Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF

[LesPio]

At this point, I'm not sure I'd rely on Flair for a trip...they're in the news again for disruptions.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...spute.html

This does seem strange, I was under the impression that the lessor was the majority shareholder (albeit ostensibly not the controlling shareholder) of the airline. Seems self-defeating to cause major financial losses for the airline. Honestly this whole airline is seeming rather sketchy of late.

Flair was stating that the person that got on the jet was impersonating a maintenance person. My question is : Where was airport security and if this can easily be done, then security at the airport wasn't doing their jobs. Sounds like some local and federal laws might have been broken. From a security perspective, it almost sounds like anyone can be dishonest at the airport and create problems.

[danbrotherston]

At this point, I'm not sure I'd rely on Flair for a trip...they're in the news again for disruptions.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...spute.html

This does seem strange, I was under the impression that the lessor was the majority shareholder (albeit ostensibly not the controlling shareholder) of the airline. Seems self-defeating to cause major financial losses for the airline. Honestly this whole airline is seeming rather sketchy of late.

Flair was stating that the person that got on the jet was impersonating a maintenance person. My question is : Where was airport security and if this can easily be done, then security at the airport wasn't doing their jobs. Sounds like some local and federal laws might have been broken. From a security perspective, it almost sounds like anyone can be dishonest at the airport and create problems.

What?!! Where was this? That isn't a trivial thing, like you say, it's criminal behaviour.

I'm also confused what it has to do with the grounding...the lessor wouldn't need a person to board the airplane itself to pull it's certificate and ground it. I mean...like...we all should know how this works after the Russian theft of leased planes (oh yeah, did we all forget that the Russian government stole like 100B of planes last year).

[KevinT]

My wife mentioned that the value parking lot was closed today. Does anyone know what's up with that? It's usually packed, and they were expanding it, so a closure seems really odd.

[SammyOES]

My understanding is that Flair cuts back their routes in the Winter (Oct 1) and so they don’t need the capacity right now. And it doesn’t make a ton of sense to plow or run shuttles if they don’t need the room.

Would be nice I guess to offer a parking discount in the open parking lot though.

[taylortbb]

My understanding is that Flair cuts back their routes in the Winter (Oct 1)

Flair shifts its planes from operating domestic routes in the summer, to operating routes to sun destinations in the winter. This is a pretty typical shift that all Canadian airlines do, as there's lots more people wanting to head to Cancun in December than Halifax.

I suspect that a large part of why we don't see more sun destinations out of YKF is that the airport has limited capacity for international arrivals. The customs processing area is quite small, and the international bag claim is the same tiny one that was originally built for regional jets. The new baggage claim building, with much larger baggage belts designed for a 737, is only usable for domestic arrivals. Landing two international 737s at YKF at the same time would likely result in pax being held on board the second arrival for ~45-60 mins, which is quite incompatible with the quick turn the ULCC business model requires.

[dtkvictim]

For anyone interested, W5 did an investigative documentary on the Pivot Airlines incident.



tl;dw, it seems to suggest at least some of the passengers were involved with the drug smuggling, and not the crew or airline. The cases were ultimately dropped in DR, so this is not definitive.

Two of the men called out in the video seem to be facing Canadian charges, but not directly related to the Pivot incident: https://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/ferraris-worth...-1.6583441

[KevinT]

Thanks for the answers on the parking lot situation, that makes sense.

[panamaniac]

Is Pivot still in the picture, or has the plan for flights to YOW and YUL died?

[tomh009]

My understanding is that Flair cuts back their routes in the Winter (Oct 1)

Flair shifts its planes from operating domestic routes in the summer, to operating routes to sun destinations in the winter. This is a pretty typical shift that all Canadian airlines do, as there's lots more people wanting to head to Cancun in December than Halifax.

I suspect that a large part of why we don't see more sun destinations out of YKF is that the airport has limited capacity for international arrivals. (...)

