Region of Waterloo International Airport - YKF

[urbd]

We flew FlyGTA from YKF yesterday. The best part is watching the skyline as we land at Billy Bishop.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RG19S6Dq9vnxNXyh1

How's the flight? bumpy, etc? And how long, I read under 20 minutes?

[kitborn]

We flew FlyGTA from YKF yesterday. The best part is watching the skyline as we land at Billy Bishop.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RG19S6Dq9vnxNXyh1

How's the flight? bumpy, etc? And how long, I read under 20 minutes?

We decided to go to encourage flights from Kitchener to Toronto. The flight was on a calm and sunny day. The take-off and landing were both smooth.

The views were spectacular. The flight takes 18 minutes from take-off to landing. There is about 5 minutes at the airport to check in and out.

The only problem that I saw was in order to get to the tunnel to the mainland was another 10 minutes walk from their terminal. (It's at the far end of the Billy Bishop Airport.)

We then waited for a free shuttle to the Royal York hotel. The shuttle goes back and forth every 15 minutes.

[jgsz]

That's a curious flight to sell out: it's not even a flight. All other YKF->YTZ morning flights are at 7:45am, but they sold out a 9:30am flight? That sounds more like they were contacted about using it as a charter.

I suspect it's a charter.  Hopefully, FlyGTA will have enough passengers from Waterloo Region to add more flights and possibly use a slightly larger plane, similar to what Bearskin uses.

If FlyGTA is successful it will be a selling feature to other airlines who may want to use YKF.  I imagine some airline execs look at a map and conclude that Toronto is so close to Kitchener that Pearson and Billy Bishop are our local airports.  But, clearly, if people are flying to Toronto they are not our local airport.  This may not be the strongest argument to get airlines to offer service from YKF but every bit helps.

[Coke6pk]

I saw that flight (and the subsequent return flight later) that both show Sold Out. I too assume its a charter, as its (1) not at a scheduled time and (2) it's a third flight on days there is supposed to be two.

I doubt that no amount of success will get FlyGTA to use larger aircraft. They will increase the number of trips, but they are unlikely in invest in larger aircraft anytime in the foreseeable future. Niagara started with the same flights and is doing 8 a day... I expect to follow the same pattern.

Coke

[Canard]

If it's a charter, I wonder why they would even show it on their webpage, then?

Maybe just to make it look like they're flying more? (i.e., optics)

[urbd]

I saw that flight (and the subsequent return flight later) that both show Sold Out.  I too assume its a charter, as its (1) not at a scheduled time and (2) it's a third flight on days there is supposed to be two.

I doubt that no amount of success will get FlyGTA to use larger aircraft.  They will increase the number of trips, but they are unlikely in invest in larger aircraft anytime in the foreseeable future.  Niagara started with the same flights and is doing 8 a day... I expect to follow the same pattern.

Coke

For travelling 90 km I would really prefer a better train service than flying, hands down. Way more sustainable too. Having options are good though...

[tomh009]

For travelling 90 km I would really prefer a better train service than flying, hands down. Way more sustainable too. Having options are good though...

Yes, so would I. But the infrastructure upgrades required for the former are significant, so in the meantime it's good to have this option.

[robdrimmie]

If it's a charter, I wonder why they would even show it on their webpage, then?

Maybe just to make it look like they're flying more? (i.e., optics)

I suspect it's a (probably unintentional) side effect of having to enter the data into various booking systems, which in turn make that data available to the webpage, which itself just displays anything in the data it requests.

[KevinL]

Either that, or they had a seat or two free on the charter that they were free to sell - and they were snapped up quickly.

[rangersfan]

Region spending $4.1 million dollars to buy a farm near YKF for possible future expansion.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/796...r-airport/

[jgsz]

There is a huge difference between "Cancelled" (YKF page) and "Sold Out"  (FlyGTA page). 

   

   

If the flights are "Sold Out" it should say that on the Arrivals and Departures page because it looks so much better than 'cancelled.'

[ijmorlan]

There is a huge difference between "Cancelled" (YKF page) and "Sold Out"  (FlyGTA page). 





If the flights are "Sold Out" it should say that on the Arrivals and Departures page because it looks so much better than 'cancelled.'

It shouldn’t say either. Those boards aren’t for checking whether a seat is available but for checking when they will be arriving/departing.

“Cancelled” is super-bad and definitely incorrect because it could give somebody the impression the flight is, yah know, cancelled. “Sold Out” however is also incorrect because the information that should be there is whether the flight is on-time, delayed, or, yah know, actually cancelled. Also it’s pointless for the arrivals board to indicate sold-out status; presumably the point of indicating such on the departures would be to let people know that they can’t get on that flight if they don’t already have a seat.

Of course it’s perfectly sensible for the pages relating to ticketing to indicate sold-out status.

[panamaniac]

Region spending $4.1 million dollars to buy a farm near YKF for possible future expansion.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/796...r-airport/

It's 144 acres, so I'm thinking it's the whole area to the south of the airport along Fountain?  All the way down to Kossuth?

[SammyOES]

Do we know that flight is actually sold out and not cancelled? I just assume that means the flight was cancelled. So now there's no seats and the ticketing system represents no available seats as "sold out". Sort of similar to the likely charter flight we saw before.

There's been land for sale there for awhile that I think was Fountain to Kossuth. I'm glad the newspaper article pointed out the reasons that the "No more debt" is kind of a silly argument. Its income producing and is very likely to appreciate at least in line with inflation. Much worse ways for the region to spend money. And of course its much better to grow amicably then have to expropriate.

[kps]

Region spending $4.1 million dollars to buy a farm near YKF for possible future expansion.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/796...r-airport/

It's 144 acres, so I'm thinking it's the whole area to the south of the airport along Fountain?  All the way down to Kossuth?

This parcel is ~140 acres according to the Region's GIS: