Calgary International Airport - New Terminal, Runway, Control Tower

[temple5]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Yesterday Air Canada did indeed formally announce those YYC routes for next winter, but they also added in PSP with a daily flight. HUX has also been dropped:

YYC - PSP: NEW daily A320
YYC - PVR: increase to 4x weekly A320
YYC - SJD: increase to 3x weekly A320
YYC - PHX: increase to daily A320
YYC - OGG: 4x weekly MAX 8
YYC - CUN: 3x weekly MAX 8

YYC - OGG: 4x weekly MAX 8 ?

Max8 can do that directly - shiiiit that is sweet.

[Bigtime]

Yup, the MAX opens up all sorts of possibilities from YYC. I'd love to see PTY (Panama City) from here. Maybe WestJet gives it a shot as a winter seasonal?

[FurnaceFace]

Please add RTB (Roatan Honduras)

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by TopChed

Double-click airport code, right click, select "search google for ___"

The even easier way!

This all sounds pretty hard when I can just mail my Alderman.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by temple5

YYC - OGG: 4x weekly MAX 8 ?

Max8 can do that directly - shiiiit that is sweet.

A normal -800 could do it, but bags would be restricted. One day the 767 broke and we sent two from Edmonton to Maui. One was unrestricted. Eastbound with the wind is a cakewalk.

[Bigtime]

Airport CEO Bob Sartor doing the yearly presentation to City Council, love this stat:

As for aircraft noise, Sartor says the same two people (calling on avg four times a day) make up 48% of all noise complaints.

Reported by Scott Dippel with the CBC.

[Calgary14]

Whats the current parking situation at YYC? Is there any chance of getting a spot in the economy lot on Friday?

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Airport CEO Bob Sartor doing the yearly presentation to City Council, love this stat:

As for aircraft noise, Sartor says the same two people (calling on avg four times a day) make up 48% of all noise complaints.

Reported by Scott Dippel with the CBC.

Gotta wonder how many screws are loose in those heads. What would they like to do as an alternative? Move the airport?

Can we bring some of the really noisy planes of years past out of retirement just to buzz their houses?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Dan02

Gotta wonder how many screws are loose in those heads. What would they like to do as an alternative? Move the airport?

Can we bring some of the really noisy planes of years past out of retirement just to buzz their houses?

My mother used to live up in Vista Heights under the flight path of one of the runways. I'd go up and visit her, and she'd complain about the air noise. I could barely hear it (granted, lots of concerts and bars back in the day), but it would drive her insane. We'd be having a chat, and she'd suddenly zone out and start bitching about the incoming plane, long before I'd hear it. I guess people hear noise differently. When I lived downtown, I simply accepted the road noise outside my bedroom window. Only thing I could do about it is move, so I chose not to be bothered by it, because I loved the location. Tune it out, yo!

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by 4X4

My mother used to live up in Vista Heights under the flight path of one of the runways. I'd go up and visit her, and she'd complain about the air noise. I could barely hear it (granted, lots of concerts and bars back in the day), but it would drive her insane. We'd be having a chat, and she'd suddenly zone out and start bitching about the incoming plane, long before I'd hear it. I guess people hear noise differently. When I lived downtown, I simply accepted the road noise outside my bedroom window. Only thing I could do about it is move, so I chose not to be bothered by it, because I loved the location. Tune it out, yo!

Even if it does bother you that much, what use is it calling to complain about the noise almost 1500 times per year. That's some kinda crazy.

[rotten42]

Originally Posted by Dan02

Gotta wonder how many screws are loose in those heads. What would they like to do as an alternative? Move the airport?

Can we bring some of the really noisy planes of years past out of retirement just to buzz their houses?

727's should do the trick

[Lubicon]

Finally had a chance to use the new international terminal over spring break. I have to say after hearing all the negatives I had pretty low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. We left on a Sunday morning at 9am, there were a total of about 14 other international flights going out in the time we were there plus all the transborder stuff so a pretty decent amount of traffic. We departed out of gate 80 so just into the east finger of the terminal, and returned at D73 I believe.

Despite my general dislike of the call to gate system I didn't find the lack of amenities near the gates a big deal as the shops etc. were pretty close anyhow. Functionally things seemed to work pretty well overall so I'll give it a passing grade. My overall thoughts:

Security.
A bit of a fail here as they only had one checkpoint open initially (opened a second one when the line got pretty big). On the plus side it was staffed well enough that they had a guy initially directing people into the appropriate line and another guy instructing people as they got closer to the actual screening. This made the actual screening go much quicker as people were actually ready (belts off, laptops out etc.) when it was their turn. Given spring break and the large number of families travelling I thought this really helped move things along.

Call to gate/seating at gates:
As mentioned before I am not a fan of the whole call to gate concept (and how the terminal is now layed out despite YYC backing away from the process a little). Given that they did seem to have a decent number of seats near the gates or at least close enough that you could keep tabs on what was happening. The east finger is set up well enough that you care close to the shops/seats anyhow so not too bad. The south finger is however pretty isolated and seemed a little sterile. One thing I did not like was it seems some airlines made PA announcements that could be heard throughout the terminal and others only in the immediate vicinity of the gate. Not sure why this would be the case but this could lead to issues of people missing calls.

