Air Canada vs. Kelowna and the Okanagan

[occasional thoughts]

Kelowna's YLW is the 9th busiest airport in Canada, from what I read and I've looked it up, but Air Canada continually gives us the back of our national airline's hand on things. I'm left wondering why, but the evidence of is not lacking, Week after week I receive the A/C email "Air Canada Flight Offers" and week after week there are no sale fares offered from Kelowna to U.S. destinations. While specials from Kelowna for Canada, Sun and International are routinely offered, it jumps to fares from Vancouver for U.S. destinations.

Today's offerings, which come into one's inbox overnight every Tuesday/Wednesday, offer sale fares to U.S. destinations from 14 cities in Canada, including such metropolises as Saskatoon, Regina and Moncton, all behind us in importance as a market, but not Kelowna.

I'd like to know why our airport authority, who are so quick to speak out about almost anything, have never commented to my knowledge on this issue; and why our news media (Courier; Castanet) have never bothered to dig into it.

[Captain Awesome]

Airports don't offer flights and can't tell airlines where to fly.

[occasional thoughts]

Airports, our esp., are vitally involved in lobbying airlines about service and our always has something to say about things like this.

[Captain Awesome]

You're wrong. Airlines pick routes based on profitability and demand. If it's not profitable for them to fly from Kelowna to Chicago on a regular basis they simply won't do it - and they don't because it's better for them to fly people to Calgary or Vancouver where passengers can connect to a US flight.

Airports have nothing to do with offering flights.

[Dizzy1]

You're wrong. Airlines pick routes based on profitability and demand. If it's not profitable for them to fly from Kelowna to Chicago on a regular basis they simply won't do it - and they don't because it's better for them to fly people to Calgary or Vancouver where passengers can connect to a US flight.

Airports have nothing to do with offering flights.

I think that the OP is referring to airlines offering sales to one city and not the other - not starting up flights.

To answer the OP - it's all about $$$. They look at various markets and look at the bookings they have and based on those bookings they then start promoting based on that data. In this case, AC doesn't feel the need to offer extra promotions from YLW to the US either because their revenue is where they want it to be or because they don't feel that it will generate enough revenue for them.

Also, you'll note that these "sales" have prices staring from a certain price - they're not guaranteed. I don't bother looking at those prices - I typically get the same prices just using their regular search engine.

[HeavyHauler]

Airports have no say what-so-ever on where airlines fly. It only seems like they do because they are the ones hosting press-conferences, tooting their own horn when an airline decides to offer a new exotic route.

[Dizzy1]

Airports have no say what-so-ever on where airlines fly. It only seems like they do because they are the ones hosting press-conferences, tooting their own horn when an airline decides to offer a new exotic route.

Sure they do - airports lobby airlines all the time - the airline then looks at the
market to see if it's viable for them or not but rest assured, any airport authority worth their salt constantly approach airlines in hopes of starting new services.

[Glacier]

Airlines do on give discounts when they already control most if not all the market share. Instead, they offer discounts to take customers away from competitors, such as in larger international airports like Calgary and Vancouver. Kelowna is still pretty tiny on the world stage.

[Dizzy1]

Airlines do on give discounts when they already control most if not all the market share. Instead, they offer discounts to take customers away from competitors, such as in larger international airports like Calgary and Vancouver. Kelowna is still pretty tiny on the world stage.

Kelowna had more competition than Moncton

[Glacier]

Kelowna had more competition than Moncton

Moncton is pretty small. Do they offer sweet international deals?

[Dizzy1]

Moncton is pretty small. Do they offer sweet international deals?

Read the OP - the go to AC's website and look under US destinations in their promo section

[HeavyHauler]

Dizzy, trust me, they have no sway what-so-ever. I have factual knowledge of this.

[Glacier]

Read the OP - the go to AC's website and look under US destinations in their promo section

Those places all have bigger international markets than Kelowna.

[MAPearce]

Who needs Air Canada ?

We got West Jet.

[Donald G]

I would suggest that part of the explanation regarding the direct flight conundrum can be found in the answers to 2 questions;

How many major destination points are there within 500 miles of Moncton?

How many major destination points are there within 500 miles of Kelowna?