Air Canada’s first Boeing 767-300ER has entered service and has been deployed early to British Columbia in support of the Canadian supply chain. The aircraft’s inaugural flight was originally scheduled to fly to Frankfurt, but today flew from Toronto to Vancouver.
Today (December 9, 2021), Air Canada announced that their first of eight aircraft that will make up the Air Canada Cargo fleet, a Boeing 767-300ER, entered service today in support of the Canadian supply chain. While the aircraft was originally scheduled to fly to Frankfurt, it entered service today with an inaugural flight between Toronto and Vancouver. The aircraft has a capacity of nearly 58 tonnes and will add critical cargo capacity to British Columbia. During November, Air Canada and Air Canada Cargo boosted capacity by 586 tonnes into Vancouver from Toronto, Montreal and Calgary.
In Thursday’s announcement, Air Canada’s Vice President – Cargo, Jason Berry, said,
“Our first freighter is being deployed earlier than initially planned in order to provide additional cargo capacity needed into and out of Vancouver to meet ongoing demand as a result of the flooding that disrupted British Columbia's transportation network. The freighter is planned to operate 12 trips between our Toronto and Vancouver cargo hubs. Our teams have also worked extremely hard over the last several days to get our freighter into service early to aid in the transport of goods to Vancouver.”
Air Canada’s first freighter is currently scheduled to operate between Toronto and Frankfurt for the remainder of this year, in addition to the flights to Vancouver. In 2022, the freighter will serve Miami, Quito, Lima, Mexico City and Guadalajara, primarily out of Toronto. Additional airports, including Madrid, Halifax and St. John’s will be added when the second freighter is delivered during the first half of 2022.
The Boeing 767-300 freighters will allow Air Canada Cargo to offer five main deck configurations, increasing capacity to nearly 58 tonnes or 438 cubic meters, with approximately 75 percent of this capacity on the main deck. Due to the immediate capacity need, the freighter entered service today without its final livery. Later, it will be painted in an Air Canada Cargo variation of the airline’s livery introduced in 2017. Since March 2020, Air Canada has operated over 13,000 all-cargo flights using widebody passenger aircraft and temporarily modified Boeing 777s and A330s, which had the passenger seats removed for added cargo capacity.
A time-lapse video showing the work involved in the conversion of a passenger aircraft into a freighter - Courtesy Air Canada
Award-winning Air Canada Cargo is Canada’s largest air cargo provider by capacity, with a presence in over 50 countries and self-handled hubs in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, London and Frankfurt. The dedicated freight division of Air Canada offers reliable air freight lift and connectivity to hundreds of destinations across five continents using the airline’s passenger flights, and cargo-only flights with their fleet of dedicated Boeing 767-300ER freighters and trucking services.
Source: Air Canada