Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF

[tomh009]

The only airline so far to be able to fight AC at this game is Porter... and it's likely only because they were able to block them them from getting into BBTCCA until they grew enough.

Partly because Porter owns 170 of the 200 landing slots at Porter, limiting AC's access there.

I don't expect that YKF would really be of major interest to AC, though.  Too far from Toronto to use as a hub, and yet too close to fly between YKF and YYZ/YTZ.

[JoeKW]

The point is that AC would fly out of there to kill competition and then leave as soon as the competition gave up.

[tomh009]

The point is that AC would fly out of there to kill competition and then leave as soon as the competition gave up.

YKF?  Personally, I don't think so.  It doesn't fit their business model, and I doubt they would do it our of spite.  And YKF is far enough from YYZ so as not to have a significant impact on their YYZ traffic.

But both of us are speculating, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, not before.

[Canard]

Is it conceivable at any point that Porter might want to use YKF as like a "Second Hub"? I'm just thinking of aircraft size and so on...

[Coke6pk]

The point is that AC would fly out of there to kill competition and then leave as soon as the competition gave up.

This is exactly what I was referring to.

Coke

[Coke6pk]

The point is that AC would fly out of there to kill competition and then leave as soon as the competition gave up.

YKF?  Personally, I don't think so.  It doesn't fit their business model, and I doubt they would do it our of spite.  And YKF is far enough from YYZ so as not to have a significant impact on their YYZ traffic.

But both of us are speculating, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, not before.

Is YHM not far from YYZ?  AC started routes out of there when NewLeaf started operations.  I'm 100% sure they didn't move in there because they suddenly realized it was a viable route. 

Is it conceivable at any point that Porter might want to use YKF as like a "Second Hub"?  I'm just thinking of aircraft size and so on...

YKF was trying to get Porter to come here as a maintenance location (Since they lack room on the island, and we have lots).  The benefit was as the planes shuttle back and forth, they can be sold to locals to make their ongoing destinations at BBTCCA.  Obviously, that didn't come to fruition, but maybe as they expand and run out of room, maybe we could be a viable alternative.

Coke

[Pheidippides]

Master Plan report at council on Tuesday:
http://calendar.regionofwaterloo.ca/Coun...017#page=7

Basically, moving away from the up-front investment model to actions based on "triggers" based on different criteria/performance measures.

[jgsz]

Master Plan report at council on Tuesday:
http://calendar.regionofwaterloo.ca/Coun...017#page=7

Basically, moving away from the up-front investment model to actions based on "triggers" based on different criteria/performance measures.

I like many of the recommendations of the YKF Master Plan and Business Plan.  Basically, the airport will grow as the number of passengers grows.  That just makes sense.  However, the airport has been losing passengers lately and, today, there is only one scheduled flight a day.  The way to fix this is to continue up-front investment.  Expand the runway and build a new, larger, terminal.  I know that's difficult to sell to taxpayers but if the airport is important to the local economy then politicians will have to take a stand.  They did that regarding the LRT and it was the right thing to do.  

The current terminal is embarrassingly small and airlines may look elsewhere (Hamilton/London) to operate.  If YKF holds off expanding until there is more service, airlines may hold off until YKF is enlarged. That would be a nasty circular argument.

[panamaniac]

There is nothing about the current (under capacity) terminal, runways, or other airport facilities that would prevent additional airlines from offering service, afaik.

[SammyOES2]

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't support trying to "invest more" to bring airlines.  That just doesn't seem like the limiting factor.  Especially since every single person I talk to LOVES flying out of Waterloo.  

And in terms of the airport infrastructure, the runway is easily long enough for the types of planes that airlines are going to bring in at this point.  And the lack of traffic / small size of the airport means really fast turn around times and fewer delays.  They were even boarding/deplaning planes by two doors for the Orlando flights, something you just can't do at larger airports.

[Canard]

We need an airline like Southwest to break in here. They love "B" airports and have long been hinting about expanding into Canada... something like that would be huge.

[timio]

Southwest wouldn't be as useful for international connections like American to ORD was. DTW has some, but isn't as big of a hub.

[plam]

We need an airline like Southwest to break in here. They love "B" airports and have long been hinting about expanding into Canada... something like that would be huge.

The flying experience is just terrible on airlines like easyJet and Ryanair. Southwest is surprisingly civilized in some ways.

[Viewfromthe42]

It's a chicken-in-every-pot plan. Those who want expansion get to see many potential expansions over the years. Those who don't want to see any get to see that only if a bunch of airlines jump into our lap and drag us kicking and screaming will we actually do a small sequential expansion and then reset the parameters.

[strickliability]

Just scrap it and build a circular runway
http://www.curbed.com/2017/3/24/15043986...ort-design