Leeham News and Analysis
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Leeham News and Analysis
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Air Canada sees secondary airport need for NMA
Special to Leeham News
By Olivier Bonnassies
Airfinance Journal
April 16, 2018, (c) Airfinance Journal, Montreal: Air Canada sees the potential of a new midsize aircraft (NMA) in its fleet to avoid congested airport.
“There is a difficulty in getting slots at key airports in key times,” Calin Ravinescu, Air Canada president and chief executive officer, said at the Innovation Aerospace Forum in Montreal.
Range is significant
“There is a need for that size of aircraft that might be able to fill some number of seats that is smaller than the [Boeing] 787 and larger than a narrow-body, that you might be able to take to a secondary airport. When you look at the range capability it is significant for us.”
In the context of Air Canada’s strategy to take some traffic out of the USA and connect via its international hubs, an aircraft of the NMA size could work for the Canadian carrier, says Ravinescu.
“That size of aircraft could fill in well with some of the cities that have the aspirations to connect international flights without connecting to a hub.”
Ravinescu adds that Air Canada’s expectations are from benefiting from smaller market opportunities with extended range capabilities.
Are they talking about Ottawa, Halifax gets limited all year plus seasonal service to Europe . While St Johns can do single aisle.
They might also be thinking of some routes they have recently set up with Rouge 767’s that can’t fly forever – Porto, Bucharest, Zagreb…
What’s happened to the all American mantra : Frequency Uber Alles ? 🙂
Ah, this is Canadian commentary. “All American”, like the 82nd Airborne, is US.
Canada is not in N.America ?
Nope, its Siberia East
Some interesting and good points on airport (and airspace) congestion which is mostly caused by short and medium haul operators.
Hope Airbus takes note of the future trends, large single aisles could work on medium haul but their airport turnaround times won’t be great for <6 hour missions and Boeing will exploit this with the 797.
There are almost no direct flight options from cities like Ottawa [population >1M] in Canada. A flight from Ottawa to Calgary costs more than a trip to Shanghai! Customers in Ottawa would love to see a Southwest Airline type of operation, perhaps with a fleet of C-Series planes? NMA is a niche, the big revolution will be in bypassing the hubs!
I have a need to fly Anchorage Vancouver as a butte option
That flight cost far more than ANC, SEA then Belliingham
Are AC experiencing the 787’s are a bit expensive replacing their 767s?
Probably not as fuel blows by $70/barrel…and climbing!
AC could have taken new 767s with Winglets at the time.
They seem to think the 787 offered them something they needed.