Gulf Air has recently stated its intention to enter the US market. With its partnership with Air Canada, it makes sense that they’d eventually be interested in serving Canada. Would it make sense for them to launch a BAH-YUL route? The competition is definitely not as fierce as the one in Toronto, but is there enough demand for what Gulf Air offers, could they find a niche?
There’s absolutely no demand from Canada to that region. If they don’t already serve NYC, you could forget about Canada. And if they were to serve a Canadian city it would most likely be Toronto.
1 « J'aime »
The airports of the three main nearby emirates, and to a lesser extent those of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman, are all capitalizing on the huge through-traffic generated by the South Asian expat and diaspora communities throughout the West. As YUL is already served by Emirates (EK) and Qatar Airways (QR), I think there’s only a bit of room left. But then again, these state-backed airlines don’t need to operate full flights to be profitable.
2 « J'aime »
It’s not the “region” that’s in play. There are 2 Billion people living in nearby South Asia as well as a South Asian and Filipino diaspora in the West about the same size as the population of Germany. Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai are major transit airports for both passengers and cargo.
1 « J'aime »
Dans le MEA, seule Beyrouth serait un énorme succès de YUL (l’été un daily serait rempli sans soucis y compris en business), voire Damas si un jour la guerre se termine?
Indeed, it’s the potential of the Gulf Air network to the Middle East and South Asia in Montreal that I was referring to.
1 « J'aime »
Sure, but let’s be real. With a fleet of 41 and not one single destination yet in North America, Canada is no where on their radar. They don’t even serve BEY anymore and YUL has limited demand for South Asian traffic, especially with Qatar, Emirates and Royal Jordanian already flying here as you said.
And if they ever chose to serve Canada it will most likely be YYZ.
2 « J'aime »
Yet. They plan to launch service to the US, probably New York, next year.
Your point obviously stands, but if their first North American route is successful, they’d likely be interested in expanding on the continent. Maybe in 3 or 4 years… Especially considering their partnership with Air Canada.
If they ever do go down that road, I suppose that like Royal Jordanian which is a similar airline in terms of size, that a BAH-YUL-YYZ route would be more interesting and more feasible than just BAH-YYZ or BAH-YUL.
1 « J'aime »
There’s also the connectivity to places like Maldives, Zanzibar, Kilimanjaro, Nairobi but QR and EK are much better suited. Plus some Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Bali.
Might be a while before we “need” another player. Arguably Ethiopian would have more to offer and would be more logical…
2 « J'aime »
SAS is revealing its new destinations for 2025 through Instagram, starting with Seattle being revealed today. They posted a departures table which very much seems to be the list of the new additions to the network, seemingly meant to make people guess. What is exciting here is that as you can see there’s an 8 letter city!
Do you think SAS is finally resuming YUL after decades of absence?
2 « J'aime »
The sixth line has exactly the same number of letter spaces as Montreal so I hold out some hope… but without Star Alliance feeds and the need to concentrate on US Sky Team hubs I kinda doubt it. Would love to be surprised though.
2 « J'aime »
Peut être après l’annulation pour 2025 d’ARN (sto) par AC, ça les motive un peu plus,le marché est à développer qui sait? Ou CPH?
Sinon Las Vegas (++), San Diego (-), Portland (-) bien que forte communauté Scandinave je crois comme à Seattle?
1 « J'aime »
I think looking at your list it could be Portland or Hartford… most likely Portland although the A321 would make Hartford easily. Las Vegas and San Diego would be split like the last line.
1 « J'aime »
1 « J'aime »
If Detroit is one of the next two, I doubt we will get an SAS flight. But it doesn’t look like they are adding Minneapolis, so who knows.
Are these all North American destinations?
If not, there are eight-letter European cities that don’t currently have SAS service. Budapest, Belgrade and Toulouse, for example.
2 « J'aime »
SAS didn’t specify, they could be anywhere.
1 « J'aime »
Narp. None of the above. CPH-YYZ becomes daily, OSL-JFK only other news for North America.
4 « J'aime »
I think AC’s YUL-CPH is more then enough capacity for YUL.
It’s possible eventually AC will go daily with the 321XLR. Perfect aircraft for the route.
4 « J'aime »