The profile of B.C.’s largest airport got a significant shot in the arm earlier this year when China Southern Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airlines announced plans to start flying out of Vancouver International Airport (YVR).
During the past decade, YVR has faced increased competition from regional airports in Abbotsford and Bellingham as well as larger airports on the U.S. west coast.
Vancouver’s 80-year-old airport has grown steadily to become Canada’s second busiest airport and has won numerous international awards declaring it to be North America’s best airport.
But YVR passenger counts dropped nearly 1% between 2006 and 2010. During the same period, passenger traffic rose more than 5% at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and almost 17% at the San Francisco International Airport.
YVR fared better than international airports at Portland, San Diego and Los Angeles, where passenger counts dropped 6.05%, 3.38% and 3.22%, respectively.
But given the $1.4 billion YVR infrastructure overhaul that was completed in June 2007 and included a four-gate expansion to its international terminal wing, the airport’s traffic volume was expected to increase.
Access to the airport was also improved when the $2 billion Canada Line opened in August 2009.
The drop in YVR’s passenger counts can be attributed in part to travellers heading to either the newly renovated Abbotsford International Airport or the Bellingham International Airport because they were either more convenient or charged lower fees.
In addition, airlines such as Mexicana, Zoom and Oasis Hong Kong, which had flights to Vancouver, ceased operations after slipping into creditor protection. Vancouver-based Harmony Airways stopped operating abruptly in 2007 and other airlines, such as Qantas, Frontier and Air Pacific, eliminated routes.
Finally, the global economic downturn reduced international leisure travel.
China Southern Airlines’ April announcement that it would start flying three times per week between Vancouver and Guangzhou starting in June was therefore loudly applauded by Vancouver International Airport Authority (VIAA) executives.
Sichuan Airlines then signed a letter of intent to fly three times per week from Chengdu to YVR via Shenyang starting in 2012. Tourism marketers expect the flights to add 31,000 visitors to B.C. and $3.5 million annually to B.C.’s GDP.
However, Sichuan Airlines still needs Transport Canada approval.
The federal department rejected a Singapore Airlines request in 2007 to allow it to add another flight per week to the three it had between Vancouver and Singapore via Seoul. The airline had wanted to establish daily flights between Vancouver and Singapore.
In 2009, the continued restriction of being limited to three weekly flights on the route convinced the airline to end its 20-year association with YVR and stop all flights to Vancouver.
“In terms of airline economics, for a scheduled airline, it’s pivotal to be able to operate daily or at least to grow to daily flights fairly quickly,” said John Korenic, VIAA’s director of aviation marketing.
“Operating daily, your unit costs tend to be lower [and] your revenue tends to be higher.”
He said airlines that fly less than seven times a week out of an airport face higher layover costs for flight personnel and don’t maximize their aircraft assets.
Virgin Atlantic plans to become the 40th carrier to fly out of YVR when it starts operating four flights a week between Vancouver and London’s Heathrow Airport starting May 24 until mid-October.
Chris Rossi, Virgin Atlantic’s senior vice-president for North America, said his goal is to add more flights to that schedule when the service restarts in the spring of 2013.
Canada’s “open skies” agreement with the U.K. means that airlines based in either country are free to fly an unlimited number of times to and from either jurisdiction.
Canada has similar open skies agreements with the U.S., Korea and New Zealand. •
Air agreement Options
For an airline to fly to another country, its home base and destination country must have an air agreement.
Air agreements fall into three categories.
•Restrictive. Canada’s agreement with Thailand stipulates the number of times airlines can fly to the other country and which ports they can fly into.
•Liberal. Canada’s agreement with the European Union allows unlimited travel between Canada and all E.U. ports. The agreement does not, however, give carriers “fifth freedom rights,” which allow an airline to fly on to a third country.
•Open skies. The agreements allow airlines unlimited flights between countries and to fly on to third countries. However, open-skies agreements do have some restrictions. For example, the deal between Canada and the U.S. prohibits an American airline from flying into Vancouver and then on to another Canadian city.