Aircraft Ops:
Things stood out here. First is the clear evidence that a central de-ice facility is needed. Deicing at the gate really slows down everything and needs to be centralized. Second thing (I think Acey had mentioned this) is it seems like the airside space between the C gates and D/E was poorly set up. On our return we gated at D73 (I think) and there was a single AC A319 pushing off the C side, and we had to wait for this to finish before we could get in. Seems pretty inefficient when the only two aircraft in the whole area cannot simultaneously move.

Arrival/Customs:
Yeah it's a pretty long walk but that's how it goes, it didn't find it so bad. Bright and airy and pretty well marked so it was easy to find your way to Customs but I think they are missing a great opportunity here by not showcasing Alberta more with pictures, murals etc. It's pretty sterile and could certainly use some color. Arriving at Customs there were plenty of people to direct you to the appropriate lines. I loved the automated scanners although they are set up a little strange in that you need to backtrack out the way you came in when you are finished rather than continuing ahead to the next line. This causes a bit of a traffic jam with people entering and exiting the machine area at the same place. The whole Customs process is pretty slick and moved along well but perhaps not surprising as there were only three flights arriving at this time so not a lot of people. Still, I counted a total of 10 CBSA agents and things move along quickly so the process certainly appears to be better than last time I came through.


Overall the terminal is very bright and open I thought which makes for a pretty pleasant experience. A few items certainly could be improved but overall I'll give it a passing grade, at least for international travel.

[Nufy]

Originally Posted by Dan02

Even if it does bother you that much, what use is it calling to complain about the noise almost 1500 times per year. That's some kinda crazy.

Setting precedent for a lawsuit in case something happens to their hearing in the future...

Or to eventually get some sort of compensation would be my guess.

[tete]

Our plane from Vancouver last week arrived at the new terminal, holy crap that's a long walk to get to domestic baggage. I kept thinking as we walked and walked and walked that we'd missed a turn somewhere. Our luggage was already on the carousel when we arrived, so I guess that was a win?

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by tete

Our plane from Vancouver last week arrived at the new terminal, holy crap that's a long walk to get to domestic baggage. I kept thinking as we walked and walked and walked that we'd missed a turn somewhere. Our luggage was already on the carousel when we arrived, so I guess that was a win?

Considering it's a domestic flight, the issue is that you arrived in the international terminal.

[tete]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Considering it's a domestic flight, the issue is that you arrived in the international terminal.

I know - I have no idea why we arrived there.

Wait, I just checked the map - we arrived at C73 (or 72) - is that in the new terminal or is that the old one? None of the area was familiar to me, it seemed quite new, but I'm wondering if I was just in an area of the old terminal that I'd never been in before. Nonethless, it was quite the hike.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by tete

I know - I have no idea why we arrived there.

Wait, I just checked the map - we arrived at C73 (or 72) - is that in the new terminal or is that the old one? None of the area was familiar to me, it seemed quite new, but I'm wondering if I was just in an area of the old terminal that I'd never been in before. Nonethless, it was quite the hike.

That's part of the new terminal, but gates that function both as domestic and international.

[Ryan Coke]

It is the way the airport authority set it up, and yes it is problematic.

Imagine if you had a tight connection to make....

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by tete

Our plane from Vancouver last week arrived at the new terminal, holy crap that's a long walk to get to domestic baggage. I kept thinking as we walked and walked and walked that we'd missed a turn somewhere. Our luggage was already on the carousel when we arrived, so I guess that was a win?

Maybe Calgary took a page from Houston on improving customer satisfaction.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/o...ture.html?_r=1

They found that it took passengers a minute to walk from their arrival gates to baggage claim and seven more minutes to get their bags. Roughly 88 percent of their time, in other words, was spent standing around waiting for their bags.

So the airport decided on a new approach: instead of reducing wait times, it moved the arrival gates away from the main terminal and routed bags to the outermost carousel. Passengers now had to walk six times longer to get their bags. Complaints dropped to near zero.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Aircraft Ops:
Things stood out here. First is the clear evidence that a central de-ice facility is needed. Deicing at the gate really slows down everything and needs to be centralized. Second thing (I think Acey had mentioned this) is it seems like the airside space between the C gates and D/E was poorly set up. On our return we gated at D73 (I think) and there was a single AC A319 pushing off the C side, and we had to wait for this to finish before we could get in. Seems pretty inefficient when the only two aircraft in the whole area cannot simultaneously move.

I thought that central de icing would be the preferred method until I flew out of an airport that had such a facility this winter. Central de-icing wasn't any quicker or efficient. It actually seemed to take longer because there was more stopping and waiting. We were pushed back from the gate but had to wait on the pad for quite a while. Then we started to taxi towards the facility but we had to hold twice to allow other aircrafts to proceed. Finally at the de-icing facility we seemed to have a lower proirity in a smaller aircraft as larger planes proceeded before us. Maybe that was just a uniquely bad experience but it seemed to take forever and the system in Calgary seemed better.