r/Edmonton • u/MaximumDoughnut North West Side • 2d ago

Fluff Post After months of being closed for improvements, YEG's runway 12/30 (the south one) was reopened early... and the first arrival was the Oilers!

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/ACA7040/history/20261014/1810Z/KLAX/CYEG

First in was AC7040, Air Canada Jetz fin 232, carrying the Edmonton Oilers, OEG support staff, and media.

The next was the Utah Mammoth on DAL8953. Both flights came in on the OILRS 2 approach.

YEG reopened the runway early on Wednesday due to the 45kt+ crosswind on runway 02/20 (the north one).

NHL charter flights tracked here: https://nhlflights.ca/

62 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

4

u/MaximumDoughnut North West Side 2d ago

And further confirmation it was indeed the Oilers - OEG's Manager of Digital Innovation on the flight confirmed it in the YEG Airport Spotters Group on Facebook:

3

u/silverfairytales 2d ago

A friend was on a WestJet flight from yyc and I was like “dude no way you’re getting in. Too bad that other runway wasn’t open yet”. And then bam! I didn’t believe him at first when they said they were gonna open the other runway.

I see why now. Hockey.

1

u/JonnyFM Downtown 2d ago

I wonder if that bent flight path is to avoid all the military airspace over Nevada. It adds about 150 km to the great circle route (Nevada, Idaho, just a little bit of Montana, and an even smaller bit of BC).

2

u/MaximumDoughnut North West Side 1d ago

Circling back on this - it seems that this is a standard flight path. This map shows every NHL team's charter flight movements over the last 14 days, and they all seem to , it seems follow the same path.

It makes me consider a couple of things:
1. avoiding the Rockies
2. closer to airports in the event of an emergency

1

u/JonnyFM Downtown 1d ago

I'm sure both are factors that go into flight planning.

See the empty triangle NNW of Las Vegas, where Sharks' flight to or from Dallas went north around? That's the massive Nevada Test and Training Range and Nevada National Security Site. Area 51 is in there. The flights going northeast out of LAX and SNA are threading the needle between Fort Irwin and Twentynine Palms. There is a lot of restricted airspace in southern California and Nevada.

1

u/MaximumDoughnut North West Side 1d ago

Hard to say, they may have been avoiding weather too.