1 reviews
Hello and welcome to another Flight Report!
This is this number 6 of 8 in my Canada series and in my last FR, I covered an excellent flight on Porter's brand new Embraer E195-E2. Now I'll be returning back on an airline with a polar opposite business model: Lynx Air!
Aviation in Canada has changed drastically over the last few years with the introduction of many new carriers like Flair, Swoop, Canada Jetlines, and Lynx Air. Lynx is a brand new Canadian LCC that commenced operations a year ago in April 2022 and I'm super interested to see what flying low-cost is like in Canada compared to Europe.
For my return from Edmonton, I paid CA$75 (~€50/US$55) including seat selection. Like all LCCs, you will have to pay to bring a large cabin bag or a checked bag. This is around $10 more than Flair however they were much cheaper than full-service carriers like Air Canada, Westjet or Porter for my chosen date.
From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this flight is:
YEG-YYZ: 215kg
Total for 2023 (so far): 1379kg
Like with all LCCs, Lynx doesn't have any complimentary food or drinks. However, while most other airlines would offer a BOB menu, Lynx does not, which means that there won't be any way to buy food onboard. I find this to be a missed opportunity as the airline could make quite a bit of money selling food or drinks, especially on a 4 hour flight like this one.
I do like how the airline is very transparent and clear about their (lack of) service onboard. It definitely sets your expectations right and gives people the chance to be prepared (especially for those who don't fly a lot).
While on the email, Lynx recommends everyone to arrive at least 3 hours before departure, check-in doesn't actually open until around 2.5 hours before. But anyway, I arrived here early (as usual) so lets have a walk around the airport.
Departures for this morning.
Check-in for Westjet. They have a huge presence in Edmonton.
Check-in area for Lynx. There weren't any queues as most people would've checked-in online and I was here fairly early.
Security took less than 10 minutes and we are through airside.
There is a large number of cafes, shops and restaurants scattered across the airport.
Sunwings Boeing 737 MAX 8 (C-FAXD) in the Planet Hollywood livery. She was set to head off to Cancun (CUN) 2 hours ago but there's no sign that's happening anytime soon. I kinda feel sorry for the passengers who's been stuck here for hours without any news as to what's happening.
Some more photos of the terminal.
The main departures area. The airport (like all the others I've been to in Canada) is very modern and clean.
View out of the window with a Flair Boeing 737 MAX 8 (C-FLHI) heading to Victoria (YYJ).
Continuing my walk to the other end of the terminal now.
Gates 1-16 is located in an older part of the terminal. This area doesn't appear to be used often as it is completed deserted when I was there.
Another photo of the apron at the end of the building.
Flair Boeing 737 MAX 8 (C-FLKO) getting deiced in preparation for departure to Toronto (YYZ) 4 hours late.
Here's our plane arriving from Vancouver (YVR).
Some info about our plane:
Type: Boeing 737 MAX 8
Registration: C-FULH
First flight: 17 February 2020
Age: 3 years
Despite being 3 years old, she was only delivered to Lynx a year ago in April 2022 and had no previous operators.
Flight time will be just over 3 hours and here's our route:
Boarding started an hour before departure and I was one of the first onboard.
Lynx's ironing board seats.
Seatback pocket and the tiny tray table commonly found on LCCs.
The legroom is actually really good for a LCC.
First views out of the wing.
The contents of the seatback pocket includes:
- A safety card
- And an air-sickness bag.
Another Lynx Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 (C-FULJ) disguised in a Norwegian livery has just arrived from Toronto (YYZ).
Pushback on time.
Lining up on runway 12 with a Sunwing Boeing 737 MAX 8 (gosh… nothing but MAX 8s in Edmonton haha) with registration C-FMXA heading to San José del Cabo (SJD) behind us.
Bye bye Alberta!
Nice view of the Edmonton area after takeoff.
Still a ton of snow in Alberta even in April.
Climbing through the clouds.
Cruising over Saskatchewan.
Despite Lynx not offering a BOB menu, they (surprisingly) do offer a cup of water for free. I might be wrong but it appears that every airline in North America offers at least water for free - which is super nice and should (in my opinion) be introduced on LCCs in Europe too.
Over Lake Superior.
And Lake Huron a bit later.
Starting our descent into Toronto Pearson.
Horrible weather in Toronto today.
On final for runway 23. This was probably one of the bumpiest approaches I've had due to a strong crosswind - they switched to runway 33L/R (the crosswind runways) shorly after we landed.
Welcome back to Toronto! We landed on time.
As usual, we exited the jetbridge and arrived in the domestic departures section.
Baggage reclaim - there were 4 belts for domestic arrivals with international flights segregated by a glass wall.
The area for domestic arrivals.
That concludes my adventure across Canada to Edmonton and my first flight on a LCC in North America. My next FR will be on my final domestic flight in Canada before returning back to Europe, see you there!
A nice flight with Lynx Air. They're a LCC and make no effort to hide it. The airline doesn't offer any BOB menu or entertainment/Wi-Fi however they do make that very clear with 2 emails stating that before the flight so you can go into it prepared. I found the seats to be the standard ironing boards found on most LCCs however the legroom is quite good. Considering how much cheaper they were compared to Air Canada or Westjet, Lynx offers amazing value for money and they get you from A to B reliably, which is all you can ask for from a LCC really.
Edmonton International Airport (YEG) - Nice and modern airport with plenty of food and shopping options scattered across the terminal. As mentioned in my previous FR, the only complaint I have with the airport is the poor public transport options serving the airport, with only an hourly bus service connecting the airport to the edge of the city, requiring another transfer to get to downtown.
Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ) - Modern and efficient airport, nothing to complain about really.
3 Comments
I must say that the cabin looks very similar to the cabin of Flair 737-8 Max.
Thanks for reading!
Canada is one of the most expensive domestic flight markets so new carriers like Lynx are essential for bringing fares down where otherwise the Air Canada/WestJet duopoly dominates.
I was disappointed to see that Lynx still don't offer any BOB food or drinks. When they first started ops they said it was due to Covid safety, but that's no longer a valid excuse. So it seems they just don't plan on doing any sort of BOB period. They are rather small still so I imagine there's a cost and risk associated with managing food offering that they may not want to deal with yet. Hopefully as they grow they will revisit this decision as flights pushing 4-5 hours really do need to have some sort of food available.
The legroom looks surprisingly good for the configuration being at the maximum Y189.
Thanks for sharing!
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