We booked Flair flights from YKF to CUN in August. They canceled our flights a few days later, reducing the number of weekdays they fly that route. We rearranged our accommodations and rebooked. Then, earlier this month, they canceled the departure flights, again, further reducing the weekdays.

We canceled the flights, got a refund and booked flights on Air Canada from YYZ. Enough is enough.

[taylortbb]

Flair shifts its planes from operating domestic routes in the summer, to operating routes to sun destinations in the winter. This is a pretty typical shift that all Canadian airlines do, as there's lots more people wanting to head to Cancun in December than Halifax.

I suspect that a large part of why we don't see more sun destinations out of YKF is that the airport has limited capacity for international arrivals. (...)

We booked Flair flights from YKF to CUN in August. They canceled our flights a few days later, reducing the number of weekdays they fly that route. We rearranged our accommodations and rebooked. Then, earlier this month, they canceled the departure flights, again, further reducing the weekdays.

Yeah, that sort of stuff is pretty typical for a new ULCC. They don't have a lot of data yes to plan optimal routes, and it's going to take some time to figure out what they are. They also live and die by high load factors, so there's less room than a network carrier to wait for new routes to build ridership.

We canceled the flights, got a refund and booked flights on Air Canada from YYZ. Enough is enough.

No argument there. The Air Canada experience is and always will be better than Flair, but you'll pay for it. As much as I'm excited by Flair's growth, because I want to see ULCC competition in the Canadian market to bring average fares down, I personally only fly Air Canada/Star Alliance. Though lots of that relates to being high up the AC status ladder.

[tomh009]

[quote="tomh009" pid="111501" dateline="1698176336"]
We canceled the flights, got a refund and booked flights on Air Canada from YYZ. Enough is enough.

No argument there. The Air Canada experience is and always will be better than Flair, but you'll pay for it. As much as I'm excited by Flair's growth, because I want to see ULCC competition in the Canadian market to bring average fares down, I personally only fly Air Canada/Star Alliance. Though lots of that relates to being high up the AC status ladder.

The price difference isn't actually that much once you factor in the cost of checking in a piece of luggage. But the convenience of YKF would have been very nice.

I spent quite a few years on AC's top tier. Not any more, though, post-COVID travel is much less. Am very grateful for the lifetime *G status, though, and it does incent me to continue flying on AC and *A.

[taylortbb]

I spent quite a few years on AC's top tier. Not any more, though, post-COVID travel is much less. Am very grateful for the lifetime *G status, though, and it does incent me to continue flying on AC and *A.

I've never made SE, but post-Covid I suddenly have to work to keep my 75K. Hoping for lifetime *G at some point, but I've got a lot of miles to go. I agree that YKF would be convenient, but in your situation I'd probably stick to AC.

[danbrotherston]

Lol...I've never had any airline status. But now that I'm travelling with family, well they stick all the families together in the back of the plane. We consistently get the worst seats.

[panamaniac]

Lol...I've never had any airline status. But now that I'm travelling with family, well they stick all the families together in the back of the plane. We consistently get the worst seats.

That's what seat selection is for.

[plam]

I spent quite a few years on AC's top tier. Not any more, though, post-COVID travel is much less. Am very grateful for the lifetime *G status, though, and it does incent me to continue flying on AC and *A.

I've never made SE, but post-Covid I suddenly have to work to keep my 75K. Hoping for lifetime *G at some point, but I've got a lot of miles to go. I agree that YKF would be convenient, but in your situation I'd probably stick to AC.

I kind of don't think ULCCs should be a thing in the first place for environmental reasons (I wish we had better train connectivity) but also here I am having requalified for 75k. That makes me a bit elitist I guess. We're all full of contradictions.

In the context of YKF, I might do it if I was flying YKF-YUL (which I've done once on Bearskin Airlines when they tried to offer that), and I tried YKF-YYC once. Generally, because of status plus NEXUS, YYZ just works better, although it's indeed further.

I did make SE once in the 00s before the $20k spend requirement. I'm about 300k away from MM.