In a recent schedule update, Air Canada revealed that it will no longer serve the Francophone market between Montréal–Trudeau International Airport (YUL) and Algiers, Algeria. All future flights have been removed.

This means that Canada’s flag carrier will now only have one route from YUL to Africa. In fact, that’s the Star Alliance member’s sole remaining link from Canada to the vast continent. However, it seems likely that it’ll launch service from Toronto to Lagos, Nigeria.

Air Canada Pulls Future Montreal-Algers Flights

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Obviously, this market revolves around Canadian Algerians, most of whom necessarily live in French-speaking Quebec. Between July 2025 and June 2026, booking data obtained via OAG Traffic Analyzer shows that approximately 198,000 round-trip passengers traveled between YUL and Algiers’ Houari Boumediene International Airport (ALG).

Obviously, nearly everyone was visiting friends and relatives. This market segment ordinarily has the lowest yields, which is from a lack of premium travel. When all airlines, cabins, and passengers are included, the average base fare (excluding taxes, add-ons, and any fuel surcharge) was just US$284 each way (CAD$390).

Unsurprisingly, ALG was a remarkably low-yielding market. It was even worse, in this sense, than YUL to Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport (CMN), at US$303 each way (CAD$423), which is served by both Air Canada and Royal Air Maroc. And as flights to ALG cover 11% more distance than to CMN, they are also more expensive to operate.

YUL-ALG was probably among Air Canada’s lowest-yielding long-haul markets. Perhaps it is no wonder that all future flights have been removed. OAG shows that service last existed in 2025, when a peak season operation, from June to September, was available, which coincided with school holidays. Flights were due to return in 2026 but did not, perhaps influenced by the higher fuel price. The resumption shifted to June 2027, but even that has now been removed. The 285-seat A330-300 was to be used.

Air Algérie Will Still Fly To Montreal

Credit: Airbus

Obviously, Air Algérie will be delighted that Air Canada will not return to ALG. It means that the relatively small North African operator will obtain an even larger share of the local traffic to/from YUL. Around a tenth of the market flies indirectly, mainly with Air France.

In 2026, when Air Canada did not operate, Air Algérie’s seats for sale jumped by 19% year-over-year to the highest level so far. It is, of course, usual for airlines to expand capacity to partly compensate for the exit of another operator. In the first half of 2027 (January to June), the carrier scheduled 101,696 round-trip seats, up by 8% compared to those six months in 2026. This growth is partly influenced by the deployment of the new, higher-capacity A330-900.

Perhaps surprisingly, Air Algérie serves YUL on a daily, year-round basis. OAG data for the first half of 2027 shows that the 308-seat Airbus A330-900 will be flown on two-thirds of the departing flights. The 251-seat/263-seat A330-200 will return at the end of March next year and be used on the remaining third of the services on a four-weekly basis. While unconfirmed, the airline’s hard product on the new A330-900 must surely be considerably better than the older A330-200.

Booking data suggests that about 11% of Air Algérie YUL passengers connected elsewhere via ALG. Oran was comfortably the most popular transit market, followed by Annaba, Douala, Constantine, Tunis, Istanbul, Cairo, Tamanrasset, Dakar, and Abidjan. Some of the figures were tiny.

Air Canada Will Only Have One Route To Africa (For Now)

Credit: Air Canada

The confirmation that Air Canada will no longer fly to ALG means that it has currently only scheduled one route to Africa. It is YUL to CMN. A minimum of three weekly flights are available during the winter, rising to a daily operation in the all-important summer. The 297-seat A330-300 is scheduled throughout.

Although far from being a like-for-like comparison, Air Transat, Canada’s leisure airline, will now have twice as many routes to Africa as the nation’s flag carrier. It’ll continue to fly from YUL to both Dakar (started in June 2026) and Marrakech (June 2024). However, no service to Agadir (which joined Air Transat’s map in June 2026) is scheduled for 2027.