especially since they just ate up the one airline that actually gave us options.

[esquire]

Well, it finally happened. Porter is going to run Winnipeg to Toronto-Pearson 2x daily starting in September.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...830194502.html

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by esquire

Well, it finally happened. Porter is going to run Winnipeg to Toronto-Pearson 2x daily starting in September.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...830194502.html

Good news

[drew]

^ I thought Porter only flew into Billy Bishop?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by drew

^ I thought Porter only flew into Billy Bishop?

Since they added jets to the fleet they've been flying to Pearson as well.

Just my luck, I booked a flight to LA and right after that WestJet announced the nonstop to LAX.

Now I just booked a trip to Toronto on WestJet and Porter announces service to YYZ.

[drew]

I wonder how Porter's pricing compares to WJ and AC.

Flying into Billy Bishop for a premium is one thing - but flying into Pearson at a premium is not awesome.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by drew

I wonder how Porter's pricing compares to WJ and AC.

Flying into Billy Bishop for a premium is one thing - but flying into Pearson at a premium is not awesome.

According to the release, introductory round trip fares start at $177. So they're definitely price competitive.

[Atrial78]

This is awesome! Definitely plan to try them out. Would also be great to get flights to Ottawa (which I believe they tried in 2016) and possibly even Montreal.