For obvious reasons, London Heathrow Airport (LHR) is Air Canada’s most-served long-haul destination. While the carrier had originally planned to fly its new Airbus A321XLRs from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to LHR, this is no longer the case. But there are now other developments.

As first identified by Aeroroutes, Air Canada has added two XLR routes to the UK’s busiest airport. It’ll be one of the carrier’s non-Canadian airports to have more than one route on the Airbus narrowbody, joining Tenerife South. They’ll be LHR’s only long-haul XLR services, at least for now.

Air Canada’s XLRs Will Fly From Halifax To LHR

Credit: Air Canada

LHR’s lack of slots, high congestion, and exceptionally high fees and charges are renowned. Less well known is the fact that the airport’s pricing incentivizes airlines to fly larger aircraft. All of these things contribute to LHR being the world’s busiest airport for international widebody services.

Not many airlines deploy narrowbody aircraft on medium or long-haul flights to LHR, but Air Canada is among the few that do. The Star Alliance member has disclosed that its flights from Halifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) to LHR, which cover 2,483 nautical miles (4,599 km) each way, will switch from the 169-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8, which will gradually shift to Rouge’s fleet, to the 182-seat XLR.

The XLR will operate from Canada between December 1, 2026, and March 27, 2027. Mainly due to it being the offseason, with far lower demand, the frequency will sensibly reduce from daily to four times weekly. This will help with loads and yields, because less capacity will be available. What will happen to the slots will be revealed in the following section.

The following schedule shows that Air Canada operates from YHZ to LHR during the day. As such, it’ll be the carrier’s first daytime XLR service to Europe. Separately, Canada’s second-largest airline, WestJet, recently began its first daytime eastbound transatlantic flight, although obviously not on the XLR.

This Is The Second New XLR Route To LHR

Credit: Airbus

Air Canada has also revealed that it’ll fly the 182-seater from Canada’s capital airport, Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW), to LHR. This development was widely expected since the route resumed in 2025 after the COVID-19-driven hiatus. It’ll replace the 255-seat Boeing 787-8, which is the carrier’s lowest-capacity widebody. This can then be deployed elsewhere.

What is significantly more unusual is that flights will also operate during the day to Europe, with YHZ’s frequency reduction permitting this to be achieved. The schedule is shown below; it is clear how it slots in. It’ll be Air Canada’s first daytime transatlantic service from a Canadian airport other than YHZ since such timed flights from YYZ to LHR ended in 2019.

Using Cirium Diio data to explore Air Canada’s entire schedule history from YOW to LHR shows that it’ll be the first time a daytime operation has existed. This is not surprising. Switching to this schedule may reduce the appeal of the service for government and business travelers between the capitals of the two countries. As beds will be less important, it may also mean that yields will fall. Then again, perhaps the reduction will be less notable, as Air Canada provides the only nonstop option between the two airports and cities.

Air Canada’s LHR Plans This Winter (For Now)

Credit: GCMap

Let’s narrow the focus to December 2026. Until the changes mentioned above took effect, the carrier had planned 52 weekly departures from LHR, which is equivalent to seven to eight daily outbound flights. The latest information, which is subject to change, shows that the number of weekly departures has fallen by 6% to 49 on six routes, as detailed below.

In December 2025, the airline had 56 weekly departures from the UK’s busiest airport, or a consistent eight daily services. Thus, in the upcoming festive month, its latest offering has fallen by 13%. In addition to YHZ’s frequency reduction, the removal of LHR-Mumbai, which began in YYZ and was served on a fifth freedom basis, has contributed.

It is not currently known what will happen to Air Canada’s LHR freed-up slots. In early 2026, it leased slots to Korean Air, which then immediately leased them to Asiana ahead of completing their merger. Is this the reason, or is there something else at play?