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Edmonton International Airport (EIA/YEG)

The regularly scheduled widebody on YYZ-YEG accomplishes 2 things for Air Canada, from my perspective:

1) Significantly increased cargo volume, and larger palletized cargo that 7M8 can't carry at all. 321 can carry pallets, but obviously not what a 330 can carry

2) Consistent lie flat business class product in the face of increased competition on the route, and slowly begins to restore the faith of longtime AC elites in Edmonton

Even if they don't fill the 330 and a lot of the J fares are upgrades, AC "defending turf" on YYZ-YEG is a great sign as far as I'm concerned.

I have been on on this flight a number of times with the lie-flats its a great option v Westjet's 'business class'. I hope AC continues to show Edmonton some love going forward.
 
I sure hope Flair can sort out the dispute with the lessor. While YEG has made pretty significant gains from WestJet and (to a lesser extent) Air Canada, losing Flair would still be a negative. Suspect they will need to recapitalize and send some messaging that the issues have been sorted out, otherwise marketplace confidence will drop. I can only imagine the Flair people are working all the options as we speak to sort this out. They've certainly overcome adversity before, and their actual operational performance has lately been good.
 
I sure hope Flair can sort out the dispute with the lessor. While YEG has made pretty significant gains from WestJet and (to a lesser extent) Air Canada, losing Flair would still be a negative. Suspect they will need to recapitalize and send some messaging that the issues have been sorted out, otherwise marketplace confidence will drop. I can only imagine the Flair people are working all the options as we speak to sort this out. They've certainly overcome adversity before, and their actual operational performance has lately been good.
I agree, a lot of the improvements in service we have got, or are getting, I think are due to competitive pressure Flair is putting on the other carriers.

The bank does not immediately repossess your house or car if you are a few days late, so it seems a bit like an over reaction. From what I can gather in the news, the lessor was being quite aggressive and trying to send a message which Flair did not expect. I doubt the lessor would take the same approach with a larger airline.

It doesn't help get passenger confidence, but if they can get this resolved, it will probably be forgotten fairly soon. Passengers seem to be more focused on low fares.
 
And no comment from WestJet ...humph. I wonder which government bodies could investigate whether there has been deliberate malfeasance to Flair and Transport Canada and Competition Bureau mandates.
Sounds oddly similar to when Air Canada and WestJet narced on Flair and put in a formal complaint to the CTA that Flair wasn't playing by the foreign ownership rules in an effort to shut them down and surprise, they werent shut down by the CTA.

 
I have been on on this flight a number of times with the lie-flats its a great option v Westjet's 'business class'. I hope AC continues to show Edmonton some love going forward.
To be fair, the only thing WestJet calls "Business Class" is the lie-flats on their Dreamliner, which are pretty much identical to AC's lie-flats. AC makes it a bit more confusing by calling the 2x2 seats at the front of their narrowbodies "Business Class", and then differentiating it in their booking engine as "includes lie-flats". WestJet just calls those seats Premium.
 
First time in a bit using the Value Park and the airport changed the system from insert your credit card (after you pay online) to a QR code on your receipt email. What a bunch of crap. What used to be quick now is slow and the the QR code didn’t even work, you know there is a problem when they now have an attendant at the entrance to print off a parking ticket at 5 am. Who was the brainiac that messed up with a system that was already efficient and good? Rant over.
 
First time in a bit using the Value Park and the airport changed the system from insert your credit card (after you pay online) to a QR code on your receipt email. What a bunch of crap. What used to be quick now is slow and the the QR code didn’t even work, you know there is a problem when they now have an attendant at the entrance to print off a parking ticket at 5 am. Who was the brainiac that messed up with a system that was already efficient and good? Rant over.
Agreed, I parked there for a few days a couple of weekends ago and had the same QR code issue. I hope they change it back since there was no issue using the credit card.
 
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Agree I never had any issues with the system previously. Not sure what improvement this was. Were there a lot of people complaining they forgot the card the parking was paid for with or accidentally using the wrong one maybe?
 
Learned something interesting today about Air Canada. Air Canada has pilot bases in Montreal (of course), Toronto (of course), Vancouver (of course), and............Winnipeg.

Interesting that they hold a pilot base, which I imagine is the smallest, in Winnipeg while serving the exact same 3 mainline destinations as Edmonton.

Anyone have insights on why Air Canada has a base there?
 
Learned something interesting today about Air Canada. Air Canada has pilot bases in Montreal (of course), Toronto (of course), Vancouver (of course), and............Winnipeg.

Interesting that they hold a pilot base, which I imagine is the smallest, in Winnipeg while serving the exact same 3 mainline destinations as Edmonton.

Anyone have insights on why Air Canada has a base there?
Historical. Winnipeg used to be quite prominent in the west. I think it may have been a condition of privatization to keep the base open there.
 

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