Quoting Sebring (Reply 9): Most transatlantic flights have poor timings in at least one direction. I have never been enthused about arriving in London, Paris or Frankfurt at 6:30 a.m., when my hotel room won't be ready until after noon. The YYT-LHR timing was fine, just not ideal coming back, but if one is resident at YYT, at least he could go right home to bed. |
Very true, however, a 0630 arrival is well timed for connections. Getting into LHR after 2130, eliminates pretty much all connections. No connections = not a chance of this being a success. I think I saw in Stats Can's last int'l O&D publication that YYT-London was around 20,000 O&D pax per year...doing the math with that number and it's easy to figure out it won't work purely on O&D, even with a 319. Had AC been able to obtain additional slots at their normal LHR operating times, this route probably would have succeeded. Having said that, you've got to believe someone will be flying St. John's-London next summer at least on a weekly basis. Others seem to say Astraeus will return.
Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 24): Yes, and there are many larger cities in Canada (some much larger, e.g. YWG, population 700,000) with no direct service to Europe (AC did operate YWG-LHR nonstop at one time, once or twice a week and seasonal if not mistaken). And how many cities in the USA with a population of 180,000 have nonstop service to Europe? |
Hehe and there's also itty bitty Whitehorse, population ~ 23,000 with summer seasonal direct service to Europe.
Quoting N1120A (Reply 27): Quoting Viscount724 (Reply 24): And how many cities in the USA with a population of 180,000 have nonstop service to Europe? How many are that isolated from a hub, in the wrong direction, and have strong ties to the country? None. |
Precisely. Also, how many US cities with a population of 1-2 million have nonstop service to Europe? Not many. Canadians travel outside their borders a lot more than Americans do.
Quoting Connies4ever (Reply 29): YWG - LHR was up to 5x weekly in the 70s, but now is a merely a Zoom market, 1x. Mostly I think YWG does not have a big biz market, not many HQs in the city, therefore a lot of VFR traffic, which has low yields. AC and others have concluded, probably rightly, that their metal is better deployed in other markets. The cnx via YYZ are actually pretty good, I use them myself. |
Zoom is flying YWG-LGW at 2x weekly this summer!
Quoting Voodoo (Reply 46): Personally, I think the whole 'controversy' would be moot now if YHZ pax on the LHR-YYT-YHZ leg could have been made exempt from the regulation that made them waste time and energy going through customs at YYT. If they were avoiding the flight I wouldn't blame them. |
AC could have done that, but it would have prevented them from carrying any local YYT-YHZ pax on that flight. Mixing int'l and domestic pax is a big no-no of course.