Calgary International Airport - New Terminal, Runway, Control Tower

[Fuzz]

I wonder if maybe just short staffed due to employees having covid?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Wouldn’t explain why they removed the extra metal detectors and luggage X-rays though. Usually they just leave those lines closed. They have straight up removed them and now 2 lines is the max and they are crazy slow. The capacity has now been semi permanently reduced.

[calgarygeologist]

Maybe not as convenient but use the other security lines at the airport instead of A. The other ones rarely have lines and this might not be applicable to you but they provide easier access to the domestic lounges.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Is that allowed? I’ve never tried to use a gate other than the one on my boarding pass. Then again I have nexus so I never wait long.



I’m wondering if maybe they don’t use metal detectors anymore and have to use a body scanner but only have one machine?

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Is that allowed? I’ve never tried to use a gate other than the one on my boarding pass. Then again I have nexus so I never wait long.



I’m wondering if maybe they don’t use metal detectors anymore and have to use a body scanner but only have one machine?

They don't care anymore which domestic security check you use. C is almost always the quickest but obviously the furthest from the A gates. B is usually not too bad but A can be a real disaster. With A there is either no line or it goes back to the convenience store.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Is that allowed? I’ve never tried to use a gate other than the one on my boarding pass. Then again I have nexus so I never wait long.



I’m wondering if maybe they don’t use metal detectors anymore and have to use a body scanner but only have one machine?

It should be fine to use B or C. I did that the last time I was there, as the lineups were too long. At that time, they were also using the D/E one at certain times for domestic flights, just to clear backlog, but I don't know if you can use those ones at other times.

[CroFlames]

There's a certain level of peace and Zen that you reach when you accept that the Calgary airport is the worst major airport in N America.

You are a trusted traveler? Great, get in line with everyone else. Need to go to the bathroom after a 7 hour flight from Hawaii? Walk 3 miles up and down 18 ramps, and there's only two urinals. Then proceed to our zoo of a customs area that is always changing because the initial design was garbage. The list goes on.

[rotten42]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

There's a certain level of peace and Zen that you reach when you accept that the Calgary airport is the worst major airport in N America.

You are a trusted traveler? Great, get in line with everyone else. Need to go to the bathroom after a 7 hour flight from Hawaii? Walk 3 miles up and down 18 ramps, and there's only two urinals. Then proceed to our zoo of a customs area that is always changing because the initial design was garbage. The list goes on.

I don't get the hate.... I could think of 5 major airports in the US I hate more than YYC.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by rotten42

I don't get the hate.... I could think of 5 major airports in the US I hate more than YYC.

Plenty of bad ones in the US too. But many of them were renos/expansions over the course of many years.

Calgary built a spanking new terminal and had all the space in the world to do it, can came up with this. It's terrible in every way.

Remember they didn't even have water fountains by design

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

There's a certain level of peace and Zen that you reach when you accept that the Calgary airport is the worst major airport in N America.

You ar

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Plenty of bad ones in the US too. But many of them were renos/expansions over the course of many years.

Nit picking but your beef appears to be with a renovation/expansion of YYC and not the airport as a whole as your first post implies. So would that not put it in the same category as the US airports that did the same thing?

FWIW I don't have issues with the new terminal at YYC, it's okay with me. I'll agree security screening is a mess but isn't that largely out of the hands so YYC and in the hands of CATSA?

[marsplasticeraser]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Nit picking but your beef appears to be with a renovation/expansion of YYC and not the airport as a whole as your first post implies. So would that not put it in the same category as the US airports that did the same thing?

FWIW I don't have issues with the new terminal at YYC, it's okay with me. I'll agree security screening is a mess but isn't that largely out of the hands so YYC and in the hands of CATSA?

I think the best thing I've heard about YYC is it is "OK", just like you write.

Many people feel YYC sucks. There are many aspects that suck. I have always been amazed how long it takes to get bags in Calgary, easily the longest consistently over any place I've travelled.

For a brand new design and a huge renovation of existing facilities, YYC should be much better than "OK". A simple solution would have been to look at other great airports and simply copy what they've done. For some reason we didn't, and it's embarrassing.

It may sound trivial, but the airport is visitors first experience of Calgary, and it's not a good one.

We should expect better when there is this much money involved.

For me, "OK" is a huge failure. All that money and we got this.

[FurnaceFace]

Well…..the new terminal, or at least the call to gate system and therefore limited seating, was modeled after Heathrow. It’s no Singapore or Dubai but I really don’t think that’s a reasonable expectation.

My biggest issue is the security lines as they are poorly done in the new terminal. Partly CATSA is to blame but I think the design doesn’t lend itself well to a completely separate line. I’m always annoyed getting mixed back into the regular line in both terminals. The water fiasco in the new terminal I’ll agree with. Someone should have gotten fired over that, it was dumb…or psychic given the last 2 years. The slow ground crews are on the airlines, or so YYC has told me. Just never check anything unless you absolutely have to and you won’t have to worry about it.

I’d pick Calgary way ahead of Toronto or Montreal though.

[The Fisher Account]

I gotta agree. Holy swing and a miss by YYC.

Billion dollars at their disposal. Lessons learned from thousands of airports before it. Totally underwhelming in absolutely EVERY aspect. They didn’t crush one single thing in the whole damn place. Pathetic.

[Weitz]

I dunno. I hated YYC after the construction but for whatever reason every time I go now it bothers me less and less.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by The Fisher Account

I gotta agree. Holy swing and a miss by YYC.

Billion dollars at their disposal. Lessons learned from thousands of airports before it. Totally underwhelming in absolutely EVERY aspect. They didn’t crush one single thing in the whole damn place. Pathetic.

I don't mind the US departure hall. The international departure hall is pretty disappointing though but I do like the Intl lounge.

[Bigtime]

The inaugural flight of Lynx Air is today, departing to Vancouver at 11:15.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...715Z/CYYC/CYVR

[Madman]

Something happen at the airport this afternoon?

Several flights were/are in holding patterns around the airport.

Oooh, didn't realize there was a blizzard.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Madman

Oooh, didn't realize there was a blizzard.

Some of the worst conditions YYC has seen in the last decade just because of the heavy wetness of the snow and the rate at which it fell. YYC has far better snow equipment than what you see you out on the roads, and the plows were struggling to manage it and getting jammed up.

[ajr4013]

Been ages since I've flown early but any tips for a weekend 6:20am flight to the States? I know customs only opens at 4:30 so does it make sense to be there 3 hours? Will be travelling with children and parents who need assistance if that helps.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

There's a certain level of peace and Zen that you reach when you accept that the Calgary airport is the worst major airport in N America.

You are a trusted traveler? Great, get in line with everyone else. Need to go to the bathroom after a 7 hour flight from Hawaii? Walk 3 miles up and down 18 ramps, and there's only two urinals. Then proceed to our zoo of a customs area that is always changing because the initial design was garbage. The list goes on.

I don't travel much now but in the past I can recall a few airports that are significantly worse than YYC