Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport

[Biff]

I'd like to think that I'm a smart guy, but I never thought of flying Porter from YWG to YHZ. I'll check it out. Thanks.

[bomberjet]

I will say booking flights is quite the crap shoot. Flying to Montreal again on AC. Checked flights the other day and it was $250 one way. That night it was $490. Next day it was $325. I get demand and such. But it's annoying.

[drew]

Originally Posted by Biff

I'd like to think that I'm a smart guy, but I never thought of flying Porter from YWG to YHZ. I'll check it out. Thanks.

I recently flew with Porter to Ottawa (thru YYZ) and noticed they fly in to Toronto from all over the place.

I believe you can fly as far as St. John's now.

They were the cheapest fare by a long shot, and offer an upgrade on in-flight services compared to WJ and AC. You just have to deal with connecting at YYZ.

[harls]

Originally Posted by Biff

Tell me about it. I can fly pretty much anywhere from Toronto to Vancouver for about $400. I need to go to Halifax the first week of Jan and the best I can find right now is about $1500.

You probably needed to book it in October to get a good price.

I booked a round trip from Ottawa to WPG in October for Christmas and got screwed on the return trip.

edit - ended up costing $650 but I have to take a 6 am flight thru Toronto to get to Winnipeg. Home is direct and at a reasonable hour.

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by harls

You probably needed to book it in October to get a good price.

I booked a round trip from Ottawa to WPG in October for Christmas and got screwed on the return trip.

edit - ended up costing $650 but I have to take a 6 am flight thru Toronto to get to Winnipeg. Home is direct and at a reasonable hour.

The prices are ridiculous right now. However, I'm going to Lauderdale in January with a stop over in Atlanta- my one way from Winnipeg to Atlanta was $250 and I used Aeroplan points for the return home and the total cost was $44 using 8,000 points. I was a happy camper with that.

I travel a lot for work and sometimes its cheaper to book one ways with different airlines. You really have to search. Sometimes I will use Expedia or Red Tag to get a sense of how much the cost is and then go to different airlines or third party sites and look at one way options. We did that for the last trip I took to Ottawa and it was cheaper to book Westjet one way and A/C the other than doing a return for either airline and I was able to get direct flights for both.

[harls]

Originally Posted by Jammon

I travel a lot for work and sometimes its cheaper to book one ways with different airlines. You really have to search.

Yep I do that often now. Last summer I did that going to Winnipeg, one way with Westjet and back with AC. It was cheaper.

[kattiff]

Don’t know if anyone saw
WS is going YQR MSP

And I heard a rumour that Delta is looking at a third departure around March YWG MSP. Not official yet

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by Johnny199r

I wish the Halifax to Winnipeg flight was year round.

Flying direct during the summer is great.

Having to fly through Toronto at xmas (or anytime outside of May-October) to get to Halifax is hell.

Agreed. There is definately enough traffic to warrant year-round service to our East Coast. Hopefully this will happen soon.

[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

How about changing the Winnipeg-Regina flight from noon, to another time other than noon. Really terrible for timing.

I don't know why WestJet doesn't make Winnipeg a connecting point for Regina as they do for Thunder Bay. That would really help to establish us as a strong regional hub. Saskatoon as wells although they may be too close to Alberta for that to happen.

[Myst]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

I don't know why WestJet doesn't make Winnipeg a connecting point for Regina as they do for Thunder Bay. That would really help to establish us as a strong regional hub. Saskatoon as wells although they may be too close to Alberta for that to happen.

Especially since they’ve dropped Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa. But even otherwise. It’s hard to see how not offering the routing options doesn’t better serve the customer. Certainly from YQR, YXE, and YQT, but could even the odd YEG, YVR, YLW or YYJ passenger can benefit from a connection being possible, whether for schedule flexibility or seat availability. Also why the ATL schedule isn’t perfect…

In a country as large and sparsely populated as Canada, there’s a reason the traditional routings and the milk runs can be pragmatic. Both WestJet and AC have seemed to have two parallel strategies of either hub feed, or point to point, and missed the in-between. If the first thing they asked in every market was “how do we best serve the customer?” I think the answer might be similar, but the differences in strategy would be important.

[Justanothermember]

It is quite frustrating to see WestJet upgrade and expand on existing routes and create new routes in every single major Western Canadian (BC, AB, SK) city except us. I really don't understand what the issue is and why WS is delaying any expansion here when it was supposed to occur by now, as alluded to earlier this year.

[Myst]

Don’t look over the fence too much. ATL only just started service 2 months ago. It takes a little time to absorb. If loads and yields are good, there will be more. Regina only just got Minneapolis back. Victoria’s US service is extremely limited. Edmonton service languished for decades - they didn’t really see good route development until 10 years or so ago, and were severely hit in the pandemic. And their main new routes from a connectivity perspective are MSP and ATL - we as that already. The long view will win.

[Atrial78]

Alberta and Saskatchewan are wealthier provinces than Manitoba at the moment. Having some business travel is likely important to supporting those flights. Having the 7th largest and growing metropolitan area in Canada will mean more flights over time.

