Calgary International Airport - New Terminal, Runway, Control Tower

[Weitz]

It’s been a while since I have used the west jet lounge at the airport. But I have an International flight coming up with access to the lounge. Am I correct that it’s in the domestic part of the airport? We go there first and then have to head over to the international wing when it’s time to board?

[Art Vandelay]

Originally Posted by Weitz

It’s been a while since I have used the west jet lounge at the airport. But I have an International flight coming up with access to the lounge. Am I correct that it’s in the domestic part of the airport? We go there first and then have to head over to the international wing when it’s time to board?

Yes the Elevation Lounge is in concourse B, you can head over to D from there via the Link train thing or walk.

[Enoch Root]

there is a westjet lounge in the international terminal - turn left, left immediately after the duty free

[sa226]

This is going to sound super nitpicky, but if you're traveling international (Mexico, Europe) You use the domestic lounge. If you're traveling transborder (US) that is the lounge just after duty free after clearing customs.

So if you're traveling internationally and want to use the lounge you have a little but of backtracking to do to concourse B.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

there is a westjet lounge in the international terminal - turn left, left immediately after the duty free

That is the US lounge. There is an international lounge entrance/elevator beside the Vin Room down a little hallway. In both cases those lounges are Aspire lounges and not actually the WestJet lounge. The WestJet lounge is a bit better, in my opinion, although the Aspire lounges are good too.

[sa226]

Can you use the vouchers to access the aspire lounges? Or just the Westjet ones?

With the ability to convert your companion voucher into lounge vouchers the Westjet lounges aren't exactly business exclusive. Lots of kids and families.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

there is a westjet lounge in the international terminal - turn left, left immediately after the duty free

Isn’t that in the USA terminal?

[Bigtime]

Lynx Air announcing service from YYC to LAS, LAX, and PHX starting in February:

LAS 4x weekly
LAX 3x weekly
PHX 3x weekly

https://ishrionaviation.com/news/lyn...hoenix-orlando

[Bigtime]

Huh, WestJet and the Provincial Government sign into a partnership to further aviation growth in Alberta. WestJet also says ALL 787 intercontinental flights will be out of Calgary, that's a pretty interesting detail. Completely abandoning Toronto for trans-Atlantic service with them?

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...ter%3A20221005

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Huh, WestJet and the Provincial Government sign into a partnership to further aviation growth in Alberta. WestJet also says ALL 787 intercontinental flights will be out of Calgary, that's a pretty interesting detail. Completely abandoning Toronto for trans-Atlantic service with them?

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...ter%3A20221005

They did announce earlier this year, might have been in the early summer, that they were going to refocus on a western Canada based operation so this shouldn't be too surprising. I think this is great news and it should lead to more non-stop destinations out of Calgary and maybe it will lead to lower prices out here.

[Bigtime]

That’s true, but I didn’t have them bailing on YYZ completely with the 787 on my bingo card.

[Fuzz]

Good news for us. More direct Europe flights? Yes please. Caribean destinations? Uh huh. Anything that avoids the hellscape of ruined vacations that is YYZ is a plus!

[Maritime Q-Scout]

WestJet's plan is very confusing to me.

I get that the company is "WEST"-jet, but the abandonment of the east by Encore, and the reduction in the largest market in the nation, is just... bizarre.

Like ok, you want to reduce overhead. Cool. Perhaps that means the YHZ-YQY flights disappear.

But YHZ-YYT? Really? That's non-snesical to me.

YHZ-YUL/YOW really?

Now, I do think Atlantic Canada is the perfect fit for a 50 seat aircraft as it's backbone and that 76 seats is too big tk be useful. But is it really worth washing your hands clean?

Can you not subcontract to PAL? EVAS?

Honestly, I just don't get it.

Now 787 only out of Canada's 4th busiest airport, not 1 ot 3?

Like... are... are you sure? Really sure?

[Bigtime]

I think they are really planning to consolidate in YYC and make it their true "fortress hub". Drive connecting traffic onto the 787's operating overseas flights.

What will be interesting is to see what this does to AC and their presence here at YYC, and their overseas flights to LHR and FRA.

[Fuzz]

I presume the ultimate goal of taking the company private is to increase its value to go public at some point. With that in mind, it may make sense to consolidate and do less in YYZ, which I presume is more expensive, and also a bit of a disaster. They then show profitability and efficiency, and when it is time to go public can talk about unrealized eastern potential for expansion.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Kind of odd that WJA would be moving back towards "hub" operations when "point to point" is the latest thing.

I'm thinking AC's new 321XLR's are changing the economics on the TATL routes - and WJA doesn't want to get into that gunfight with its current fleet model. Here's where AC can go with it's XLR's: 4,000nm ranges from Vancouver (YVR; yellow), Calgary (YYC; orange); Toronto (YYZ; red); and Montréal (YUL; blue). Image: GCMap.

NSFW!

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Huh, WestJet and the Provincial Government sign into a partnership to further aviation growth in Alberta. WestJet also says ALL 787 intercontinental flights will be out of Calgary, that's a pretty interesting detail. Completely abandoning Toronto for trans-Atlantic service with them?

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/news/2...ter%3A20221005

Originally Posted by Bigtime

That’s true, but I didn’t have them bailing on YYZ completely with the 787 on my bingo card.

Didn't they only run YYZ-LGW on the 787 anyway? Daily, but I thought that was their only Dreamliner trans Atlantic route. This doesn't necessarily mean the 787 never sees YYZ, or even YVR either. They currently do a YYC-YYZ turn, and they've done YYZ-YVR in the past (mainly to give the aircraft something to do during Covid) but it's conceivable they could run a YYC-YYZ-YVR triangle.

Summer sees decent usage of the 787, winter is a little more challenging. When Europe drops off there aren't a lot of routes to keep them busy (and the utilization up). Will be interesting to see how they build up YYC to give them something to do.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Kind of odd that WJA would be moving back towards "hub" operations when "point to point" is the latest thing.

I'm thinking AC's new 321XLR's are changing the economics on the TATL routes - and WJA doesn't want to get into that gunfight with its current fleet model. Here's where AC can go with it's XLR's: 4,000nm ranges from Vancouver (YVR; yellow), Calgary (YYC; orange); Toronto (YYZ; red); and Montréal (YUL; blue). Image: GCMap.

NSFW!

WestJet started going to a hub centric approach about 5 years ago, shortly after I started working there. They started pushing everything through YYC, YVR and YYZ. I remember flying from Regina to Orlando when I first started working there and then the next year or so they eliminated pretty much all the US destinations from places like Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina and Kelowna.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Kind of odd that WJA would be moving back towards "hub" operations when "point to point" is the latest thing.

I'm totally ignorant on this, but out of curiosity, has recent history shown point to point to be extremely fragile? Any disruptions have massive ripple effects, where as the hub model lets you absorb issues a lot quicker/easier?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Didn't they only run YYZ-LGW on the 787 anyway? Daily, but I thought that was their only Dreamliner trans Atlantic route. This doesn't necessarily mean the 787 never sees YYZ, or even YVR either. They currently do a YYC-YYZ turn, and they've done YYZ-YVR in the past (mainly to give the aircraft something to do during Covid) but it's conceivable they could run a YYC-YYZ-YVR triangle.

They also ran Barcelona from YYZ.