You read my mind.

Here are my thoughts on it.

1. Price hikes have surely already started. So that's part of the solution to make the routes work. (Of note, oil prices fell below $100/barrel this week. still, a very volatile market, so nothing is for sure.)

2. If AC put the 77L on these 2 routes, then it's already done the math and knows that it's cheaper this way than to stop for fuel in DUB.

3. With 6 77Ls, AC needs to use these frames. Why not use them on routes that require the added range. The westbounds back to YUL/YYZ are 16h30, 17h05 long, respectively. That's now the longest flights that AC has in its network, I believe.

4. You'll notice come S22 (March 31- onwards), AC reverts back to 14 weekly to DEL. On February 7, AC applied and got approval for 8 extra-bilateral slots to DEL (so from 14 to 22 weekly), same as W22. This reduction in service for S22 could therefore be a direct result of no overflights above Russia.

https://otc-cta.gc.ca/eng/ruling/a-2022-12

On a side note, I'm actually surprised they are not putting a B77L on YVR-DEL as well. I'm sure they could do both legs non stop with it.

LOL sure!

"All routes restored!"...."(except for the routes we're not restoring - cough YWG-YUL, cough)". Manitoba is far more important to WS than it is to AC.

We'll see what kinds of load factors these airlines get this summer with so much capacity. For example, as recently as 3 weeks ago AC's YUL-LHR had no more than 12 seats reserved on the seat map for the first 35 days of the route's return (I didn't go any further). Some days still had ZERO and most were single digits.

One thing to remember though, people aren't booking several months in advance anymore, for fear of new COVID waves coming, and airlines canceling flights.

Close-in bookings are now the norm. I'm confident it will be a very busy summer season for international travel. Much busier than S21, as long as there are no more serious COVID variants/restrictions.

China has imposed some lockdowns this week, because of a spike of the virus in their country. Just goes to show how fast things can change.

All 77L are based in YYZ. So to run YYZ-YVR-DEL-YVR-YYZ they will need 3 planes, while YYZ-YUL-DEL-YUL-YYZ works with 2.

AC had cancelled YYZ-HKG for the summer, so the only remaining routes left for 77L are:

YYZ-YVR-SYD-YVR-YYZ
YYZ-DUB-YYZ
YYZ-FRA-YYC-FRA-YYZ

So they can probably extend the 77L flight to DEL into the summer if they want to, and replace the DUB and FRA route with 789 freed up.

Yep definitely a lot things can change as we have seen the past couple of years! Hong Kong's Coronavirus pandemic situation in Asia is quite bad since December 2021 and a lot of inbound international flights to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) to there cancelled past few months & even some from Canada too this winter.

That's why Airlines in Canada and around the world are going to continue to consolidate most Domestic/ International flights through their busiest Hubs to fill up their planes✈️better!

It's not a splashy release but it got a mention here:

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/flights

Just got to scroll down to "Flights in Canada" to see it. :haha:

Looks like Lynx is set to announce their first big growth announcement tomorrow.

New Destinations include Edmonton, Halifax, Hamilton, Kelowna, and St Johns.

This is on top of Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg.

Glad to see BNE back earlier than planned, and for AKL to return. Just hope it doesn't f* up Air New Zealand service (they are codeshare partners and two of the closest in *Alliance actually, so whatever happened, they'd plan together. Just like AC and LH, they don't go after one another

G'Day, Kia Ora: Air Canada Strategically Expands its South Pacific Network

Vancouver-Sydney flights ramp up to daily beginning May 1
Vancouver-Brisbane flights resume Jul. 1, four times weekly
Vancouver-Auckland flights resume Nov. 10, three times weekly

Most extensive schedule connects Canada to South Pacific destinations and supports tourism and hospitality sectors
MONTREAL, March 16, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today announced a strategic expansion of its South Pacific schedule with the return of daily service to Sydney and resumption of services to both Brisbane and Auckland. Air Canada's Australia and New Zealand flights operate from its trans-Pacific hub at Vancouver International Airport which the carrier has built to conveniently connect its international network to its vast North American network. Seats are available for purchase now at aircanada.com, via the Air Canada App, Air Canada's Contact Centres, and travel agents.

Actually Kelowna is not a new announcement for Lynx Air they announced it in January 2022

2x Vancouver YVR - Kelowna YLW from April 15
2-3x weekly Calgary YYC- Kelowna YLW from April 15 and 3x weekly from mid June

Only Edmonton, Hamilton, Halifax and St Johns are new adds for Lynx.

Lynx Air new routes added into their Summer 2022 schedules:

Calgary YYC - Hamilton YHM 2x weekly from June 29 Wednesday & Sunday and 4x weekly from July 29 with Friday & Monday added in.

Edmonton YEG- Toronto YYZ 7x weekly from July 28

Toronto YYZ - St. John’s YYT 2x weekly from June 28 Tuesday & Saturday and 4x weekly from July 28 Thursday & Friday added in.
Toronto YYZ - Halifax YHZ June 30 3x weekly Thursday, Friday & Monday. 4x weekly end of July with a Tuesday weekly flight added in.

Halifax YHZ- Hamilton YHM 2x weekly from June 29 Wednesday & Sunday.
Halifax YHZ- Toronto YYZ 3x weekly from June 30 Thursday, Friday & Monday and 4x weekly from end of July with a Tuesday flight added in.

The schedules are (subject to change) but that’s what it looks like currently.

WestJet has 2 flights resuming today for the 2022 (Spring/Summer season) as Calgary YYC - Paris (CDG) , France & Calgary YYC - Nashville (BNA), US is back.

Also Alaska Airlines Seattle (SEA) -Calgary YYC is up to 2x daily starting today too!

The main difference being, AC and LH have a joint venture and revenue share on all their transatlantic flights between Canada and Germany.

That's not the case with AC and NZ. They announced intentions to start a JV back in 2019, but it hasn't been approved yet.

I wonder why it says Dawson Creek is seasonal?

I just realized my damn phone autocorrected when I was typing that. It was actually YHZ-LHR that I was referring to. The loads in Y have now grown to the teens and twenties but they have simultaneously cut flight frequency in May from daily to 5x.

YOW had one of the few remaining private 727-100s (or any 727 for that matter) visit last night: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...000Z/KVNY/CYOW

https://airwaysmag.com/airlines/one-...-italy-photos/

ONE flight was scheduled.

BG305 DAC 2300 - 0715+1 YYZ 789 MAR 26
BG306 YYZ 1000 - 1215+1 DAC 789 MAR 29

Well, better than nothing I guess.

Air Canada has announced an order for 26 A321XLRs, with deliveries to begin in Q1 of 2024. Configuration will be 168 economy seats and 14 lie-flat Signature class seats.

Press Release

So, who wants to take bets when the 737 MAX fleet leaves?

I give it a decade at most.

I, too, can see Air Canada being an all-Airbus narrow-body operator within the decade, yes. The Airbus offering of the A220-200/300 for the low-cap/long-thin routes and A320/21/21-XLR for mainline/high-cap/long-thin international routes is a very solid match to Air Canada's domestic and hemispheric/limited trans-Atlantic operations. Its 777 and 787 fleet remain a good fit for the remainder of its overseas ops.