Calgary International Airport - New Terminal, Runway, Control Tower

[Weitz]

Is there a way to look at what flights leave YYC on a specific day?

[Stealth22]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Incorrect. The cafeteria is directly above US customs. The duty free shop is north of it.

2ndly, it's a BRAND NEW BUILDING. There were no restrictions on design.

Still...empty space that costs money to build, or revenue-generating shops and fast food?

[FireGilbert]

I finally got to check out the new terminal and liked what I saw. It is a spacious building with some interesting art work, good lighting design, and a solid choice of places to eat and drink. I liked being able to grab a sandwich from Spolumbos, while my wife and daughter liked the children's play area. I also found going through security and customs to be very smooth and easy although I did arrive and leave on a Thursday which I don't think is the busiest time.

My only criticism was how they half assed the call to gate system by announcing the gates well ahead of time yet not having enough seats available at the gates. Either have seats available or block off the gates/don't announce until as late as possible. That one sign they had telling people to hang around the main area because there were not many seats at the gate didn't really help.

[Acey]

They designed the terminal from the ground up to use CTG but got bullied into reversing it because their initial implementation was terrible, now they're screwed.

The nature of the segregated international and transborder areas lends itself well to CTG if they had done it properly; like for gates 70-73 you need what, 100+ chairs for each in the domestic holdroom, then a 100 chairs for each upstairs in the transborder area, then 100+ chairs in the international holdroom. For some gates you need 3x more chairs than you would in a normal terminal, which is a ton of wasted space... hence common areas and CTG.

Everybody just wanted CTG gone without really considering what would happen now that it's gone.

[FireGilbert]

Originally Posted by Acey

They designed the terminal from the ground up to use CTG but got bullied into reversing it because their initial implementation was terrible, now they're screwed.

The nature of the segregated international and transborder areas lends itself well to CTG if they had done it properly; like for gates 70-73 you need what, 100+ chairs for each in the domestic holdroom, then a 100 chairs for each upstairs in the transborder area, then 100+ chairs in the international holdroom. For some gates you need 3x more chairs than you would in a normal terminal, which is a ton of wasted space... hence common areas and CTG.

Everybody just wanted CTG gone without really considering what would happen now that it's gone.

Thanks for the explanation. It's a shame they got bullied into changing things as the current compromise set up has the worst of both worlds. They should have just stuck it out with CTG. It's not like they would have been boycotted in favour of another airport. People weren't going to drive to Edmonton or take the bus because they were confused with a new system.

[Kerplunk]

Originally Posted by Acey

They designed the terminal from the ground up to use CTG but got bullied into reversing it because their initial implementation was terrible, now they're screwed.

Everybody just wanted CTG gone without really considering what would happen now that it's gone.

So they screw up the initial design, and then the implementation, and when people call then out on it, it's other peoples fault the system doesn't work? Wish I could do that, would make work a lot easier to deal with.

[Bigtime]

WestJet is building a new hangar for the 787-9, directly east of the existing hangar:



Apparently it will be large enough to fit 3 787-9's in at a time.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Kerplunk

So they screw up the initial design, and then the implementation, and when people call then out on it, it's other peoples fault the system doesn't work? Wish I could do that, would make work a lot easier to deal with.

The design itself isn't terrible, maybe a bit too much walking but that's the price to be paid for trisector gates and separate international and transborder halls and can be remedied using moving sidewalks, etc.

By implementation, I mean airline cooperation, signage, partitioning, etc., stuff that's not directly the fault of the guys who decided on split international and transborder halls.

It wasn't working great, but it was eventually going to get better. Now it has no chance of ever getting better.

[FurnaceFace]

CTG at Heathrow was a simple, painless process. The only negative was you had one main seating area which was always busy and noisy. Beyond that, the actual "oh, our flight just got posted, we need to go to gate x" was simple. The new terminal here should have ended up being similar. If you can have the entire planet flying through Heathrow manage, I would think us polite Canadians and friends could cope too.

[Acey]

Again, the problem with our terminal is that we have trisector gates. I haven't been to Heathrow since I was a toddler but I'm pretty sure they don't have trisector gates.

[nik-]

The problem isn't those gates, those gates are there to facilitate their biggest customer. They didn't plan around them properly and now have fewer of them.

Their problem is that they poorly executed the planning of the new terminal.

It seems to be a serious lack of consultation with their most important carrier.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

I will be in Heathrow on Monday and will check for trisector gates. What are trisector gates? 3 arms?

