Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) is touting using B737-8s to launch new services to secondary cities in Europe and the incoming A220-300s on new routes to the United States.
According to slides from the year-end investor update presentation, the Canadian flag carrier could use B737 MAX 8s on routes such as from Vancouver International and Calgary to Orlando International, from Edmonton International to Honolulu, from Montréal Trudeau to Frankfurt International, and from Halifax to Nantes.
Currently, the airline already deploys its twenty-two B737 MAX 8s on cross-country services in Canada, routes to the mainland US, Hawaii, Mexico, Caribbean, and select thinner transatlantic flights, namely to Reykjavik Keflavik, Nantes, Shannon, Bordeaux Mérignac, and London Heathrow (the latter from Halifax and St. John's).
Air Canada has a further twenty-eight B737 MAX 8s on order with Boeing.
The B737 MAX 8s will be gradually replacing the seventy-three Airbus A320 Family units. Currently, Air Canada mainline operates sixteen A319-100s, forty-two A320-200s, and fifteen A321-200s. The total number of A320 Family units in the carrier's fleet, excluding units leased to low-cost subsidiary Air Canada rouge, is due to drop to thirty-two by the end of 2021.
In the same presentation, the carrier said that the A220s could be used both on existing routes in Canada and to the US, and on new transborder services. Among the routes touted are medium-haul services such as from Vancouver and Calgary to Washington Dulles, from Montreal to Seattle Tacoma International, and from Toronto Pearson to San José, US and Monterrey Mariano Escobedo.
Air Canada has forty-five A220-300s on order and will start the type's operations in January 2020. The aircraft will replace E190s, which are slated for a phase-out by 2021.
