The Airbus A380, the world’s largest airliner, is without a doubt a technological marvel,
even if it wasn’t quite the success that Airbus had hoped for.
The current global climate aside, over 200 of them were ordered in the end,
with most of those going to Emirates.
Airbus had gambled on the aircraft being a cost-effective solution for slot-constrained
airports around the world.
As traffic peaked in Canada pre-2020 though and airports became more congested,
why didn’t any of Canada’s airlines take advantage of the A380?
Well, it’s fairly self-explanatory, but there are some distinct reasons why.
First things first, there are three airlines in Canada that fly passenger widebody aircraft.
They are Air Canada, Air Transat, and WestJet.
Currently, the largest airliner in the country is the Boeing 777-300ER flown by Air Canada,
which seats between 400 passengers and 450 in a high density configuration.
Air Canada also flies 787s, A330s, and 777-200LRs, but the -300ERs have the most seats by far.
Similarly, Air Transat operates A330s in a two-class layout with up to 375 seats
on their A330-300s.
Then there’s WestJet, which flies their 787-9 Dreamliners
with 320 seats in 3 separate classes.
These configurations are already fairly economy-class-heavy
given the nature of the Canadian market.
Realistically though, the A380 is just way too big for anything that any of those carriers
might’ve needed, not to mention the higher costs of flying four-engined aircraft.
For WestJet in particular, the A380 likely wasn’t remotely on their radar,
especially since they only started flying widebodies in 2015.
In addition to that, the A380 was designed with a hub-and-spoke strategy in mind, where
one central city would serve as the main port of entry for long-haul flights and passengers
would then connect onwards to their respective destinations.
That works well with the A380 for airlines like Emirates, with a singular main hub city
in Dubai, but not so much in Canada.
Although the hub-and-spoke strategy is still very relevant here, the population is spread out all over the
country, with most major cities being several hundred kilometres apart.
That leads to not just one centralized hub, but at least four or more.
Now, Air Canada had previously flown the 747-400 in both the full-passenger and combi variants
up until the mid-2000s.
Those full-passenger 747s had 421 seats,
so there are certainly some Canadian international routes that have more demand than others.
For those really busy routes like Toronto to London, Frankfurt, or Paris, with multiple
airlines offering multiple flights a day, in theory, the A380 could work.
However, those routes are few and far between, with most international flights from Canada
being flown with twinjets once or twice a day.
Domestically speaking, there are also some busy routes within the country, especially
between the major hubs.
According to OAG’s annual “Busiest Routes” report, in 2018, Calgary-Vancouver was the
busiest domestic route in Canada with over 18,000 flights in that period.
Similarly, Toronto-Vancouver also had 15,000 flights, and Toronto to Montreal,
while not listed in the report, is no doubt up there as well.
Of course, that being said, it’s not as simple as dumping an A380 on a busy route
and expecting huge profits.
For one thing, it would probably take longer to board
than the actual air time between Toronto and Montreal!
South of the border, American carriers have said they prefer to serve two cities with
multiple flights a day rather than have one flight on the A380,
and that seems to be true in Canada as well.
You do see widebodies on domestic flights occasionally, but for the most part,
there are many more narrowbody aircraft flying at different times of day.
But even if, say, Air Canada, were to buy the aircraft for certain niche routes, the fixed
costs that go into that would be far too much for a small sub-fleet of A380s.
The added expenses of training, equipment and infrastructure, and the higher trip costs
of operating the plane in the first place all add up.
It does help that all four of Canada’s busiest airports do have A380-capable gates,
but all of the other factors that come into play mean that the aircraft
just doesn’t work for Canadian carriers.
All of this is not to say that Canada is, straight up, untouchable for the A380.
There are currently two airlines that fly here with the aircraft -
Emirates from Dubai to Toronto-Pearson, and China Southern between Guangzhou and Vancouver.
Prior to 2020, British Airways was also flying the A380 between London and Vancouver during
the summers, and Air France also flew it between Paris and Montreal until 2012.
The aircraft feeds into the hub strategies of those respective airlines though, and it’s
less to do with Canadian airports themselves.
So, while the idea of Canadian airlines operating the A380 is an interesting thought to entertain,
it’s just not a remotely practical one by any means.
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