Passenger Statistics for April and May 2010

April 2010 saw the first decrease in year over year numbers since November 2009. The total number of passengers going through YYC in April was 998,523, a 1.1% decrease from April 2009. This decrease was the result of a 3.4% decrease in domestic travel as Transborder and International traffic were both up for the month by 2.4% and 7.9% respectively.

April 2010
Domestic: 675,430
Transborder: 214,851
International: 108,242

May 2010 on the other hand was a great month for YYC with traffic growing 6.0% to 1,017,299. Domestic travel grew by 2.2%, Transborder by 11.3% and International grew a whopping 28.5%. Overall for the first 5 months of 2010 Domestic travel is down 1.2%, Transborder is up 7.9% and International is up 14.5%.

May 2010
Domestic: 720,130
Transborder: 196,353
International: 100,816

Source: YYC.com

Lufthansa decreases YYC-FRA service for winter season

According to Airline Route Updates, Lufthansa will be reducing their Calgary-Frankfurt service to 5 flights per week from the current 6 for the winter 2010/11 season.

WestJet adds Varadero and Montego Bay flights from YYC

Yesterday, WestJet unveiled their new destinations and routes for winter 2010/11 which includes two new seasonal non-stop routes from Calgary. The new routes to Montego Bay, Jamaica and Varadero, Cuba will operate once per week on Satudays beginning Nov 6.

WestJet is also expanding outside of Calgary, most notably are flights out of Toronto to New Orleans, Grand Cayman and Palm Springs.

Flight Timings for the new Calgary routes:
Calgary-Montego Bay Dep 0700 Arr 1506
Montego Bay-Calgary Dep 1600 Arr 2109

Calgary-Varadero Dep 0700 Arr 1425
Varadero-Calgary Dep 2015 Arr 0036+1

More details can be found on the WestJet press release

Air North launches 4th weekly service Calgary-Edmonton-Whitehorse

On June 6th Air North expanded their service to Calgary by adding a fourth weekly flight on their Whitehorse-Calgary-Edmonton-Whitehorse route.

Source: Airline Route Updates

Aeroplan discounts Classic Flight Rewards to the U.S.

Aeroplan is offering a discount of 2,500 miles off the regular mileage cost of Classic Flight rewards on select flights from Canada to the U.S, within the U.S. and U.S. to Canada. To take advantage of the discount you must book by June 13 for travel anytime in the next 355 days in any class of cabin. The following shows the routes available from Calgary. For full details please visit Aeroplan.com

From Canada	To U.S.
Alberta	Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Nevada or Oregon

Mexicana Press Release about 2nd Anniversary

• Load factors in excess of 80% have been reported on this route
• Some 12,320 passengers boarded in the first quarter of 2010, surpassing figures for 2009.
• An additional flight was added in January to meet growing demand.

Mexico City, May 31, 2010. On June 1, Grupo Mexicana will celebrate the second anniversary of its Mexico City-Calgary route with load factors in excess of 80%.

According to Mexicana Customer Service and Corporate Communications Senior Vice President Adolfo Crespo, “To meet growing demand, in January of this year we added an extra flight to the four a week we started out with in 2008. In 2009, we boarded a total of 30,609 passengers, rising to 12,320 in the first quarter of this year alone.”

“We greatly appreciate the support we have received from Canadian and Mexican travellers, and intend to continue offering them the best possible services, both in the air and on the ground,” added Crespo.

Mexicana currently operates five services a week on this route, scheduled for the convenience of both business and leisure passengers. Flights depart daily from Calgary at 7:30 a.m. and arrive in Mexico City at 1:40 p.m., except for Wednesdays and Sundays, with return flights departing from Mexico City at 3:35 p.m. and landing in Calgary at 8:00 p.m. every day except Tuesdays and Saturdays.

“We are very pleased that Mexicana Airlines has had such success in the Calgary market,” said Stephan Poirier, Chief Commercial Officer for The Calgary Airport Authority. “Mexico City is a significant hub for business and leisure travellers alike, and being able to offer this direct service, five times weekly, truly compliments the premier service we offer at YYC.”

