Air Canada updates Calgary-Tokyo schedule

Back in March Air Canada reduced their entire flying schedule to Japan due to the earthquake and tsunami disaster. The YYC-NRT flight was reduced to 3 flights per week but the good news is that the service is going up to 4 flights per week for the summer season between July 3 and September 4th. Air Canada had announced that the service was going to increase to 5 flights per week as of March 26th but this was prior to the disaster that struck Japan.

Source: Airline Route Updates

February 2011 Passenger Stats

We knew the passenger number growth at YYC could not continue forever and after 14 months of continuous growth Calgary International finally faltered.

Compared to February 2010, the same month in 2011 saw passenger numbers decrease by an overall amount of 1.2%. All sectors saw declines with the sharpest drop coming from International passengers. Domestic travel decreased by 0.4%, Transborder by 1.7% and International went down by 4.5%. Overall, 942,172 passengers used the airport in February.

As a side note, YYC has corrected January's numbers and the month actually saw a 1.9% increase (vs. the 0.6% initially reported) which means the so far 2011 is 0.4% ahead of 2010.

February 2011
Domestic: 627,393
Transborder: 206,651
International: 108,128

Source: YYC.com

Flying LH to Abu Dhabi or Dubai? Earn Double Miles & More miles

I know that I have a few readers of the IflyCalgary blog who are in the Oil & Gas Industry and perhaps some of you utilize LH's to go to the Middle East via Frankfurt. If you do so and your final destination is Abu Dhabi or Dubai, LH's Miles & More program is offering Double miles on the non-stop flights from Germany (and Austria/Switzerland on OS/LX) to those cities. The valid flight numbers to earn the extra miles on are LH 618, LH 619, LH 630, LH 631, LH 638, LH 639, LX 242, LX 243, OS 839, OS 840. To earn the miles you must register first which can be done so here and the offer is good for up to 8 segments until May 31, 11.

If this offer doesn't work for you I list many more Miles & More offers on RewardsCanada.ca on this page including their newest offer where you name a route within Europe to earn up to triple miles on for the rest of the year.

I Fly Calgary to Toronto: Wallet Makeover Media Tour

These flights were taken back towards the beginning of March with the outbound flight the first of many over 6 days for the Air Miles Wallet Makeover media tour. The first stop of the media tour was Southern Ontario and since my schedule had to keep me in Calgary until late on 9th I was stuck on Air Canada's red eye to Toronto to make an 8:40am live appearance on Canada AM. It has been ages since I flew out of concourse B (always seems to be A, C transborder, D) and I didn't realize that the security area for B is being renovated, so it was off the concourse A to clear security and then make my way over to B via the glass walled walkway connecting the two.

The flight on an AC A321 was scheduled to leave at 12:10am but following what seems to be the norm for this flight we didn't take off until 1:00am. I figured I could get 3 or so hours of sleep on the flight so I that I could pretend to be rested for the early TV spot but turbulence along most of the route made sure I didn't get more then a half hour or so of sleep in one shot. Arrival into rainy Toronto was uneventful with the plane getting to gate at about 6:30am Toronto time. As I only had carry on luggage it took me less then 10 minutes to get to my ride that was waiting to take me over the CTV studios. In fact, if I can recall correctly we got to the studios a little after 7am.

The Canada AM interview went smoothly, then I was off for to CTV Kitchener for a noon newshour live appearance on CTV Southerwestern Ontario, once that was complete, it was off to CTS Studios in Burlington for a taped spot on their Real Life program which aired March 25. Once all the media spots were done I was able to check in into the Residence Inn Toronto Downtown/Entertainment District. I received a room on the 17th with a view of the CN Tower (well supposed to be a view but the rain and fog only let me see the bottom third or so). There was no rest yet as after I checked in it was time to go over to the Loyalty One/Air Miles offices for a tour and to meet some of their brass. Off to dinner with them and then back to the hotel for 9pm or so and I crashed hard after nearly being up since 5am Calgary time the day before!

