Air Canada

[BWBriscoe]

Where is Air Canada's main base?

Where do they base their A330's and A340's? What routes do their A340's operate?

Thanks in advance!

[JKP505]

Air Canada is based in Montreal (YUL), but has substantial bases at Toronto L.B. Pearson (YYZ) and Vancouver (YVR). The airline also operates various route from Calgary (YYC) and Halifax (YHZ).

I would expect that Toronto radiates the largest network internationally, and YUL would be more of an administrative base.

AFAIK there are 2 daily services YYC-LHR on the 763; 1 daily YHZ-LHR on 763; 1 daily YUL-LHR on 333; 5 daily YYZ-LHR mix of 763, 744, 333 and 343; YVR-LHR 2 daily, one 343, other 744. In addition, AC operate to LHR from St. Johns, Newfoundland 4 x weekly en route from Halifax.

Also LHR served by Ottawa (YOW) daily with a 333 and Edmonton (YEA) daily on a 763.

From this i guess the 744s are for Toronto and Vancouver, 333/343 for these two and Montreal.

I'm surprised that some of these routes get bums on seats, esp. services to Ottawa...

[MarkD]

JKP505

YOW-LHR would be a politically inconvenient cut, I suspect! Am surprised that one or two other direct European routes don't operate like BRU, FRA or CDG, for bureaucratic traffic. YOW is expanding though which may encourage more direct services. As I prefer BA I found LHR-YUL and a bus to Ottawa better and cheaper but I accept that's not for everyone!

[WHBM]

Like most state-run or formerly state-run businesses in Canada, Air Canada has its HQ and as many functions, such as engineering, as they can manage, in the French-speaking part of Canada. It's the Canadian political way. It's just an inconvenience for them that far more passengers want to route through Toronto.

You will notice when flying with them what a high proportion of the flight deck crews have French-Canadian accents, even on the Western Canada transatlantic routes.

[Jordan D]

I think a fair amount of the 343s are based at YVR.

Jordan

[BWBriscoe]

What routes do their A343's operate?

[MarkD]

WHBM

am I right in thinking you need to be able to speak French to operate RPT flights in Canada?

[WHBM]

MarkD:

You had better ask one of the crews, but my belief is that it is an AC personnel requirement, rather than anything required by regulation, to be bilingual.

I've flown in Ontario (English only) but not in Quebec so I don't know how much of the RT there is in French. All the Transport Canada official material is completely bilingual. Bear in mind that very few English-speaking Canadians are conversationally fluent in French, while for the French-speaking Quebecois minority although many are bilingual, particularly the educated ones, by no means all are.

If you are bilingual in Canada, it opens up many more jobs for you, even if you never need to use the French.

[MarkD]

WHBM

thanks for that

[AOG-YYZ]

When Air Canada was founded, Montreal was Canada's largest city, largest seaport (despite being iced up for 4 of the 12 months) and most financialy influential city and Quebec was the most populace province. Remember, piston driven and later turbo-prop planes was the order of the day. Since then, Montreal has given way to Vancouver as a seaport, Toronto as an airport and fanancial centre and population to Ontario, and jets can make the journey from Moscow to Toronto without a tech stop.

Why would Air Canada want to incure the cost of a move from YUL to YYZ or YVR when it isn't neccessary? And as to Montreal being "French" speaking, as a English speaking Canadian of Ontario residence, I can honestly say that I have never had a problem either in Montreal or Quebec as a whole with being unilingual English. I worked at the Dorval Base for 11 years before transferring back to YYZ.

The separatist racist crazy's, both French and English, are in the minority, thank God.

[WHBM]

AOG-YYZ

Would you say that part of the problem of Montreal losing its position was the 25-year fiasco of Mirabel, which virtually eliminated intercontinental connecting traffic through Montreal for a generation.

I know it's back at Dorval now but the damage is done.

[BWBriscoe]

So back to my original question, what routes do Air Canada's A343's fly?

Cheers!

[WHBM]

BWBriscoe;

Don't worry, we'll get there eventually!

Vancouver is the ops base for the A340 fleet.

Transpacific to Osaka, Hong Kong, and Honolulu/Sydney from there, plus a few Toronto and Calgary flights

Also Calgary to London and Frankfurt.

There aren't many A330s at Vancouver, apart from a few Toronto flights again. This fleet is based in the East.

[AOG-YYZ]

WHBM wrote:
"Would you say that part of the problem of Montreal losing it's position was the 25-year fiasco of Mirabel?"

No, not at all, YUL's decline preceded that event by at least 15 years. The 707 and DC8 was the death-nell for Montreal as Canada's largest airport. Not to mention the immigration patterns and demographics of Central Canada and the USA. When aircraft could jump the pond without a tech-stop enroute (no plug intended :-) Montreal's fate was sealed. The same patterns can be seen now with Toronto vis-a-vis Vancouver. The Pacific Rim is now Canada's main overseas trading area, not mention source of immigration.

[Jordan D]

Not too long ago, I flew 343 YVR-LHR. So I think they do do the occasional London route.

Jordan

[WHBM]

Not too long ago, I flew 343 YVR-LHR.

They're back on the route from the end of October 2003 timetable change. AC's traffic patterns always have required significant changes between summer and winter schedules.