[Justanothermember]

Saskatchewan may be 'richer', but that doesn't automatically equate to more business. Winnipeg passenger counts blow Saskatoon and Regina out of the water, and we have the population to sustain more frequency and routes than we currently have. At this point we are definately underserved compared to 4-5 years ago, and as you mentioned, population growth will push for more routes and higher frequency on the existing routes. The fact that we will likely crack the 1M CMA mark before the end of the decade opens up a world of opportunity, including another airport expansion to handle the increase in passenger growth.

[Myst]

It’s got to be about providing service - and essential service first and foremost. Eat dinner before dessert… and that goes for all of us in the less developed air markets in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina, Thunder Bay, Saskatoon and Regina.

I think Thunder Bay is easier to look at in a more detached manner. They’re pretty reliant on Toronto routings. That’s definitely the first need for them, but second is Winnipeg. If you’ve only got one westbound, it’s got to be YWG. To support people and business. Preferably with connections to Saskatoon and Regina. Further west, too, although it’s not as bad (relatively speaking) to fly to Vancouver via Toronto as Regina via Toronto. The timings here aren’t great right now, and it can be necessary to backtrack. Better timing would help. A second westbound flight, and you’d also want Winnipeg. A third flight and maybe I’d rather Winnipeg, but if I lived in Thunder Bay that’s where I’d probably say the next should be MSP. Then arguably Calgary.

It’s good to see YQR-MSP and YXE-MSP returning. And I’d want to see our friends and neighbours in SK getting other services. But if I lived in SK, I’d sure want an option to fly via YWG to YOW, YUL, YHZ, YQT, ATL, and even as another timetable choice to YYZ or PHX. Same as I know I can’t expect to always fly nonstop and am glad to have some different routing options from here.

[Myst]

Delta schedule changes currently showing a change to 3x MSP, effective March 11. Initially a 717 and 2x E175, later switching to 1x a320 and 2x e175. Actually it’s 20x weekly, with the 2x on Saturday.

Departures out of YWG are 06:55, 12:30 and 17:38. Arrival times into YWG are 11:38, 16:53 and 23:33. That’s pretty good.

I think this may be the first time 717’s have been scheduled into YWG. I’ve quite liked flying on them on other routes.

I seem to recall last year the aircraft being scheduled getting updated again a little later, although not quite as easy to change a subcontracted (Skywest) flight as to swap an A320 for an A319.

[kattiff]

Originally Posted by Myst

Delta schedule changes currently showing a change to 3x MSP, effective March 11. Initially a 717 and 2x E175, later switching to 1x a320 and 2x e175. Actually it’s 20x weekly, with the 2x on Saturday.

Departures out of YWG are 06:55, 12:30 and 17:38. Arrival times into YWG are 11:38, 16:53 and 23:33. That’s pretty good.

I think this may be the first time 717’s have been scheduled into YWG. I’ve quite liked flying on them on other routes.

I seem to recall last year the aircraft being scheduled getting updated again a little later, although not quite as easy to change a subcontracted (Skywest) flight as to swap an A320 for an A319.

The 717 probably won’t fly here because there are no mechanics to fix the plane and Air Canada and Jazz fix the delta planes by contract and they probably won’t want to learn how to fix a 717 plane.
The 717 will probably switch to a 319 or 320

[Myst]

It’s what’s currently in the schedule. Which is always subject to change.

A&P licenses have endorsements, and I’m not sure of how FAA regulations work. But Skywest operated ERJ145’s to YWG for a while, although no other carrier here operated them. American MD80’s and RAF VC10’s in YYC were serviced by Air Canada mechanics at one point. They never flew either type.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

I don't know why WestJet doesn't make Winnipeg a connecting point for Regina as they do for Thunder Bay. That would really help to establish us as a strong regional hub. Saskatoon as wells although they may be too close to Alberta for that to happen.

For WestJet pushing as much traffic through Calgary is far more important than anything else. Redirecting Regina and Saskatoon risks dropping Calgary connecting passengers.

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by Myst

It’s got to be about providing service - and essential service first and foremost. Eat dinner before dessert… and that goes for all of us in the less developed air markets in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Regina, Thunder Bay, Saskatoon and Regina.

I think Thunder Bay is easier to look at in a more detached manner. They’re pretty reliant on Toronto routings. That’s definitely the first need for them, but second is Winnipeg. If you’ve only got one westbound, it’s got to be YWG. To support people and business. Preferably with connections to Saskatoon and Regina. Further west, too, although it’s not as bad (relatively speaking) to fly to Vancouver via Toronto as Regina via Toronto. The timings here aren’t great right now, and it can be necessary to backtrack. Better timing would help. A second westbound flight, and you’d also want Winnipeg. A third flight and maybe I’d rather Winnipeg, but if I lived in Thunder Bay that’s where I’d probably say the next should be MSP. Then arguably Calgary.

It’s good to see YQR-MSP and YXE-MSP returning. And I’d want to see our friends and neighbours in SK getting other services. But if I lived in SK, I’d sure want an option to fly via YWG to YOW, YUL, YHZ, YQT, ATL, and even as another timetable choice to YYZ or PHX. Same as I know I can’t expect to always fly nonstop and am glad to have some different routing options from here.

Going to point out Thunder Bay - Calgary exists. Its 3 times a week in the summer May - September On Westjet.