Friday saw an early morning as I was picked up at 6:30 for the drive to CHCH Studios in Hamilton for a live spot on their morning news show. The spot was delayed slightly due to the Japan Earthquake hitting that morning but went off without any hitches. With that done and no other live appearances needed I was dropped off at YYZ by 10:30am and the WestJet flight they booked for me was not until 5:00pm as they wanted to leave room just in case other media outlets requested spots. However with only a phone interview for a newspaper around lunchtime I went straight to the WestJet counters to see if I could get on the 3:15pm flight so I could get back home sooner (and not wait so long in YYZ). 10 minutes later and $50+tax I was confirmed on the 3:15pm flight. That still gave me quite a bit of time to kill in Terminal 3, so after finding some Toronto branded gifts for my kids, I went through security and was off the KLM Crown Lounge to relax and not be stuck out in the mess that YYZ was, you see this was the Friday March 11th, the start of Ontario's spring break so there were throngs of people everywhere going away for the week. Now, I am not an elite Flying Blue member but one of the perks of having a Diners Club credit card is lounge access to over 350 lounges worldwide and the KLM lounge in YYZ is one of them. Just before entering the lounge I check the departure screens for my flight and much to my disliking it is now delayed by nearly an hour! So much for getting home that much sooner. Oh well, a quick swipe of my card at the KLM lounge and then I spent the next 3 hours or so, relaxing, checking email, enjoying Heineken on tap and eating the various food offerings.

It was a bit of a trek from the KLM lounge to the other side of Terminal 3 but it was nice to stretch the legs after sitting in the lounge and before boarding the flight home. The gate area was packed like the rest of the airport so I could only assume the flight would be packed. I was not wrong, since I was in row 4 and decided to board late there was no more room in the overhead bins so I had to gate check one of my two carry-on bags. The WestJet plane had the newer seats with the somewhat larger TV screens and I must admit I had yet to fly on one of these, I always had the fortune of flying with the older interiors. Now, I'm not sure if it was just me or if this is actual fact, but these new seats seem skinnier then the old ones. I am not a big guy and neither was the guy next to me but we sure were rubbing shoulders and elbows a lot. Plus, the seats are definitely not as cushy as the old ones or so my lower back told me upon arrival.  I don't fly WestJet very often so again this may only be me but has anyone else noticed that a good 1/3 of the satellite channels never seem to be available? I noticed on this flight, my flights to California, and quick ones to Edmonton last year always had numerous channels stating "satellite unavailable"  or something like that. I wanted to watch YYC's early news at 5pm on the flight but could not since the channels were out.

Anyways, the flight arrived into YYC just after 6pm and after a short wait for my gate checked bag I was off to home to see my family and get some rest before jetting out on Sunday for the remainder of the tour.

To be continued...

V Australia applies to code-share on Delta's YYC-SLC route

Recently Australia's V Australia was approved to code-share directly on flights between Canada and Australia however they are not partnered with Air Canada (the only airline offering direct flights) so it is unknown whether V will act upon this approval anytime soon. That being said, they were also approved to code-share on Delta flights between Canada and the U.S. and this is where V Australia is taking action. The airline applied to the U.S. DOT to code-share directly on DL's flights between Calgary (and Vancouver) and Salt Lake City. If approved it could mean that us flyers here in Calgary could book a single V Australia ticket from YYC to the land down under although it would mean 2 stops (SLC and LAX). For some further analysis (and predictions) on this news please see the source for our post:  FlightGlobal.com

January 2011 Passenger Stats

The growth in passengers at YYC continued in January 2011 although like the previous month it was minuscule.

Compared to January 2010, the first month of 2011 saw passenger numbers increase by an overall amount of 0.6%. All three sectors carved out small increases with domestic travel increasing 0.6%, Transborder 0.9% and International 0.5%. Overall, 964,189 passengers used the airport in January.

January 2011
Domestic: 637,036
Transborder: 205,947
International: 121,206

Source: YYC.com

Air Canada cuts Calgary to Chicago, London, ON and San Francisco flights

According to a news release from Air Canada, the airline will be cutting three Calgary routes as of May 1. The routes being cut are Calgary to London Ontario, Chicago and San Francisco. Air Canada says it can no longer operate the routes profitably due to high fuel costs.