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

CTG at Heathrow was a simple, painless process. The only negative was you had one main seating area which was always busy and noisy. Beyond that, the actual "oh, our flight just got posted, we need to go to gate x" was simple. The new terminal here should have ended up being similar. If you can have the entire planet flying through Heathrow manage, I would think us polite Canadians and friends could cope too.

The difference is probably that Heathrow uses CTG for logistical benefit. So many planes, passengers, gate changes, etc. It just isn't needed in Calgary at this time, and perhaps I'm being overly cynical, the only reason it seemed to exist was to keep people spending money in the main area instead of, well, not spending money at the gate.

And now more of a general reply about the terminal:

That being said, I was able to use the new terminal twice this summer. Once on a flight to the US, and once at one of the swing gates for a domestic flight.

I was generally pleased with the whole experience, aside from the common gripes that have been posted here. Our gate for the US flight was one of the ones at the very end of E, and the only other busy gate at the time was... the one right beside that one. So nearly everyone in the entire E wing was standing around at the end (not seated, of course. This was in June, so maybe they've added a few seats). I'm no expert on airport operations, but it seemed odd that two busy flights departing at a similar time would use gates in such proximity, when the rest of the wing was empty.

Upon returning, I liked the big, open hallways and ramps down into the customs area. The process was nice and smooth with the new computers. No issues there.

Our domestic flight at one of the C swing gates was fine. A bit boring down there, but they had a shop at least. Nothing to write home about, and not as nice as the rest of the new terminal, but not unlike any other random gate at a random airport. We had some time so I took the YYC Link over to A to get a bite to eat, and although it still seems like a bit of an afterthought, the YYC Link thing does what it needs to do.

Overall I had a favourable opinion of it, but not really blown away. I had been to the public areas of the terminal before, and liked it. The issues seem to be more around the operation of it (seating, gate assignment, getting people through pre-clearance/security more efficiently, etc.). I even had a sip from a water fountain.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

I will be in Heathrow on Monday and will check for trisector gates. What are trisector gates? 3 arms?

Gates that allow for domestic, transborder and international operations. I can almost guarantee they're not there. At YYC, gates 70-73 can be fed from the domestic holdroom, the transborder area upstairs, and the international holdroom. The very nature of this segregation is the problem and creates long distances and inefficiencies. I am here almost every day and have a front row seat to the mayhem, I refuse to acknowledge that any other reason is the fundamental problem.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Acey

Gates that allow for domestic, transborder and international operations. I can almost guarantee they're not there. At YYC, gates 70-73 can be fed from the domestic holdroom, the transborder area upstairs, and the international holdroom. The very nature of this segregation is the problem and creates long distances and inefficiencies. I am here almost every day and have a front row seat to the mayhem, I refuse to acknowledge that any other reason is the fundamental problem.

And again, their main carrier has this requirement and they didn't plan around it.

[Acey]

Really it's WS that didn't plan around the reduction in swings, and took a big hit. Their scheduling for next summer show significantly less towing operations. Even with less tows off IFP, several problems will remain... none of which are due to excessive towing operations which are simply the nature of operating a hub. Nobody "requires" trisector gates. It's not even a thing at most hubs.

[Drummer]

Question for anyone who knows. I have a family member flying Westjet from Saskatoon to YYC, then from YYC to Vegas. The layover in Calgary is under 1.5 hours. So when they land in Calgary, they would immediately walk to the LINK shuttle to take them to the US customs area? What about their checked bags? Does US customs have a photo of the bags and you say "yep that's mine"? Also would they need to go through security again since the LINK is post security? Do you think it will be enough time to connect?

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by Drummer

Question for anyone who knows. I have a family member flying Westjet from Saskatoon to YYC, then from YYC to Vegas. The layover in Calgary is under 1.5 hours. So when they land in Calgary, they would immediately walk to the LINK shuttle to take them to the US customs area? What about their checked bags? Does US customs have a photo of the bags and you say "yep that's mine"? Also would they need to go through security again since the LINK is post security? Do you think it will be enough time to connect?

Biggest factor in this, will the time of day, and the day of the week. If it is early morning on a weekday, US Customs tends to be very busy.

[Drummer]

Originally Posted by Flacker

Biggest factor in this, will the time of day, and the day of the week. If it is early morning on a weekday, US Customs tends to be very busy.

About 11am on a Monday. The Vegas flight is a 12:45pm departure.

[Flacker]

Originally Posted by Drummer

About 11am on a Monday. The Vegas flight is a 12:45pm departure.

That should be lots of time to get through US customs/Security.