With the pandemic in the rear view mirror, Air Canada is growing its fleet once again and doing
its best to keep up with surging travel demand. Over the past year, the airline has added several
brand new narrowbodies but has also welcomed some new and pre-owned widebodies into the fleet.
In this video, we examine where Air Canada’s fleet stands in 2023. We’ll
also examine what this fleet will look like in the years to come.
At a glance, these are the types, variants, and quantities of aircraft
flying for Air Canada as of late June 2023, according to Planespotters.net:
From Airbus there are 33 A220-300s
2 A319-100s 12 A320-200s
15 A321-200s And 18 A330-300s
From Boeing we have: 40 Boeing 737 MAX 8s
8 767-300s 6 777-200LRs
19 777-300ERs 8 787-8s
And 30 787-9s
There are a few things to note about these numbers. First, you should know that these
figures only cover the mainline Air Canada brand. Thus, it does not include the budget
and leisure-focused subsidiary Air Canada Rouge, nor the private charter division known as Air
Canada Jetz. It also excludes aircraft flying under the Air Canada Express regional brand.
What these numbers do include,
however, are several dedicated freighters flying for Air Canada’s cargo division.
Indeed, many of the 767-300s listed have either
been converted into freighters or are in the process of being converted.
When it comes to recent departures,
Air Canada said goodbye to four Airbus A320-200s. These didn’t go too far, however,
as they were moved over to Air Canada’s private and special charter brand, Air Canada Jetz.
In case you didn’t know, Jetz is Air Canada’s quote “charter aviation
service provider delivering superior Business Class service to satisfy the
travel needs of professional sports teams, entertainment groups and corporate clients.”
Thus, aircraft flying for this Jetz brand will be configured with domestic business
class recliners. For example, the Jetz A320s are fitted with 66 business class seats.
Other than the transfer of the four A320s,
Air Canada appears to have held on to most of its existing fleet over the course of 2022.
This, combined with a steady stream of new deliveries,
has seen the airline fleet grow overall.
Planespotters.net shows that since January 2022,
the airline received the following aircraft: 9 737 MAX 8s, 6 A220-300s, 1 777-300ER,
1 787-9, and 2 A330-300s. The airline also added 2 767-300 freighters in June 2022. These appear
to have been ordered by China Central Longhao Airlines but never taken up by the carrier.
There are some interesting things to highlight about some of these recent deliveries.
The single Boeing 787-9 was delivered brand new from Boeing in April 2023.
The acceptance of this aircraft marked Air Canada's 38th 787 and 30th 787-9.
More interestingly, the aircraft was the first 787 delivered to the airline since April 2019.
Even more interesting was that the aircraft flew directly from Boeing facilities in Charleston to
Birmingham in the United Kingdom. There, it spent about two and a half weeks,
presumably having its cabin fitted for passenger operations although this could not be confirmed.
As for the two A330-300s, these airframes are far from brand new. Both jets were delivered
new to Singapore Airlines about 10 years ago and were retired between 2019 and 2020.
After spending about three years in storage, they were taken by Air Canada but have yet to
regularly fly passenger services - at least at the time of this video’s production.
And finally, the one 777-300ER added in February 2023 isn’t even new to Air Canada.
The carrier took delivery of this airframe in March 2007 but appears to have withdrawn it from
use in March 2020. Perhaps on paper, this aircraft was returned to its lessor and put in storage for
3 years - but, it has since been reactivated for passenger operations with Air Canada.
The carrier isn’t done growing its aircraft collection just yet. Indeed,
ch-aviation.com data indicates that Air Canada is expecting another 27 A220s to be delivered,
as well as 30 A321XLRs and 2 more 787-9s.
The A321XLRs were a significant announcement from the airline. As we reported in March 2022,
the first aircraft from this order were scheduled to arrive at Air Canada in the
first quarter of 2024, with the complete fleet of 26 arriving by early 2027. It
looks like things have changed slightly, as the order number has risen by four airframes.
The two 787-9s yet to be delivered should arrive sometime this year or next year.
On the cargo side, Air Canada is expecting to take 2 777 freighters. Announced in August 2022,
these will be the airline’s very first brand new, purpose-built 777 freighters.
Vice President of the cargo division at Air Canada, Jason Berry,
discussed the company’s decision to acquire the jets, saying at the time:
"Today, we announced a further expansion of our fleet with the acquisition of two factory-built
Boeing 777 freighters, to enter service in 2024. The investment in long-range widebody freighters,
combined with our growing 767 freighter fleet and robust passenger network will allow us
continue to bring to life the most flexible and diverse cargo operation in the Americas.”
The airline executive labelled the deal as “careful and targeted investments”
that were part of a key strategy to continue to strengthen and grow as
quote “North America’s only combination carrier.”
This video comes at a precarious time, where a major aircraft order
could be announced between the time of production and the time of publication.
Indeed, it was reported in May that Air Canada might be
nearing a deal to purchase up to 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners from Boeing.
Speaking at the Q1 analysis call, the airline’s CFO stated:
"Overall, we continue to always hunt for lift, as we've said before in our process.
When we see recovery and strong demand, we have the ability to go out and search
for additional interim lift. And, we're constantly in the market looking for lift
and we'll see our ability to bring that in and be able to line up with [our] network plans."
With the possibility of this deal, combined with future aircraft deliveries, it’s clear
that Air Canada is fairly pleased with the 787 Dreamliner. Indeed, the airline uses the 787-9
for some of its longest routes - alongside the 777-200LR, which is no longer being produced.
Overall, it looks like Boeing is the planemaker of choice for next-generation widebodies. Thus,
we can’t really see the airline entertaining the possibility of
an A350 or A330neo purchase any time soon!
One last thing that could be mentioned about the
Air Canada fleet has to do with one of its A330-300s.
​​On May 17th, the airlin announced that it would fit one of its Airbus A330-300s
with special diagnostics sensors as part of a partnership with a climate research organization.
Among other things, the jet and its newly fitted
sensors will measure greenhouse gases to understand climate change better.
The Air Canada A330-300 joins eight other aircraft as part of IAGOS - or In-Service Aircraft for a
Global Observing System. This 'fleet' of aircraft are all fitted with special sensors to measure
air quality and composition. Among the airlines and aircraft flying with this program, we have:
An Air France A330-300 A Hawaiian Airlines A330-200
Two China Airlines A330-300s And two Lufthansa A340-300s
The Air Canada jet, registered C-GEFA, has undoubtedly been busy picking up air quality
data connected to the wildfires that have plagued much of Canada in recent months.
So, that’s Air Canada’s mainline fleet as it stands in June 2023.
Have you flown with this airline before? If so,
which aircraft? Share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment!