Edmonton International Airport (EIA/YEG)

[David A]

It certainly isn’t a zero sum game

I agree. I don't think there is a lack of effort to try to improve air services by them. Any lack of results is mainly due to a condescending duopoloy.

Good customer service and improving it ranks low for our major airlines. So, you also work on the things you can and do the best with what you have.

 

[Glenco]

Probably the most significant development recently is the transfer of 150 employees to be based out of Edmonton by WS. That is 25 crews giving a lot more flexibility in scheduling flights. You have to wonder if Myron Keehn had anything to do with that or are we just too ready to dismiss this kind of development to feed our own narrative?

 

[air_ic]

West jet is shutting down Swoop. I don’t think there’s much impact to YEG as some of those flights from Swoop is already transferred to Westjet a few months ago. Swoop only has a few destinations out of YEG now compared to 20 destinations at the peak if I remember correctly.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/westjet-swoop-1.6871478

 

[BASE]

West jet is shutting down Swoop. I don’t think there’s much impact to YEG as some of those flights from Swoop is already transferred to Westjet a few months ago. Swoop only has a few destinations out of YEG now compared to 20 destinations at the peak if I remember correctly.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/westjet-swoop-1.6871478

The impact for YEG is the possibility of handling more connecting traffic. It wouldn't be totally unreasonable to think YEG could potentially get a Westjet flight to Abbotsford.

 

[BrettB]

A photo of a Swoop departure from YEG I took a couple of years ago from the hotel but never got to use:

 

[Westendyeg]

The impact for YEG is the possibility of handling more connecting traffic. It wouldn't be totally unreasonable to think YEG could potentially get a Westjet flight to Abbotsford.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Flair take a crack at YEG-YHM.

 

[IanO]

^^that's one of the coolest shots I've ever seen from YEG.

Thanks!

 

[780thegoat]

A photo of a Swoop departure from YEG I took a couple of years ago from the hotel but never got to use:

View attachment 484069

Where is this taken

 

[BrettB]

I was in a hotel room at the Renaissance overlooking runway 12

 

[TravellingChris]

Yah that space was not always open. Looks like Hudsons was just reducing the number of spaces they had at the airport. Now if they could get a local coffee company to take over one of the Starbuck spaces that would be great.

Good Earth Coffee is an Alberta-based company that has been taking over some of the old Starbucks spaces in Indigo and Chapters stores. It would be nice to have one at the airport.

 

[TravellingChris]

The lack of a Houston direct is really becoming a pain in the ass...

The problem is that neither AC nor UA is likely to restore a non-stop on that route. And neither will WS because neither Edmonton nor Houston is a WestJet hub. What might be possible is nonstop WS service to Atlanta, which is the most important hub for WestJet's chosen U.S. partner Delta. A non-stop to ATL would provide one-stop access to most of the onward destinations (particularly in Latin America) that service to IAH would. Of course, the downside is that this does nothing for you if you (like us) are an Aeroplan member and prefer to accumulate in that program.

 

[Oilers99]

The problem is that neither AC nor UA is likely to restore a non-stop on that route. And neither will WS because neither Edmonton nor Houston is a WestJet hub. What might be possible is nonstop WS service to Atlanta, which is the most important hub for WestJet's chosen U.S. partner Delta. A non-stop to ATL would provide one-stop access to most of the onward destinations (particularly in Latin America) that service to IAH would. Of course, the downside is that this does nothing for you if you (like us) are an Aeroplan member and prefer to accumulate in that program.

I agree re: landing the Westjet Atlanta flight would be great, even if it was 3X/week. I just figured with AC/UA previously providing IAH, I hope they bring it back. The Denver 2X daily flight is being heavily used so holding out hope IAH show up.

 

[Gronk!]

The problem is that neither AC nor UA is likely to restore a non-stop on that route. And neither will WS because neither Edmonton nor Houston is a WestJet hub. What might be possible is nonstop WS service to Atlanta, which is the most important hub for WestJet's chosen U.S. partner Delta. A non-stop to ATL would provide one-stop access to most of the onward destinations (particularly in Latin America) that service to IAH would. Of course, the downside is that this does nothing for you if you (like us) are an Aeroplan member and prefer to accumulate in that program.

I'm an Aeroplan member who accumulates points with my credit card, however I'll most likely use my points for merchandise instead of flights.

 

[BASE]

United has traditionally been pretty good to YEG and has had seen some success. I wouldn't count out a return of IAH which I think was more a casualty of the pandemic, and more recently slower Canadian travel recovery (compared to US domestic) and pilot/equipment shortages.

 

[TravellingChris]

I'm an Aeroplan member who accumulates points with my credit card, however I'll most likely use my points for merchandise instead of flights.

We've used Aeroplan for merchandise in recent years, because we were top-tier Air Miles members and got our flights that way. But once Sobeys left Air Miles, our ability to earn in that program pretty much vanished. So we've been drawing down our Air Miles balance for flights since the announcement. Once that's done, we'll be focusing our earning and redemptions on flights through Aeroplan.