Air Canada seems to be expanding its Transatlantic reach, with a relaunch of the Ottawa to London Heathrow route.
The airline will operate the Ottawa to London Heathrow route four times a week from 31st March 2025 for the summer season.
Planned operations are as follows:
|
Flight # |
From |
To |
Days of operation |
Route operates |
|
AC888 |
Ottawa |
London |
Monday, Thursday: departs 18:40, Wednesday, Saturday: departs |
Mar. 31, 2025 – Oct. 25, 2025 |
|
AC889 |
London |
Ottawa |
Monday, Thursday: departs 14:05, Wednesday, Saturday: departs |
Mar. 31, 2025 – Oct. 25, 2025 |
For this deployment, Air Canada will utilise a Boeing 787 on this route, offering a three-class service – Air Canada’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners offer a choice of three cabins: Signature Class (Business Class), Premium Economy and Economy Class seating
Aircraft are fitted with inflight entertainment and inflight connectivity – with the messaging tier offered free of charge to Aeroplane members.
In Quotes
Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President – Revenue and Network Planning at Air Canada said:
“We are very pleased to solidify Air Canada’s leadership serving our country’s capital with the resumption of trans-Atlantic services beginning next spring. In addition to London being a top global destination, Heathrow is one of the world’s primary global gateways as well as home to Air Canada’s largest international operations. Conveniently located together with our Star Alliance partner airlines in The Queen’s Terminal, Air Canada offers customers easy connections to a vast array of more than 30 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa with our airline partners. With continued demand for visiting friends, relatives, leisure and tourism, as well as supporting business and corporate travel, this route gives customers from both the National Capital Region and abroad direct, convenient international travel options to and from Ottawa,”
He added:
“We are looking forward to the future delivery of Air Canada’s new Airbus A321XLR fleet. The economics, optimum cabin size and range of the XLR which is expected to begin arriving in late 2025, will enable us to consider operating this important international route with greater frequencies and potentially with year-round service,”
A321XLR hints?
It seems that the service between Ottowa and London Heathrow will spin up initially with a Boeing 787 aircraft – which is good for capacity, even if the flights are offered four times a week.
However, if they’re carrying air between the two cities, the costs of running a 787 become questionable, especially if the airline were to operate the route in the winter season.
With an A321XLR, the airline should be able to offer the “long and thin” routes, whilst filling enough seats profitable – that could make this route viable for year-round service, as well as other routes that struggle to fill a 787. That could offer possibilities all sorts of services – be it winter sun, year-route routes, secondary/tertiary destinations and so on.
We’ve looked at the possibilities of an A321XLR Cabin, and how it can be tailored to deliver a premium cabin experience – and Air Canada must be deep into the design and specification process – if not ordered the cabin interiors already.
The airline isn’t new to running narrowbody aircraft across the pond, as they run a narrowbody into Heathrow – a Boeing 737-8, which is used for the St Johns to London Heathrow route (and previously an A319). That had the traditional Domestic business class.
With the A321XLR… there’s room to make some serious changes to the cabin.
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