dailynewsnblog
Valentine’s Day came early for Air Canada this week, with the Canadian flag carrier and Star Alliance founding member announcing an order for eight examples of the Airbus A350-1000 on February 11. These modern widebody twinjets will begin arriving in 2030, signifying a new era for the airline’s twin-aisle long-haul international operations. With this in mind, now seems as good a time as any to examine the current state of its fleet.
According to present fleet data made available by ch-aviation, 
Air Canada currently has a grand total of 265 aircraft at its disposal. While seven of these are Dash 8-Q400 turboprop regional airliners that it operates on an ACMI (wet-lease) basis from PAL Airlines, the remainder are all twinjets in one form or another. Let’s take a closer look at the exact breakdown of Air Canada’s remaining 258 aircraft in terms of the manufacturers and models.
The Widebodies
Starting off on the widebody side, Air Canada tends to favor 
Boeing twinjets for its long-haul operations, although, as we shall discuss shortly, this balance is about to tip towards the US planemaker’s European rival. Currently, Air Canada’s Boeing widebody fleet includes six 767-300ER freighters, and, on the passenger side of things, six 777-200LRs, 19 777-300ERs, eight 787-8s, and 32 787-9s. Going forward, it also has 14 787-10s on order.
Air Canada’s current Airbus widebody fleet is more concentrated, with just one of the European planemaker’s twin-aisle models present at this moment in time. The variant in question is the A330-300, of which it has 20 examples at its disposal at an average age of 19.2 years (compared to a fleet-wide mean figure of 17.1 years). However, the arrival of the A350-1000 will address this imbalance, with Mark Galardo, its EVP and CCO, explaining that:
“These highly capable aircraft complement our existing fleet by providing flexibility in support of a growing, resilient, and diversified future network. The A350-1000 will play a central role in defining Air Canada’s next era.”
Airbus Narrowbodies
Like many major carriers around the world, narrowbody twinjets form the backbone of Air Canada’s daily operations, with these aircraft being used on domestic and short to medium-haul international services. Unlike on the widebody side of things, Airbus is the dominant narrowbody manufacturer at Air Canada, with a grand total of 118 single-aisle aircraft from the European planemaker at its disposal, compared to just 49 from its rival, Boeing.
From the Airbus A320ceo family, the Air Canada fleet features 16 examples of the A319-100 aged 27.6 years on average, 26 examples of the A320-200 (plus five to be delivered) aged 23.9 years on average, and 34 examples of the A321-200 (plus five to be delivered) aged 16.3 years on average. Of these aircraft, 16 units of the Airbus A319-100, five A320-200s, and 13 A321-200s currently fly for Air Canada Rouge, the carrier’s leisure arm.
The most modern Airbus narrowbodies in Air Canada’s fleet are comfortably its 42 examples of the A220-300, whose mean age presently clocks in at just four years old. This makes it all the more curious that one of them wears a retro livery harking back to the golden age of its predecessor, Trans Canada Air Lines (TCA). As detailed in our coverage below, another one of Air Canada’s A220s wears a special livery promoting the film Zootopia 2.
Air Canada Unveils New Disney “Zootopia 2” Themed Livery On An Airbus A220-300
Lucky passengers can win a vacation package to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
Boeing Narrowbodies
As previously mentioned, Air Canada has 49 Boeing narrowbodies at its disposal, with all of these being examples of the 737 MAX 8 twinjet. These aircraft have an average age of 5.7 years old, and, going forward, the Canadian flag carrier and Star Alliance member is expecting to take delivery of two more units.
According to fleet data made available by aeroLOPA, Air Canada configures its Boeing 737 MAX 8 twinjets in a two-class layout with space for a grand total of 169 passengers. This figure is split between 16 business class recliners in a 2-2 layout akin to domestic first class in the US and 153 economy seats in the standard 3-3 layout. Despite its short-haul pedigree, Air Canada uses the 737 on certain low-demand transatlantic routes to Europe.
