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Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF
#16
Good to see you again!
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#17
(10-13-2014, 03:06 PM)ykf_gm Wrote: August was an amazing month for passengers.  The best ever.  September was another record breaking month (best September yet), and so far October is keeping the trend going.

Lots to talk about.  I can try to answer your questions if you have any...

Great to be back with you...

Welcome back!
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#18
(10-13-2014, 03:06 PM)ykf_gm Wrote: Hello everyone, sorry about the delay in registering... Took me a while to figure out WW was gone, and this site replaced it.  Good to see there is another airport forum to discuss your local airport.

August was an amazing month for passengers.  The best ever.  September was another record breaking month (best September yet), and so far October is keeping the trend going.

Lots to talk about.  I can try to answer your questions if you have any...

Great to be back with you...

Chris
Airport General Manager

Glad you found us Chris.

What do you think has caused the sudden surge in numbers?
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#19
(10-13-2014, 03:06 PM)ykf_gm Wrote: I can try to answer your questions if you have any...

Have there been any discussions, with the local tech community and/or airlines, about a Waterloo Region - San Francisco direct flight?
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#20
(10-14-2014, 01:57 AM)mpd618 Wrote:
(10-13-2014, 03:06 PM)ykf_gm Wrote: I can try to answer your questions if you have any...

Have there been any discussions, with the local tech community and/or airlines, about a Waterloo Region - San Francisco direct flight?

Just this weekend, I had a friend do YKF->ORD->SFO
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#21
I think any flights to the south/west of Chicago from YKF would be a mistake, as they would only divert passengers from the ORD flights. I'd rather see the service to Chicago grow to the point of adding frequencies.
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#22
It would be interesting to me to have a comparator rundown for those ORD connections. I have often avoided connecting terminals for fear of harder to book connections. But if there were data out of YKF or YYZ showing particular destinations were popular with folks from London-Mississauga, I think it would be great to be able to search, easily, the comparison, e.g. a 5h flight from pearson, or a 1.5h+0.5h+4h through Chicago. Then again, I'm the kind of person who will look down into the grittiest details at times to find my optimum solution, rather than just "Direct or connecting? Direct. Done."
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#23
One problem with connecting flights is the consequence when you miss your connection. There are only two daily flights between YKF and ORD. If you fly SFO -> ORD -> YKF and the first leg is delayed enough to miss the second leg then you face a lengthy layover at ORD, possibly overnight. OTOH if you fly SFO -> ORD -> YYZ and the first leg is delayed then you can easily find other flights back to YYZ every hour or so.

If I had these flight options for a visit to SFO they'd be in this order:
1. YKF -> SFO
2. YYZ -> SFO
3. YYZ -> ORD -> SFO
4. YKF -> ORD -> SFO (and a distant fourth at that)
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#24
(10-14-2014, 06:57 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I think any flights to the south/west of Chicago from YKF would be a mistake, as they would only divert passengers from the ORD flights.  I'd rather see the service to Chicago grow to the point of adding frequencies.

I agree with this. I've often found reasonable fares leaving from YKF, but then end up with a different itinerary because the connections involve long layovers. Increased frequency to ORD would mitigate this to a certain extent.

Flights to their other eastern hub (DFW) might also open up a few more options.
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#25
(10-15-2014, 12:00 PM)ookpik Wrote: One problem with connecting flights is the consequence when you miss your connection. There are only two daily flights between YKF and ORD. If you fly SFO -> ORD -> YKF and the first leg is delayed enough to miss the second leg then you face a lengthy layover at ORD, possibly overnight. OTOH if you fly SFO -> ORD -> YYZ and the first leg is delayed then you can easily find other flights back to YYZ every hour or so.

If I had these flight options for a visit to SFO they'd be in this order:
1. YKF -> SFO
2. YYZ -> SFO
3. YYZ -> ORD -> SFO
4. YKF -> ORD -> SFO (and a distant fourth at that)

I don't know if AA actually does this for YYZ/YKF, but in the event of misconnects, airlines are often willing to reroute you to, say, YYZ instead of YKF. This is especially true if you don't have checked luggage.
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#26
(10-15-2014, 01:44 PM)plam Wrote: I don't know if AA actually does this for YYZ/YKF, but in the event of misconnects, airlines are often willing to reroute you to, say, YYZ instead of YKF. This is especially true if you don't have checked luggage.
Yes, I realize that this may be an option in some cases.

