ACA dropped London flight over spat with Edmonton airport

[Woxof38]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ ... -1.2223651

[pdw]

That's the right approach, in the business sense; overwintering the route (fewer passengers then at a tremendous expense just to reap the harvest during the busier spring) would then be in vain. Their strategy to stay productive is stalemated by competition wanting to enter the fray just as the busy season begins in March.

Dropping that weak winter route in early January keeps AC's financial options open, in not risking extra losses from extra seat availability in March. That would have become obvious to them as soon as implementation of that additional connection to Iceland between London and Edmonton was available information.

[PAXUNK]

AC would be justified in demanding the same financial concessions that YEG allegedly offered Icelandair.

[gianthammer]

HaHa take that YYC jr, sweet justice after EAA paralyzed the muni to the point of extinction. I suspect the the Edmonton area will get their regional airport soon enough and will change the name to "Leduc Industrial Airport".

[Cessna driver]

HaHa take that YYC jr, sweet justice after EAA paralyzed the muni to the point of extinction. I suspect the the Edmonton area will get their regional airport soon enough and will change the name to "Leduc Industrial Airport".

I already call it Leduc Int'l Airport. Whenever i see people show up at YXD looking for YEG and the ask me where it is, I just tell them "you're and hour away, its in the town of leduc, not in edmonton

[bmc]

Dropping the flight due to seasonal demand is fine. It makes sense. Sending a letter claiming its due to unfairness is another, and I understand the AC sentiment. However, if the YEG-LON route makes money, STFU.

Reading between the lines, this issue speaks volumes about AC's focus on the airport deal and diddly squat about their customer base.

And, do you really think Icelandair is going to make a big dent in the market? Really?

[azimuthaviation]

http://redarrow.ca/customer_media/red_a ... 5_2013.pdf

Downtown Edmonton to the departure section of Calgary and her several daily non stop flights to London, Frankfurt, etc.

[pdw]

And, do you really think Icelandair is going to make a big dent in the market ?

Statement in second article (from Icelandair Vice-P): " a lot of the people in this area will choose our service to get to Europe" ... is only an advertising line, but the truth is that Iceland is a place where more people are thinking of stopping in for a short prestige holiday for a few days, might as well do it while to or from YEG / LON

Their start-up is sure to significantly reduce the opportunity for seats sold on ACA's direct flight to / from YEG / LON in the short term (before the busy season really gets going after March 26) ... the main reason being that most of those travellers likely want to take in the scenery etc in Iceland mainly thru late-spring/ summer. Iceland is not really an affordable destination for the Canadian traveller nor others from the far East even, except if combined with a trip to UK/Europe and onwards.

Simply closing the route halfway thru winter season wouldn't have been good enough without voicing the truth of the matter as seen from their perspective. The January flights wouldn't have been booked up yet after getting the Volks home after Christmas (seems like a fair enough Jesture) probably wouldn't have affected many customers yet.

Now it could be up to Icelandair to entice more Volks to stop in Iceland in the winter months in anticipation of THEIR full seat sales in the springtime.

[mbav8r]

BMC wrote;
Dropping the flight due to seasonal demand is fine. It makes sense. Sending a letter claiming its due to unfairness is another, and I understand the AC sentiment. However, if the YEG-LON route makes money, STFU.

Reading between the lines, this issue speaks volumes about AC's focus on the airport deal and diddly squat about their customer base.

And, do you really think Icelandair is going to make a big dent in the market? Really?

BMC, I think the answer is clear in this response from Air Canada, it seems Air Canada has operated this route year round, for the customer base, now that there will be direct competition during the busy season which would normally offset the winter loads and yields, it doesn't make "business" sense to run the route during those months.

Despite ongoing promotional initiatives, it has always been a challenge for the route to be profitable during the winter months. Reykjavik (KEF) is a hub airport that competes directly with London Heathrow for connecting traffic to many of the same points in Europe which is a factor in the Edmonton-London route’s year-round route performance," she wrote.

"To mitigate the challenge of operating the route in the winter, Air Canada has taken the difficult decision to suspend the winter operation from Jan

I also don't know why people thinks it's ok for a business partner, formally Canadian airport, to promote foreign competition. It's one thing to announce a new route, it's a whole different thing to advertise the supposed benefits of this competition.

"We were specifically very disappointed with your comments reported in the Edmonton Journal, which promoted the Icelandair service at the expense of Air Canada's LHR service, alleging that LHR — one of the great gateways to the world, with connections not only to Europe but also to the Middle and Far East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent — was inconvenient and a poor substitute for KEF.

"Frankly, we expect more from our partners."

That says it all!