Manchester: Air Canada News & Flight Discussion

[ethanegcc]

Much better timings in my opinion and 4 weekly suits a three weekly YVR flight perfectly.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

What degree of confidence do we have that Rouge are intending to use the three vacant slots on another MAN route? Hate to point it out, but they may be planning to use those days for services from Canada to another destination altogether.

 

[ethanegcc]

Oh we know perfectly well they could be used for another route, but this is exactly what has happened at LGW and then a YVR rotation was added and we know that AC want to launch a MAN-YVR flight so the signs look encouraging.

 

[Land23R]

Oh we know perfectly well they could be used for another route, but this is exactly what has happened at LGW and then a YVR rotation was added and we know that AC want to launch a MAN-YVR flight so the signs look encouraging.

Been away for 11 days. How do we know that AC want to launch a MAN-YVR flight?

 

[Dobbo]

I think AC have applied for and received 14 weekly slots for S17.

I think AC (via Rouge) have been in booking engines for MAN-YYZ at 5/6 weekly (it seems to change) for August and September. There has been some discussion surrounding daily, but I don't know anything further on that.

I think MAN-YVR has come together from a number of different places, including Transat upping their MAN-YVR service and AC mainline being rumoured for MAN-YVR. The thinking is that AC rouge might do the same at MAN as they do at LGW - 3x weekly YVR-MAN and 4x weekly YYX-MAN.

Whatever they do seems to be very much up in the air.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

I think we can all agree that the service patterns on YYZ-MAN mean that Rouge could easily slot in MAN-YVR rotations from an operational perspective. The real question is whether they're actually motivated to do that based upon market analysis. If they've identified an alternative route which represents a more lucrative return on the use of that B763 over those three vacant days, the aircraft will fly that route instead. Obviously I (like most here) hope that MAN-YVR will be the result of these YYZ-MAN cutbacks. But we must be aware that this is a risky assumption. Air Canada Rouge executives are loyal to their profit and loss account, not to serving MAN specifically as a priority over other airports in contention for their fleet deployment.

If MAN-YVR is in their thinking, they need to be placing it on sale soon or Air Transat will be well ahead of them.

 

[Dobbo]

EGCC

Agreed - but as User has pointed out a page or two ago, the basic fares for AC rouge at MAN are eye wateringly high. Unless AC are taking advantage, this must be a solid indication (as well as the slot requests) the market from MAN is poised to grow.

 

[ethanegcc]

To be honest, for many dates they seem to have calmed down slightly e.g.
View attachment 4264

 

[Dobbo]

Do you know (off the top of your head) roughly how it compares to AC mainline to Europe?

 

[ethanegcc]

Well for those dates on AC mainline LHR-YYZ it is £577 (bearing in mind there is a lot of competition) and CDG-YYZ is just under £500 so it certainly doesn't compare too badly.

 

[ethanegcc]

EDI on rouge for those dates is £1 more!

 

[Dobbo]

Okay - so it is about par.

I suppose the key is whether you can generate the premium traffic MAN-YYZ/YVR in order to make the economics work in Y.

 

[Land23R]

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38...da-rouge-s17-long-haul-changes-as-of-04jan17/

MAN-YYZ at 5 x weekly which I think we were expecting, rather than the 6 x weekly or even daily showing at one time.
No mention of YVR but I'm afraid but that doesn't surprise me.

 

[Dobbo]

It's a shame the daily YYZ has not materialised - I was confident about that one.

YVR is disappointing but was always more of a long shot. When TS expanded YVR next summer it looked as though it was a preemptive move based on AC plans. Maybe they have been derailed, maybe they never were.

AC remains an expanding airline and I would expect the presence at MAN to continue to grow over the next few years and mainline to return at some stage.

As noted elsewhere, the VFR market has dried up so future growth needs to come from business, leisure and cargo.

 

[Land23R]

Another attraction of Vancouver is the option of Cruises, notably to Alaska.

 

[Dobbo]

I think that's the same for all of the west coast hubs - access to nearly all of the Pacific via a one stop option.

Much easier to do via an alliance airline (one of the limitations of TCX).

 

[ethanegcc]

Air Canada have returned for the 'summer' 2017 season with C-GSCA - a mainline-liveried aircraft. Arriving 0832.

It seems it is configured in a 'Rouge' configuration, looking at the seatmap.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

A photo on Flickr shows C-GSCA repainted into full AC Rouge scheme as of 29 May 2017. I would welcome afew mainline liveries appearing at MAN though!

 

[ethanegcc]

Air Canada Rouge return on 15th June 2018, 5x weekly 767-300,, identical to this year.

Dublin has gone mainline with A330-300 and has taken the flight numbers used when MAN was mainline - AC842/843.

 

[Dobbo]

That's a shame, I'd really hoped to see some positive movement from AC moving forwards. I'm not reading anything into the old MAN flight number being reallocated, but this is one I'd hoped to see positive movement from.