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+--- Thread: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF (/showthread.php?tid=19)
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - ijmorlan - 02-21-2024
(02-21-2024, 01:37 PM)KevinL Wrote: Air Canada is making connections to both YKF and Hamilton from Pearson, by way of 'luxury motor coach' routes. https://www.waterlooairport.ca/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=2707707e-239d-402d-a27a-b1767ebcd0b1
I started writing one thing, and then saw more and more possible interpretations as I wrote.
I could see this as Air Canada cheaply discouraging growth of alternate airports (and therefore alternate carriers) by servicing YKF with a bus; harder to grow a small airline operating out of a small airport when people can just get on the Air Canada bus at the exact same location.
On the other hand, maybe this is Air Canada seeing that the smaller airports are becoming more important and finding an economical way to serve them.
It also occurred to me that this isn’t really a great way to get to Pearson; you still have to get to YKF. But it’s easier to get a friend to drive to YKF than to YYZ so maybe the Airporter and its competitors are the ones who should really worry.
Interesting, in any case. It’s too bad the infrastructure doesn’t line up to make a Go station and a stop on a future Ion line convenient to construct at the airport.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - bravado - 02-21-2024
don’t call it a bus, it’s a luxury motor coach™
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - Rainrider22 - 02-21-2024
Awesome, so the airport is now a bus station !!! Leave it to Air Canada.... Just land a plane and create some routes. I thought Air Canada was the "Flag Carrier" airline of Canada.. Please do better. If I want to take the 401 to Pearson, I will drive or take a limo service..
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - tomh009 - 02-21-2024
(02-21-2024, 03:10 PM)Rainrider22 Wrote: Awesome, so the airport is now a bus station !!! Leave it to Air Canada.... Just land a plane and create some routes. I thought Air Canada was the "Flag Carrier" airline of Canada.. Please do better. If I want to take the 401 to Pearson, I will drive or take a limo service..
The bus is likely significantly less expensive than either limo or parking at the airport. And Airways Transit has transmogrified themselves into a limo service, too.
That said, while the bus could be used to connect between the two airports, I don't know what the real use case is for that. What kind of flight combinations would merit that?
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - Chris - 02-21-2024
(02-21-2024, 03:17 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(02-21-2024, 03:10 PM)Rainrider22 Wrote: Awesome, so the airport is now a bus station !!! Leave it to Air Canada.... Just land a plane and create some routes. I thought Air Canada was the "Flag Carrier" airline of Canada.. Please do better. If I want to take the 401 to Pearson, I will drive or take a limo service..
The bus is likely significantly less expensive than either limo or parking at the airport. And Airways Transit has transmogrified themselves into a limo service, too.
That said, while the bus could be used to connect between the two airports, I don't know what the real use case is for that. What kind of flight combinations would merit that?
I don't think anyone would fly into Pearson and bus to Hamilton or Kitchener to catch another flight or vice versa.
The cynic in me thinks it's a predatory move by Air Canada as they don't service either of these airports.
I think the target audience would be occasional flyers using Rouge or Air Canada out of Pearson and this offers them an easy (maybe cheap?) way to get to Pearson. I think frequent flyers or business travellers already have established methods for getting to Pearson so they are unlikely to change those habits.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - plam - 02-21-2024
(02-21-2024, 03:17 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(02-21-2024, 03:10 PM)Rainrider22 Wrote: Awesome, so the airport is now a bus station !!! Leave it to Air Canada.... Just land a plane and create some routes. I thought Air Canada was the "Flag Carrier" airline of Canada.. Please do better. If I want to take the 401 to Pearson, I will drive or take a limo service..
The bus is likely significantly less expensive than either limo or parking at the airport. And Airways Transit has transmogrified themselves into a limo service, too.
That said, while the bus could be used to connect between the two airports, I don't know what the real use case is for that. What kind of flight combinations would merit that?
The Air France/KLM bus from Ottawa to Montreal Trudeau has long existed, so that's nothing new. I don't think this is usable as a connection: YKF and YHM would be origin/destination, since there are no meaningful flights by AC out of there.
YKF is not exactly easily reachable from many places in KW, including by bicycle, but it's sort of easier than YYZ. Trains are more reliable but it's hard for AC to do that.
Aside from the novelty factor, I guess the question is: how often is the AC bus going to save me time or money? We'll see what the bookings look like.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - tomh009 - 02-21-2024
(02-21-2024, 05:51 PM)plam Wrote:(02-21-2024, 03:17 PM)tomh009 Wrote: The bus is likely significantly less expensive than either limo or parking at the airport. And Airways Transit has transmogrified themselves into a limo service, too.
That said, while the bus could be used to connect between the two airports, I don't know what the real use case is for that. What kind of flight combinations would merit that?
The Air France/KLM bus from Ottawa to Montreal Trudeau has long existed, so that's nothing new. I don't think this is usable as a connection: YKF and YHM would be origin/destination, since there are no meaningful flights by AC out of there.
In this scenario, wouldn't it make more sense to run the bus from DTK (or even Sportsworld) to YYZ? Or maybe that will be the route it takes from YKF?
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - jeremyroman - 02-21-2024
On the one itinerary I priced out (it already shows up on aircanada.com), it was no additional cost compared to flying directly out of YYZ, and it has a few additional potential advantages: Air Canada guarantees the connection (i.e., if you miss the flight because of the bus it's not your fault), and it qualifies for status-qualifying miles & segments which may be of interest to frequent flyers.
