Quote:
Originally Posted by ACT7
AC had been reportedly working on finalizing new routes to India so a YYZ announcement is probably imminent. Not sure if that means next week but soonish I would imagine. Johannesburg and Teheran are apparently also in the works.
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Johannesburg would be an astonishing route for Air Canada, but one that I'm unsure if it has the right aircraft to fly, or a market to warrant the cost.
Great Circle Mapper
At approximately 8,300 nm from YYZ to JNB, it exceeds the legs of the Dreamliner (788 and 789), if I am not mistaken, or is at least at the upper operational limits of the 789. That's also about 500nm further than the airline's current longest flight (YYZ-HKG at 7,810nm). A 77L or 77W could do it, though, but probably not at MTOW, since JNB is a hot & high airport.
YUL-JNB makes more sense to me than YYZ-JNB, both because it is 300nm closer and because of JNB serving as a significant hub for Francophone West African travelers. Still...
Great Circle Mapper
Cape Town could be a pretty amazing destination and it's just a quick-ish hop to Johannesburg or Durban for those wanting to continue on to the country's other major cities. YYZ-CPT is still 8,157nm and YUL-CPT is 7,935.
For a couple of years I did quite a bit of travel to Johannesburg for work and I would have loved to have the opportunity to fly a domestic leg from YVR and then a straight shot to JNB. I routed through LHR or HKG and it would always be a taxing haul to do 30+ hours of continuous travel, including as much as 24 hours in the air, and then arrive at ten to seven in the morning and go straight into meetings. I still have some PTSD about those trips.
Edit: just realized that my Great Circle Mapper output was in miles, not nautical miles.