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Edmonton International Airport (EIA/YEG)

yeggator said:
Alright let's stop the toxicity now. I'm very much Team Edmonton and Team EIA but IanO's criticism of occidentalcapital is valid. First of all, let's get it out of the way that YYC is not the end-all-be-all driver of Calgary's economy that propelled it ahead of Edmonton. That is very much the oil headquarters there, which only exist in Calgary because the first oil deposits in Alberta were found in the Turner Valley area nearby and then as more oil companies popped up over the century, they simply set themselves up where the oil headquarters already were. Those head offices and their lucrative business travellers are the reason why YYC became so successful in an era of the hub-and-spoke model being pre-eminent in aviation. Bigger trends in the overall oil economy whose benefits were mainly felt by the Calgary head offices are the main reason Calgary surpassed Edmonton and more international flights were a spinoff from that. Edmonton did put up decent competition with Wardair and the international flights before, but our lack of a unified airport hub and oil head offices simply didn't work in our favour. However, I will concede that in recent years, despite the 1million+ size of the city, Air Canada and Westjet have been shafting us.

Now play nice everyone.
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@EdmTrekker I'll echo this words, to an extent.

In recent years, especially after the last oil crash, YYC has been one of the big drivers of Calgary's economy (and it became so for the reasons mentioned + proximity to Alberta's biggest tourist draw).

In all fairness, Edmonton did a very poor job keeping the head offices that we had (Telus and Shaw, I'm looking at you!!!) and an even worse job attracting new companies, especially in the last 2/3 decades and, even if we acknowledge that the provincial government has had a hand in making this worse, Edmonton is also a victim of it's own inferiority complex and lack of leadership.

To your point, I agree that some here, and not just Ian, have a somewhat downer perspective, but I honestly believe that it comes more from being successively disappointed by what has (not) happened/improved over the span of many years, not a lack of care for Edmonton (much on the contrary).

We may all disagree, from time to time (and I still disagree with @IanO most of the time), but we all need to keep it civil and acknowledge that we all love and believe in Edmonton, and it's potential, and want to see the city succeed.
 
EdmTrekker said:
Which part? Edmonton was indeed larger than Calgary until 2 decades ago. Calgary amalgamation benefited from growth under a single city whereas Edmonton suffered by not being allowed amalgamation of its suburbs. Indeed it was crony American capitalism in the oil patch that moved offices from Edmonton to Calgary. IanO your constant put down of Edmonton and boosting of our southern city neighbour is really irksome at best and spiteful at worst. Maybe it’s time for you to take a hiatus?
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Population has little to do with it, but the composition certainly does.

-Calgary's GDP is 20% higher than ours
-HQ numbers are 5 x - cronyism had far less of an impact than did a pro-business, can-do, let's all pull together attitude
-Banff has a material impact to air service

It's coming from a place of love and honesty, honesty and love. Edmonton is a good city, but far too often accepts a very low bar for far too many things and then pats itself on the back for that 'achievement'. It's so damn comfortable with good enough and now looking in from the outside it has never been so obvious.

Let's be honest with our shortcomings or areas we want to drive improvement and build from there.
 
Here's the math:

Calgary Herald reports that long haul route has an impact of $25-million. (https://calgaryherald.com/news/loca...dreamliner-fills-up-for-maiden-flight-to-rome). I have also heard numbers anywhere from $30-$50 million for daily long haul services.

Ian has reported that there are 8 long haul routes running out of Calgary. That equals somewhere in the range of $200 million - $400 million in economic impact. Add in the forced hubbing of western Canadian passengers at YYC perpetuated by WestJet/Air Canada (let's call that another 100 daily short/medium haul routes) and you are easily in the billions of dollars of impact.

The population between Edmonton and Calgary is within spitting distance 1.59m in Calgary and 1.51 in Edmonton. If even a small portion of that additional economic activity were directed to Edmonton rather than Calgary, you would see further narrowing of the population, improvement of job growth in YEG, etc, and I maintain that it would end Calgary's lead on the population race.

And yes, when you have Government with active policies to supress business development in Edmonton, in favour of Calgary, egged on by the "Calgary School", the business community, philanthropists, newspaper columnists, etc, that is crony capitalism. Calgary is so propped up that it is not even funny. Seems most cannot or do not want to recognize this, but it is what it is. Economic decisions are the product of policy, economics, politics.

I agree that YEG needs to be much more robust in attracting air service and business development. Flair is a good start, though.
 
IanO said:
YEG losing YUL on Westjet it seems.
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An opportunity for Flair to increase its 2x weekly nonstops. Also an opportunity for AC to grab what little traffic there was on the WS flights on its 2x daily nonstops YUL-YEG. I can't imagine Swoop would fly to YUL as they don't have. single flight serving YUL.
 
Windermere said:
The downside of Flair.
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Actually the downside is Westjet routing passengers through YYC. Perhaps that is the real reason. AC does well with its 2 daily nonstops from YEG to YUL. Lets not forget Montreal is an Air Canada city and Westjet plays a backseat ... and Edmonton losing seasonal service from Westjet is no big deal. Flair and Air Canada are flying year round.
 
Yes there are, but when your country's 2nd largest and your airport's largest carrier pulls back from the 3rd largest centre in Canada... you take notice and should make it news.
 
IanO said:
Yes there are, but when your country's 2nd largest and your airport's largest carrier pulls back from the 3rd largest centre in Canada... you take notice and should make it news.
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Montreal is 2nd largest metro and twice as large as Vancouver metro and 3 tines as large as Edmonton or Calgary. By airport passenger volume YUL is either 3rd or 4th depending on the year. and no doubt will return to 2nd with some strategic changes and organic growth at YUL.
 
EdmTrekker said:
Montreal is 2nd largest metro and twice as large as Vancouver metro and 3 tines as large as Edmonton or Calgary. By airport passenger volume YUL is either 3rd or 4th depending on the year. and no doubt will return to 2nd with some strategic changes and organic growth at YUL.
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Correction: Montreal is 2nd largest metro, about 30% larger than Vancouver metro and about 2.5 times Edmonton or Calgary.
Also, it is unlikely that YUL will be back at 2nd for passenger volume anytime soon, considering all of the Asian connections YVR has and competition with YYT and YHZ for European routes. They might be back to 3rd, passing Calgary back up again, but that's it.
 
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