It may not be a problem with shorter trips, say up to a week or so. However with restrictions on what you can put in carry-on, I now usually travel with checked luggage when on vacation. I don't need the hassle of some TSA apparatchik measuring the exact length of the 2" blade on my wife's nail file or confiscating the small screwdriver in my computer bag or possibly confiscating a pair of expensive collapsible hiking poles, etc. (Yes it's happened. And it was at ORD as it happens.)

Another potential problem with rerouting to YYZ is getting back home or to YKF to pick up your car. Yes you can use something like Air Transit but that adds another hour and half to the length plus $150 to the cost of the trip -- on top of the premium you paid for the convenience of flying out of YKF in the first place.

So yes, if there is demand for convenient travel between here and Silicon Valley then it seems to me direct flights are the way to go.
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#27
We’d have to look at on-time performance to see what kind of a risk there actually is of missing a connection when flying from Waterloo to Chicago. Like others, I’ve missed connections in the past, and it’s true that it is a lot worse when connecting to a route with less frequency, and being rerouted is not usually a good outcome. But missing a connection because the initial leg is delayed doesn’t happen all that frequently.

The effects of it are quickly mitigated by a few extra flights, so I think that additional flights to Chicago would be wonderful. That will serve a huge number of people, including those wanting to get to San Francisco. I’m not sure of San Francisco’s utility to connect to flights to Asia (I imagine they have quite a few flights), but Chicago is a huge hub and improved access to its many many destinations would be a great thing.
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#28
(10-15-2014, 02:24 PM)ookpik Wrote:
(10-15-2014, 01:44 PM)plam Wrote: I don't know if AA actually does this for YYZ/YKF, but in the event of misconnects, airlines are often willing to reroute you to, say, YYZ instead of YKF. This is especially true if you don't have checked luggage.
Yes, I realize that this may be an option in some cases.

It may not be a problem with shorter trips, say up to a week or so. However with restrictions on what you can put in carry-on, I now usually travel with checked luggage when on vacation. I don't need the hassle of some TSA apparatchik measuring the exact length of the 2" blade on my wife's nail file or confiscating the small screwdriver in my computer bag or possibly confiscating a pair of expensive collapsible hiking poles, etc. (Yes it's happened. And it was at ORD as it happens.)

Another potential problem with rerouting to YYZ is getting back home or to YKF to pick up your car. Yes you can use something like Air Transit but that adds another hour and half to the length plus $150 to the cost of the trip -- on top of the premium you paid for the convenience of flying out of YKF in the first place.

So yes, if there is demand for convenient travel between here and Silicon Valley then it seems to me direct flights are the way to go.

I'd be willing to live with the potential hassle. It's a recovery option and such options are usually not great anyway. I haven't taken Airways Transit in years. Usually I take GO Transit although I got a ride in this morning.

(I have traveled for 3 weeks with everything except for my climbing gear in a carry-on. Frequent clothes washing.)

ORD is probably a better bet for connecting to Asia than SFO. SFO is sort of large but not nearly as large as ORD, I think. LAX is a bigger hub also.

Nonstops are, of course, more convenient, but they do otherwise restrict flexibility, as we've pointed out.
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#29
My votes is for More ORD frequency (maybe 3 flights a day - morning, noon-ish, evening), this should cover all connections from ORD

Back when ex-YYZ had some ~$600 deals to Hawaii HNL, it was the same price for YKF-ORD-HNL etc... I'd definitely take that instead, especially now I have NEXUS/Global Entry to clear ORD T5 faster

But...transferring terminals @ ORD is still a pain, YKF-ORD lands at T5, have to clear US immigration vs. YYZ pre-clearance
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#30
(10-15-2014, 11:32 PM)jerryhung Wrote: My votes is for More ORD frequency (maybe 3 flights a day - morning, noon-ish, evening), this should cover all connections from ORD

Back when ex-YYZ had some ~$600 deals to Hawaii HNL, it was the same price for YKF-ORD-HNL etc... I'd definitely take that instead, especially now I have NEXUS/Global Entry to clear ORD T5 faster

But...transferring terminals @ ORD is still a pain, YKF-ORD lands at T5, have to clear US immigration vs. YYZ pre-clearance

If the alternative to YKF -> SFO direct is more daily flights to YKF -> ORD and better pre-clearance, etc. then I agree that's more flexible.

Now if only we could make the Nexus card approval process a bit less inconvenient, e.g. by having US and Canadian agents doing approval interviews at YKF once a month or so...
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