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Air Canada Jazz's last remaining domestic Canadian service (at least for the time being) from Edmonton, the country's 5th most populous city and a large economic center will now only be Calgary...no more Ft. Mac, GP, Yellowknife (if it truly is seasonal), Regina, Saskatoon, Victoria, Kelowna, or Winnipeg. Just Calgary. Wow.
I really really really hope it is someone who has the kahunas, connections, and relationships that can jump start this airport. I believe we need someone who can get back to the basics and refocus the airport on what it's core business is - transporting people - and focus much less on all the peripheral pet projects that have been the focus under his leadership.
I disagree - but I appreciate your perspective. YEG's ancillary revenue will be crucial for future air service growth. In terms of current air service, we are doing quite well in most markets with a few exceptions. Europe is now pretty well covered with two routes - both of those routes need time to mature, fill out, and boost frequencies. Canada is very well served, thanks to Flair and to a lesser extent, Swoop. We have service to more provinces than any airport other than Toronto. The major business markets all have frequent flights. USA is "ok" - expect it to get much better in the near term future with the restrictions easing. US vacation routes are very well served, but business routes are a point of weakness (a function of american carriers' pilot shortages). We do need more dedicated cargo routes but we've been seeing regular asian cargo charter for at least 2 years now, so that's good news. One risk of incentivising too many new routes is that you will cannibalize your existing routes. The new CEO needs to strategically focus on a few missing links, but needs to really continue the momentum on the cargo hub, ancillary development, because with the largest land mass of any airport in Canada, land development is YEG's secret weapon.
If you go to their website and look at their current network map, they have removed quite a bit of destinations from Edmonton . Off the top of my head, they included Los Angeles/Burbank, San Francisco, San Diego, Nashville, Comox, Kamloops, Kelowna, Comox, Saskatoon? Regina? Winnipeg and Cancun. They definitely scaled back Edmonton a lot. Maybe people are choosing Flair Instead as a lot of them were direct competition? Swoop just created those routes pretty much right after Flair announced theirs. Swoop also removed Chicago and New York from Toronto which was also going after Flair. I’d support Flair whenever possible.
Great to see! Would love for Flair to build it's brand in Edmonton. Would be great if more people from Edmonton knew the airline was based here.
I wish Flair allowed in-cabin pets and in the hold - from Mexico. So many people in CUN, PVR want nonstops and its easier for their pets. Right now only WS and AC allow pets from Mexico in-cabin and the in the hold/luggage or cargo that is seasonally due to heat embargo. And going to Edmonton WS is only seasonal non-stop service which is unfortunate. They were flying once a week all year a while back but alas that ended. Of course there is a heat embargo for kennels in the hold from May through to October - but in-cabin is allowed. The work around for most people is to fly with their pets to MEX then fly Aeromexico or AC to YVR YYX YUL and then onward. During heat embargo only flights from MEX are exempted.
That's a real shame, as it was a great flight and hub.
