With the 737 Max 8’s return date still unknown, Air Canada is removing 737 Max flying from its schedule until at least July 1, 2019. It has issued an outline of its plans for all impacted routes effective until the end of April.

The airline has adjusted its schedule through April 30, 2019 to cover 98% of its planned flying.

 

WOW Airlines & Air Transat

Air Canada was expecting six new aircraft in March and April. It is now updating its April and May schedule to optimize its fleet and re-accommodate customers.

Air Canada has been substituting different aircrafts for different routes. To help provide this replacement flying, the carrier has extended leases for aircrafts which were scheduled to exit the fleet.

Air Canada is also accelerating the in-take of recently acquired A321 aircraft from WOW Airlines into its fleet and has hired other carriers to provide immediate extra capacity.

Air Transat has been chartered on a temporary basis to operate one daily frequency between Vancouver and Montreal beginning March 20 until March 31, 2019. Air Canada has also leased an aircraft from Air Transat from April 1 to April 30, 2019 in order to operate the Montreal to Cancun route.

 

Route Suspensions

Other strategies include schedule changes and, in a small number of cases, route suspensions.

Route suspensions include flights from Halifax and St. John’s to London Heathrow. Passengers on these routes are being re-accommodated through Toronto and Montreal.

Air Canada says it remains committed to these routes and will resume service as soon as possible.

Other suspensions include seasonal flights from Vancouver to Kona, Lihue and Calgary-Palm Springs, with passengers re-accommodated on other routings.

 

For more travel news click here.