Etihad Airways has just announced its newest long haul destination. It’s in North America, and it’s not a market I was expecting to see the airline announce service to…
Continue reading: Etihad Airways Launching Flights From Abu Dhabi To… Calgary, Canada?!?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
As there's somewhat of an Asian population in Calgary especially South and Southeast Asian, I wonder if they'll capture some of that traffic?
It's just a matter of time before Emirates starts Vancouver? Significant South Asian population there!
Calgary is where a lot of Canadian oil and gas companies are headquartered as well as companies that serve the industry. I wonder if that has something to do with it.
There are some deals from YYZ to SE Asia and elsewhere in J on their a388 for later this year. Check it out.
And the 'oil' is usually about the 'money'... if you care about the environment and really wanna be upset, check out Canada's oil sands in northern Alberta... some of the worst.
I checked the population of Canadian provinces. BC has 5.7 million, Alberta has 5 million. So, why is it so odd that they would choose Calgary over Vancouver, especially when BC places like Kelowna (173K) and Kamloops (114K) are about the same flight time from Calgary? Then add in Manitoba, 1.5 million.
1) Calgary is Westjet's primary hub with excellent connectivity to Western Canada. This will be an interesting travel option for travellers in British Columbia, Edmonton, Saskatchewan and potentially parts of NW US, assuming Etihad signs that agreement as Ben suggests is likely.
2) Calgary has a metro of about 1.6mn, but punches way above its weight in terms of corporate offices and business travelers as the home of Canada's oil & gas industry. It's the second largest base of head offices in Canada after Toronto. Alberta is by far the wealthiest province in Canada.
3) Could be some airport incentives playing a role here
4) Alberta and BC are very cosmopolitan, home to large South Asian, and increasingly, African diaspora communities who would consider this route.
Unconventional add for sure but it makes sense. Their new strategy is to avoid competitive markets like LAX, SFO & DFW (JFK, ORD, etc being big enough markets to sustain against the competition)
This also provides robust connection on the AUH side especially to India and the rest of South Asia.
This is a great new addition and excellent routing choice. The Alberta super-corridor is on the rise, with not only Calgary region but also the capital Edmonton being within easy access. There are even plans to build a world-class bullet train between the two regional centers. The rose province is in fact the only to have two cities of greater than one million inhabitants.
We shale see how well this route does, but YYC has 100+ non-stop destinations (yes many are regional routes), but with this large hub it could make sense. ET hasn't returned to SFO, so you wonder if they're doing the Walmart approach - go to the more peripheral cities that likely don't have a lot of O&D to Asia/Mideast and just tap into the hub traffic. I see this as the reason why they went to CLT.
There are also a bunch of UAE investments (from Mubadala, etc.) in Calgary and Alberta more generally, which may be driving an increase in premium traffic between the cities.
It is not yet available to book, i just checked the Etihad website 🙁
As a Calgarian i'm happy to welcome another route of this magnitude. Westjet partnership will definitely be announced and should take capacity from Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatchewan and funnel it through Calgary for onwards connections to Africa, ME and Subcontinent. Will put pressure on AC in the west!
Obviously this is about transit traffic. But amazing for YYC. With the growth of Westjet and now this, looks like AC will be run out of town for anything but domestic routes (which is a very good thing!)
YYC has also been pushing for these sorts of Middle East direct flights *a lot*. The new(er) international terminal was built to accommodate A380s - as was the new runway - and there was always an implicit understanding that that included an unspoken "as flown by Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad". Not necessarily the aircraft they envisioned, but this has been on the airport's radar for a while.
Banff national park and a couple of wonderful Fairmonts are only 90 minutes from Calgary…most beautiful part of the Rockies I’ve ever seen…if you ever visit there, Ben, you’ll understand it. Just like after you went to Big Sur.
A direct result of Canada increasing getting rid of their restrictions and increasing flight capacity from the UAE, there will be more to follow.
I have a feeling that both of these carriers joining SkyTeam is imminent. Especially when Riyadh Air is still up in the air right now.
Doesn't make sense at first but assuming there is connecting traffic from WestJet, it starts to make more. Calgary and Edmonton have pretty substantial South Asian populations. As EK winds down SEA demoting the 77W to a 77L I am holding off for an EK A380 to YVR, but who knows
Service to Calgary, yet nothing to the west coast? No SFO? LAX? SEA? All are bigger markets than Calgary. What about serving some market in Texas? 35 million potential customers. But no, we prefer places like Charlotte and Calgary (a market the size of Milwaukee). I'm sorry but it makes no sense.
This makes perfect sense and I’m sure a WestJet partnership is soon to be announced which makes this route make even more sense. WestJet dominates western Canada and the people who would have connected to Toronto to catch a Etihad flight can now bypass Toronto altogether and have a much shorter connection time
The majority transfer passengers are not from/to other Canadian cities. It is Alberta-Abu Dhabi-South Asia. The economy class will be fully filled by South Asian who live in Alberta especially Calgary Area. I don’t think their Business class will selling well.
