Air Canada rouge to use A321s on trans-Atlantic routes

Air Canada rouge (RV, Toronto Pearson) will continue to serve "some" trans-Atlantic routes using its narrowbody Airbus aircraft even after the B767-300(ER)s are permanently retired, Chief Executive of parent Air Canada Calin Rovinescu said during an online fireside chat hosted by Aviation Week.

"rouge will become a narrowbody operator, focusing on leisure destinations in the Caribbean, the sunny states in the US, and eventually returning to transatlantic services with the Airbus A321, which is an aircraft that we like very much," Rovinescu said.

Air Canada announced in early May 2020 that it would retire all B767s as a part of its COVID-caused restructuring and fleet simplification. All twenty-five of its remaining units of the type are currently operated by rouge, which was launched as a lower-cost subsidiary for widebody operations in 2012. However, since then rouge has also expanded as a narrowbody carrier and currently operates twenty-two A319-100s, five A320-200s, and fourteen A321-200s.

Rovinescu clarified that while the decision to retire the B767s and convert rouge into an all-narrowbody operator has been made, it did not mean that the carrier will not operate any more B767 flights. Subject to the picking up of demand, it could restart widebody operations before the B767s are fully retired.

As of now, Air Canada does not have any A320neo Family aircraft in its fleet or on order. As such, rouge would have to deploy the A321-200s on trans-Atlantic routes, becoming one of the very few airlines to use previous generation narrowbodies on this market.

However, the carrier has reportedly been eyeing A321-200neo(LR) for its future growth. Air Canada recently reduced its outstanding firm order for B737-8s from thirty-seven to twenty-six units, which are due to join the twenty-four B737 MAX 8s already delivered to Air Canada.

ch aviation