Air Canada is the flag carrier of Canada, as well as the largest airline in the country,
with over 200 aircraft across its different subsidiaries.
However, in light of current events, there’s been quite a bit of change there over the
past two years.
Seeing as I last made a video on this topic back in 2019, I think it’s time for an updated
look at the Air Canada fleet.
Air Canada Express is Air Canada’s regional brand, and includes 5 different aircraft types
now operated exclusively by Jazz Aviation.
That includes 15 Mitsubishi CRJ-200s and 10 De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300s.
The latter, though, are sadly being retired by the end of the year or into early 2022.
In addition to those 50-seaters, Jazz also flies 39 Dash 8-400s, 35 Mitsubishi CRJ-900s,
and 25 Embraer 175s.
These Embraers were previously flown by Sky Regional, another regional carrier which sadly
ceased operations at the end of March.
That was due to Air Canada’s consolidation of their regional operations into Jazz, primarily
because of the pandemic, and the lack of aviation sector support from Canada’s federal government
up until that point.
Meanwhile, over at Air Canada Rouge, things are slowly ramping up again, and although
most of these are still parked, Air Canada has 20 Airbus A319-100s, 5 Airbus A320-200s,
and 14 Airbus A321-200s listed on their website for Rouge.
Speaking of A319s, Air Canada Jetz is Air Canada’s charter subsidiary, and right now
they operate the only non-Rouge A319s, with 4 A319-100s configured in a VIP, all-Business
Class layout.
At mainline Air Canada, they still have their fair share of Airbuses, with 17 Airbus A320-200s,
15 Airbus A321-200s, and 24 Airbus A220-300s.
The first of the A220s entered service in early 2020, and since then, they’ve proven
their value all across the Air Canada network.
Rejoining the flying fleet this year are 26 Boeing 737 MAX 8s, with two of these having
been delivered in September.
In light of, again, ongoing events though, there have been some changes when it comes
to the orders for these newest members of the fleet.
In March of 2020, Air Canada cancelled their order for 11 737 MAX 9s outright.
Later that year, in November, they also cancelled orders for 10 737 MAX 8s, as well as 12 A220-300s,
and deferred a number of deliveries of both types.
Widebody-wise, Air Canada still has 8 Boeing 787-8 and 29 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, as
well as 16 Airbus A330-300s now, 6 Boeing 777-200LRs, and 19 Boeing 777-300ERs.
Although most of these widebodies are flying, all 6 777-200LRs are currently stored in either
Victorville or Marana.
It’s also worth mentioning that, according to Air Canada’s 2020 annual report, one
777-300ER will be leaving the fleet in 2021, possibly as a lease return.
That would bring the 777-300ER fleet down to 18 instead.
Given the huge decrease in passenger demand throughout 2020, Air Canada converted a number
of their A330s and 777s into temporary freighters by removing seats.
In the case of the 777s, these are mainly, if not all, of the former high-density 777-300ERs,
while some of those A330s were newer acquisitions from Singapore Airlines.
Speaking of cargo though, Air Canada is re-entering the dedicated freighter market with 8 converted
767 freighters, and the first will enter service later this year.
In May 2020, Air Canada made the decision to retire 79 aircraft from the fleet, including
all of the Embraer 190s, mainline A319s, and the 767s from both mainline and Rouge.
Jazz also retired all of its 37-seat Dash 8-100s as well, so all in all, the fleet does
look a fair bit different than it did in mid-2019.
Nevertheless, although the fleet may look a bit less diverse now, with the A220s and
MAXs to help Air Canada’s recovery, they appear to have toughed it out through the
worst of things, and they have good reason to be optimistic going forward.
Thank you very much for watching, and I’ll see you next time!