LH to announce FRA-YEG.

[YEG boy]

Its official lufthansa is set announce new service to YEG,after months of rumors i recentley spoke to a duty manager at yeg and he did confirm the airlines intent to serve YEG,but as usual remained quite about saying the announcement would come within "a couple months".You dont have to believe me just keep yourself posted.LH was recentley in edmonton auditing PLH fuel services and Globeground.The duty manager also said its not a rumor,LH is on its way.

[dave_333]

Don't mean to be mean at all but I still don't see it happening.

Call me narrow minded but I just can't visualize there being enough of a market for LH to start that route. If it does hapen though then all the best for you YEG guys.

Dave

[YEG boy]

Lets see edmonton has a population of over 1 million people in the city alone the catchment area(surrounding towns plus the north) are larger than calgarys as has been stated for years, edmontons eastern european population is the highest after torontos,and no year round sked links to europe.I think its about time yeg gets the service its long deserved and can support.AC itself wont ever give yeg a link to europe it wouldnt make sense having a hub in YYC,but i think the route will do just fine.

[canair67]

Lets see edmonton has a population of over 1 million people in the city alone the catchment area(surrounding towns plus the north) are larger than calgarys as has been stated for years, edmontons eastern european population is the highest after torontos,and no year round sked links to europe.AC itself wont ever give yeg a link to europe but i think the route will do just fine.

I don't see the viability of this routing. Why? For the reasons you already stated. If our national airline doesn't see the profit margin for this route with 1 million + people, who is to say a foriegn airline does? Sounds like a crap shoot to me.

[A332]

LOL...

Man... you're quite the spin doctor, aren't ya?

We'll be waiting for the official announcement from Lufthansa regarding this proposed route... I'm sorry, but hearing it from "whoever" does not guarantee it'll happen. As it's been said, Edmonton simply does not have a market to sustain the flights, otherwise they would already exist.

Oh.. and you're way off with your population statistics as well... Calgary is larger in both municipal and metropolitan populations... to end this tiresome Albertan debate... here's the facts from the 2001 census:

Calgary (City) - 878,866
Edmonton (City) - 666,104

Calgary (Metro) - 951,395
Edmonton (Metro) - 937,845

Last count, the City of Calgary was over 900,000 within the city limits, it'll be interesting to see the census results next year.

[YEG boy]

Read up my friend lets not start a edm-cal debate cause honestly i think everyones sick of it.If ya need confirmation you may contact TRANSPORT CANADA and request a DOT route application theyll be happy to inform you that LH has applied for the route,its public information.CHEERS...And my correction its edmonton and surrounding areas population that is over 1 mil.ANd that my friends is a fact...2001 was a long time ago.

[A332]

We'll be waiting for the official announcement, and yes we promise to pat you on the head if you are indeed correct.

Ever take the moment to remember that there's far more money within the Calgary region and therefore the airlines have much more profitable business ventures out of this city? Why do you think the airlines have been slowly pulling out of Edmonton or scaling back capacity over the years... more money can be made in the business centre... Edmonton is the working class city... always has been, always will be.

Not meaning to be a jerk.. but this is just a dose of reality.

[ATrude777]

wow, if its true, thats great, but i was pretty sure they were going to add another US city first.

Alex

[YEG boy]

Wow, scaling back or pulling out???YEG has had more new routes added over the past two years than any pull outs infact other than the jetsgo flop whos pulled out or dropped yeg???

[Crazy764]

Wow, scaling back or pulling out???YEG has had more new routes added over the past two years than any pull outs infact other than the jetsgo flop whos pulled out or dropped yeg???

Didn't you present a huge list of int'l airlines that used to serve YEG? That would be a good start for the answer to your question...

[A332]

Thanks Will... I was just about to bring that up...

As well, please note that I said "over the years" and not "over the past 2 years"... there's a world of difference.

[Crazy764]

Hehe Carey, I knew I wouldn't be the only one to find that quizzical.

Another thing...

Its official lufthansa is set announce new service to YEG

and

i recentley spoke to a duty manager at yeg and he did confirm the airlines intent to serve YEG

That's almost an oxymoron.

[A332]

I wonder if it was the same "duty manager" who informed him of Canjet's expansion to YEG...

[Crazy764]

I wonder if it was the same "duty manager" who informed him of Canjet's expansion to YEG...

And perhaps that's the same "insider" from whom Da-BoB gets his info from.

[CathayPacific]

It would be interesting to see LH to fly to Edmonton. It would not make sense to announce it in a few months though. The busiest travel season between Canada and Europe is summer. Announcing the route in a couple of months, LH won't be able to start the route until fall. It doesn't make sense to start serving a market at the time of the seasonal downturn. And what is the intended frequency? I remember LH has said, in another occassion unrelated to Edmonton, it would not serve any route with a less-than-3-times-a-week frequency.

And my correction its edmonton and surrounding areas population that is over 1 mil.ANd that my friends is a fact...2001 was a long time ago.

Statistics Canada estimated that population of Calgary is 1.037 million and Edmonton is 1.001 million in 2004, so Calgary is still very slightly larger than Edmonton. But I don't think population is an issue here. If this logic applies, Ottawa should get the service to Frankfurt first since it's even larger than Calgary, and proportionally, Tokyo would be getting 40 flights a day to Frankfurt since it has a population of 38 million (2004 number). The economy is what counts.