This is primarily about Westjet connectivity, not Fairmonts and Rockies, or bullet trains to Edmonton. I'd love to actually learn what kind of loads they're able to achieve a year from launch and how much of it is connecting to non-Alberta airports. YYC has been working furiously, since the pandemic, to convince the world that there's some there there. For those of us who've been there mid-October and experienced -15°c, YYC is a special place, with a unique level of appeal unlike any other place.
Still, Westjet has lots of capacity in Western Canada, USA and Mexico/Caribbean and even ET is not immune to begging and subsidies. Remember, while speculating about the strategy, that Westjet significantly reduced their Eastern Canada services very recently, for what it's worth.
I should add that Calgary is the gateway to Alberta's Rocky Mountains, a major international tourist destination including Banff and Lake Louise which are only 60-90 minutes away from YYC. While still a surprise, I don't think the decision is that jawdropping. Canadian airports tend to punch above their comparably sized American counterparts for international destinations.
They have tried those places on the west coast and they didn't do well due to competition. These new destinations are doing well like ATL or BOS.
More deals with UAE carriers, yes. Not sure it follows that there will be "more to follow" with Westjet involved. Westjet just discontinued numerous services to Eastern Canada so for Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, they have nothing to offer a Middle East carrier. ET is smart to stay out of alliances, if this is how they want to play. AC in eastern Canada, Westjet (soon in Skyteam probably) in the west.
Calgary is bigger than Milwaukee (and Chicago is nearby, so that likely inflates things there.) Charlotte is still really odd to me.
Huge fan of Moraine Lake; I'd argue the only decent Fairmonts are in Canada. The ones I've tried elsewhere were not-so-great.
The government had been subsidizing AC for over a decade now by restricting competition. And result is Canadians are stuck with a horrible airline. Good to see this change. All the new airlines at YYZ, and increased ME3 presence is very welcomed.
This is primarily to serve the Indian and South Asian community who live in Calgary, one of North America’s fastest growing cities. Emirates’ and Qatar Airways’ widebodies are generally too big and have too many premium seats for this market. Hence, the niche for Etihad.
Calgary-Abu Dhabi is solid 'out of the box' thinking for Etihad. However for any ultra long haul route to even come close to breaking even, it must have a good amount of business cabin demand. Unfortunately for Etihad, this is not what Calgary offers as 80% of the traffic they will get on this route will be purely VFR price sensitive Y cabin traffic to India solely. For the loads to be above 60%, it will rely heavily on obtaining a code share agreement with Westjet to provide beyond feed to Vancouver, Winnipeg, Surrey, Edmonton, Red Deer and Fort McMurray.
Manila is the second largest market from Calgary that would be of interest for Etihad, but majority of those passengers would prefer a faster route via Vancouver using Air Canada or Phillippine Airlines or even a two stop product offering with Cathay Pacific / Korean Air.
The red ink for Etihad on this new four weekly Calgary service wont be for the faint hearted in Nov 2027 once one full year has been completed operating this long haul flight.
Canadian PM has met with the President of the UAE in late November last year. Maybe it has something to do with it...
Canada is definitely pivoting away from the over reliance on the exchanges with America...
It seems like Etihad left Vancouver to Emirates. Emirates has been wanting to fly to Vancouver for more than a decade.
It seems like Etihad left Vancouver to Emirates. Rumours are there that Qatar Airways will also soon announce flights to Vancouver.
It is likey that both Emirates and Qatar Airways are planning to fly to Vancouver. May be that is the reason Etihad chose Calagry to avoid competition. I know that all the ME3 fly to Toronto. But Toronto is a much bigger market as comapared to Vancouver.
It makes so much sense. Calgary has a growing South Asian community and they had very limited options to travel to South Asia, with lots of codeshare to YYC which presents its own complications. I'm so excited for Calgary. Also this helps reduce travel time, as opposed to travelling a long East - West route to YYZ, the YYC - AUH can utilize the polar route instead.
Trust me they are NOT that great in Canada. The rooms in Jasper in the cottages are horrible. Lake Louise rooms are sub par.
I have a lot of South Asian and Middle Eastern friends in Calgary. They all currently need to fly complicated routings to get to their home countries. First a flight to YYZ/YUL, and then more connections from there. And the tickets are way more expensive, even in Economy (compared to what I pay from the East Coast of the US). If EY charges the same amount of money in Y as it's competitors, with the advantage of having fewer connections, that flight should have good load factors and good yeilds with only 4x weekly frequencies. I think this is a smart route additions by EY and makes sense to me on paper.
And why is this framed as something so bizarre? get over it, the world doesn't revolve around US-centric thinking.
If there's a westjet segment involved, I won't be using this service at all. I'd rather connect in JFK to the westcoast overnight then short flight to YVR after day shopping in Burlingame CA.
Vancouver is just a higher value destination for either UAE carrier. I dislike Wesjet so will avoid this service as a way to get to Vancouver.