Obviously I'd rather it served downtown rather than YKF, but these things might make it reasonably competitive with other ways of getting to Pearson, and I'm curious to try it out.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - ac3r - 02-21-2024
(02-21-2024, 01:37 PM)KevinL Wrote: Air Canada is making connections to both YKF and Hamilton from Pearson, by way of 'luxury motor coach' routes. https://www.waterlooairport.ca/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=2707707e-239d-402d-a27a-b1767ebcd0b1
Meh. I'd rather see them find ways to improve the stock price by improving the company overall rather than waste money on nonsense like "luxury" buses. This is just a waste of money. Focus on getting the planes landing on time and trimming costs due to rising costs.
It hit a high of 50.05 per share in late 2019, then fell into an abyss thanks to the pandemic. Today it closed at 18.08. On Friday it fell even lower despite news of their first actual profits since the pandemic because shareholders have zero confidence in Air Canada. Rising operational costs and competition are also giving strong indications that this airline will continue to suck.
Something about Canadian companies I swear...they're addicted to having idiots run them. Doesn't matter what the industry is. Rail? It sucks. Construction? Kinda sucks, though it's one of our stronger industries (SNC-Lavalin has been good to me). Tech? Sucks.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - nms - 02-21-2024
Are there other direct bus/transit connections between Waterloo Region and the airport? I'm only aware of GO connections that involve at least one transfer and limited room for baggage.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - plam - 02-21-2024
re: management of airlines: NZ just got the guy who used to run an airline (Air NZ) "running" the country. Not an upgrade.
(02-21-2024, 09:35 PM)nms Wrote: Are there other direct bus/transit connections between Waterloo Region and the airport? I'm only aware of GO connections that involve at least one transfer and limited room for baggage.
Apart from GO (either Bramalea + 115, or Square One + 40), flixbus appears to still run a service from Pearson. e.g. it is running on Friday, February 23 at 10am from Pearson to Kitchener. I think they quit running their service to the University of Waterloo?
The status qualifying segment may be helpful if you're collecting a lot of segments. This can basically double the number of segments you earn.
I did a price check for a YYZ-ICN roundtrip out of curiosity and it seems to add about $200 there on a $2200 ticket. I didn't check this for any other itineraries.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - SammyOES - 02-21-2024
I like it when companies do things like this. I have no idea how well it’ll work but it’s different enough that I don’t really think anyone else does either.
Depending on times I’d have used this a bunch when flying to the US for early morning work trips. It moves the risk of missing a flight to Air Canada and when you’re travelling on popular routes it’s usually easy to catch a subsequent flight so the inconvenience is relatively small. I hated trying to decide how much time to allow for 401 traffic and I hate driving in the early morning.
I think the only real reason to have the bus start at YKF is if the goal really is to get permission to do security here and skip it at Pearson. That could be a huge advantage. Although tricky with US flights. And I’m sure the Government Agencies would have a lot to say.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - ijmorlan - 02-22-2024
(02-21-2024, 11:35 PM)SammyOES Wrote: I think the only real reason to have the bus start at YKF is if the goal really is to get permission to do security here and skip it at Pearson. That could be a huge advantage. Although tricky with US flights. And I’m sure the Government Agencies would have a lot to say.
The idea of having the bus be pre-cleared is absolutely insane. But then again, since airplane security is mostly theatre, maybe they’ll do it — they already do lots of things that are insane from a security standpoint, if the purpose were actual security.
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - danbrotherston - 02-22-2024
(02-22-2024, 12:45 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:(02-21-2024, 11:35 PM)SammyOES Wrote: I think the only real reason to have the bus start at YKF is if the goal really is to get permission to do security here and skip it at Pearson. That could be a huge advantage. Although tricky with US flights. And I’m sure the Government Agencies would have a lot to say.
The idea of having the bus be pre-cleared is absolutely insane. But then again, since airplane security is mostly theatre, maybe they’ll do it — they already do lots of things that are insane from a security standpoint, if the purpose were actual security.
I don't know why this is insane...there are plenty of airports that use a bus as their transportation from the gate to the plane, this is no different, the gate is just really far away from the plane.
As SammeyOES says though, this is the only reason departing from the airport makes any sense...
FWIW...this is a really smart move by a hammer...yes, all it sees are nails, which is why they are travelling to the airport instead of to the place where people want to go, but being able to book the ticket in one single interface, to have guaranteed connections, and a direct--hopefully well organized bus, baggage handling!...these are all HUGE benefits. I would absolutely use this service! I would be annoyed to be at YKF and not...like...in the city I'm travelling to...but I'd be much less annoyed than making my third GO connection.
And yes, "luxury motorcoach" is funny, but totally expected...the type of people who typical afford to fly have a significant overlap with the kind of people who think "only the poors ride buses". A branding change is much easier than fixing society...
RE: Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF - SammyOES - 02-22-2024
(02-22-2024, 12:45 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:(02-21-2024, 11:35 PM)SammyOES Wrote: I think the only real reason to have the bus start at YKF is if the goal really is to get permission to do security here and skip it at Pearson. That could be a huge advantage. Although tricky with US flights. And I’m sure the Government Agencies would have a lot to say.
The idea of having the bus be pre-cleared is absolutely insane. But then again, since airplane security is mostly theatre, maybe they’ll do it — they already do lots of things that are insane from a security standpoint, if the purpose were actual security.
What a roller coaster of a post!
It’s not at all insane. It’s easy to get the bus loaded/unloaded in the secure areas of the airports. And it’s extremely easy to keep the inside of the bus with passengers “sanitized” from start to end of the journey. If it gets compromised (like the bus has to pull over or open its door for any reason) you just make wverything reclear on the other end.
You could argue that the bus itself moving into and out of the airport would be an easy target but it’s literally no different than the hundreds/thousands of other vehicles that move into/out of the airport secure area every day.