Source: Air Canada

December + Full Year Passenger stats

Despite being one of the slowest months in 2010, the December passenger numbers for YYC were still positive a helped contribute to a record year of 12,630,695 passengers! If you have been cooped up then this will be news to you otherwise you will have seen it on or in the news for the past couple of days. I, unfortunately left this in my in-box for a couple days and now it is relatively old news but here it goes anyways:

With only April 2010 showing smaller growth then December, the month just barely carved out a positive growth number of 0.4% over December 2009. Domestic traffic saw a 0.7% growth while Transborder numbers saw the biggest gain of 1.2%. For International numbers, December was the first month to see a negative amount with a 2.5% drop in passengers from 2009. Overall the month saw 1,035,474 passengers go through YYC.

December 2010
Domestic: 720,808
Transborder: 210,594
International: 104,072

2010 Totals (% Change)
Domestic: 8,844,080  (2.3%)
Transborder: 2,462,295 (4.4%)
International: 1,324,320 (12.9%)


Source: YYC.com

Westjet, American Airlines expand relationship with code share agreement

Cross-post from my RewardsCanada.ca blog

Following an earlier interlining announcement in October 2010, WestJet and American Airlines have announced a new code share agreement between the two airlines. The agreement will allow each airline to place their codes on the other airlines flights. At this point this means American customers will be able to connect to up to 20 cities in Canada that AA or American Eagle does not serve while WestJet customers will be able to fly on WestJet coded American Airlines flights from Canada to Boston and Chicago. Future arrangements should see the WestJet place their codes on American flights to more cities.

For our readers, the biggest perk here is the reciprocal frequent flyer benefits in the agreement. This means members of either airlines frequent flyer programs will be able to earn AAdvantage miles or WestJet dollars on the code share flights. What is unknown at this time is whether you have to fly a connecting flight on your actual airline to earn miles/dollars or if you will be able to earn those miles for the code share flight only. In most other agreements as long as the flight has your main airline's code then you get the miles/dollars but on some occasions some programs have made it more restrictive that you have to connect to/from a flight flown with your airlines own metal. Hopefully  that will not be the case here as they may attract a few more business customers to the WestJet frequent guest program primarily out east with the numerous flights that AA has from Eastern Canada to Boston and Chicago.

Source: WestJet

One Day Only: Save 20% on AC flights from Calgary to Asia

Straight from Air Canada:

Calgary special discount code.

Save 20 % on Tango Plus fares from Calgary to Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo.
To get your exclusive discount, simply enter this promotion code when booking right here at aircanada.com:

Promotion code

XNA96K81

• Book by February 23, 2011, midnight, from city of departure.
• Valid for departures from February 23 to May 31, 2011.
• All travel must be completed by May 31, 2011.
• Valid only on Air Canada operated flights (codeshare flights are excluded).

Visit Air Canada to book.

Earn bonus Aeroplan miles on select Air Canada flights out of Calgary

On January 26th Air Canada launched their latest Aeroplan flight bonus promotion and we Calgarians can take advantage of all of the offers if you connect to other AC flights. In this post however I only wanted to highlight the direct routes out of YYC that you can earn the bonus Aeroplan miles on:

Calgary - Vancouver
Earn Double Aeroplan Miles for every eligible round trip, or two one-way flight segments, on scheduled flights operated by Air Canada and Jazz

Calgary - Tokyo
7,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you complete two eligible round trips, or four one-way flight segments, on the scheduled flights operated by Air Canada. Plus, you earn an extra 7,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for every additional eligible round trip or two one-way flight segments

Calgary - London/Frankfurt
5,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you complete two eligible round trips, or four one-way flight segments, on scheduled flights operated by Air Canada. Plus, you earn an extra 5,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for every additional eligible round trip or two one-way flight segments.

All of the offers run until April 30, 2011 and require registration prior to flying. For full details and registration links for all of the Aeroplan flight offers please visit Rewards Canada's Aeroplan page

Lufthansa Summer 2011 schedule for YYC

Lufthansa will be decreasing capacity on its YYC-FRA route for summer 2011 in comparison to summer 2010. The flight will be reduced to 6x weekly service although this is an increase from the 5x weekly for the current winter season.Luf

Source: Airline Route Updates