The majestic Rocky Mountains and the vibrant city of Calgary, which still preserves its traditional western values, have never been closer for Mexican travellers, while Canadians in the Province of Alberta can now fly direct to Mexico City. Passengers who choose Grupo Mexicana can take advantage of the company’s extensive network covering major cities in Mexico, Europe, Central and South America or fly to practically any destination in the world with oneworld, the global alliance that Mexicana partnered with last year."

-----

The numbers look good for this route albeit load factor does not tell us if Mexicana is making money off of this route but we could assume they are since they kept the YYC flights going after cutting their YEG flights. If the numbers can continue on like this, there is a good possibility this flight will move to daily service. Thanks again to Sarah at YYC for forwarding this information.

Mexicana Sale celebarting 2 years in Calgary - Goes live on June 1

Mexicana has been flying from Calgary for two years, and to celebrate, were giving away prices that Calgary residents have never seen before!

--Acapulco, Huatulco, and Zihuatanejo from $349 CAD.

--Guadalajara, Merida, Mexico City, Monterrey and more from $399 CAD.

This sale goes live on June 1 and is bookable until June 8, 2010. The sale prices are good for travel until Dec 10, 10

Book online at Mexicana.com. This link will take you straight to sale page for Calgary on June 1.

March 2010 Passenger Statistics

YYC traffic levels continue to rebound over 2009 with March coming in 4.1% higher in 2010 and the first quarter at 2.2% above Q1/09. March 2010 saw a a total of 1,067,539 passengers which is just under 33,000 less then the record for March in 2008. Overall for the first quarter, Calgary International saw 2,970,651 passengers.

Broken down, domestic travel in March saw a 1.2% increase over 2009, transborder grew by 7.3% and internationally the growth was in the double digits for the second month in row with a 15.9% increase. By the way, the 2010 international numbers are eclipsing 2008's record numbers for all three months in the first quarter.

March 2010
Domestic: 707,091
Transborder: 231,663
International: 128,885

Source: YYC

Mexicana Airlines ** Surprise **

It looks like Mexicana is planning some sort celebration/promotion for their second anniversary in Calgary. At this time there are no details except for the following which came from Jody at YYC:

Royal Air Force to train at Calgary International Airport

From the British High Commission Press Release (thanks to Sarah at YYC for forwarding this to me)

"The British Royal Air Force (RAF) will be training in their Tornado GR4 aircraft at Calgary International Airport (YYC) from May 13-24 in advance of their deployment to Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. The training they complete in Calgary is a part of a larger training program that takes them across North America to ensure that ultimately they can provide support not only the British Army but all coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Wing Commander Jim Frampton (Officer Commanding No 12 (Bomber) Squadron, Royal Air Force) said: “I greatly appreciate the opportunity for my team to train at Calgary Airport over this period and am grateful for the hospitality that our hosts and the people of Calgary have shown. The training we complete during our time in Canada, though noisy, will ensure we can provide the best possible air support to our colleagues on operations.”

The British Armed Forces have a close and cooperative relationship with their Canadian counterparts, and have a long-established training ground in Suffield, Alberta. The RAF will be flying 4 missions per day from YYC to this training area in Suffield."

Icelandair wants to serve YYC.... indirectly

According to Airline Route Updates, Icelandair has applied to the U.S. DoT to codeshare on Alaska/Horizon flights between Seattle and Calgary. Should it be approved the codesharing will take effect on June 1, 10. This will present another option for Calgarians to get to Europe albeit via a more gruelling routing through Seattle and Keflavik. Icelandair however does typically have lower fares then other carriers and can be viewed as a decent price option against the charter operators flying Calgary-Europe routes and since they are a scheduled operator you would have more protection over the charter carriers should your flights be delayed or cancelled.

February Passenger Stats

The number of passengers going through YYC in February 2010 remained virtually unchanged over 2009 with only a slight decrease of 0.1%. The number of passengers for Feb 2010 was 942,420 versus 943,455 in 2009. Transborder and International numbers saw significant increases of 6.3% and 15.4% respectively while domestic travel was down 4.4%.

To see all the details on the YYC's passengers numbers see this page on YYC.com