Top 5: Air Canada's Longest Routes With The Airbus A330-300 (2024)

Air Canada has flights to over 150 international destinations. While many of those are in the US and can be served by its narrowbody fleet, it has 90 widebodies for its transatlantic and transpacific routes. Most of these widebodies are Boeing 777s, with 25 examples of the B777-300ER and -200LR, and Boeing 787s, with 39 examples of the B787-8 and -9. But the airline also has a fleet of 20 Airbus A330-300s, with the most recent two examples delivered in just the past few months according to its latest investor briefing.

Photo: Soos Jozsef | Shutterstock

First, a closer look at the Air Canada A330-300 fleet

Air Canada has a fascinating history with its A330 fleet. It acquired its first examples at the turn of the century, with eight delivered directly from Airbus between 1999 and 2001. All of these aircraft are now more than 23 years old. However, as Air Canada has gradually retired its Boeing 767 fleet (it has had a total of 65 over the years), it has been primarily replacing them with B787s and supplementing with leased A330s.

Photo: BriYYZ via Wikimedia Commons

As a result, the airline has added 12 examples since 2019, all of which are ex-Singapore Airlines aircraft and are more youthful at an average age of 13.5 years. These aircraft are having their cabins updated to the new Air Canada 3-class layout, with three remaining to be re-fitted.

Old Singapore Airlines 2-class layout: 285-seat aircraft used mainly within North America - 30 very old business class seats (marketed as premium economy) and 255 economy class seats within North America.

Seatmap: Aerolopa

Air Canada's 3-class layout: 297-seat aircraft used internationally - 32 Signature class (business) seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 241 economy class seats within North America.

Seatmap: Aerolopa

Here are Air Canada’s longest routes with the Airbus A330-300, in ascending order. All data is for August 2024, provided by Cirium, an aviation analytics company.

5 Montreal (YUL) - Algiers (ALG)

Flight distance: 3910 miles

The fifth-longest A330 flight connects Algeria, a francophone North African country, with the predominantly French-speaking city of Montreal. This seasonal flight operates three times a week, departing YUL on Sun/Mon/Wed and returning the next day. This is also the only one of the top five flights that utilizes the A330s with the 285-seat, 2-class layout.

Photo: Air Canada

Air Canada competes with Air Algerie on this route, which uses its A330-200s. While a smaller aircraft, it offers a more premium product. It has business and premium economy configurations, with the 18 business class seats converting to fully flat beds, compared to the old recliners of Air Canada's ex-Singapore -300s.

4 Toronto (YYZ) - Frankfurt (FRA)

Flight distance: 3,953 miles

As a founding member of the Star Alliance, Air Canada maintains a very close relationship with Lufthansa as another founding member. As a result, the YYZ-FRA route is very important to Air Canada as it provides onward connections for its passengers via its partner's largest hub. Between them, the carriers have three flights a day connecting the two cities, spaced about 2 hours apart. Lufthansa utilizes a Boeing 747-400 for the route, and Air Canada uses an A330-300 for its earlier flight and a Boeing 787-900 for the later flight.

Photo:Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

While the two partners have a solid hold over the route, they do not have total control. Condor also operates a daily YYZ-FRA service using an A330-900neo. WestJet, Air Canada’s largest domestic competitor, also sells tickets for this flight using the interline partnership it formed with Condor over a decade ago.

3 Toronto (YYZ) - Munich (MUC)

Flight distance: 4,158 miles

As with the YYZ-FRA routing, Air Canada also has a daily flight to its partner’s second-largest base in Munich, providing the same benefits of connecting to Lufthansa’s extensive network across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Lufthansa also flies the route daily using an A350-900, and the two partners codeshare on each other's flights.

Photo:Peter Bueno | Shutterstock

The partnership on the direct routing has no competitors, and demand has grown sufficiently to necessitate an expansion of capacity. Air Canada will utilize a Boeing 777-300ER on the route starting in September, providing an additional 100-150 seats per flight, depending on the seating configuration used.

2 Toronto (YYZ) - Venice (VCE)

Flight distance: 4,270 miles

Air Canada flies four times a week from Toronto to Venice, the second-longest route with the A330-300. The only direct competitor on the route is leisure carrier Air Transat, which flies on two of the four days that Air Canada flights are operational.

Photo: Air Canada

However, while Air Canada uses its 3-class A330 offering, the Air Transat service is very different. It utilizes an A330-200 on the route, a smaller aircraft than the -300 (nearly 5 meters shorter) but configured to carry more passengers. With just 12 premium economy and a whopping 333 economy seats in a dense 3-3-3 configuration, the Air Transat -200 is a tightly packed aircraft.

1 Toronto (YYZ) - Vienna (VIE)

Flight distance: 4,329 miles

Air Canada’s longest A330-300 flight is to Vienna, the home of Star Alliance partner Austrian Airlines. It is the solitary direct flight between the two cities, and as such, it is also marketed by codeshare partners Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, and Brussels Airlines.

Photo:Bradley Caslin / Shutterstock

At a total flight distance of 4,329 miles, this longest flight is still well below the maximum range of 7,300 miles for an A330-300. However, it is indicative of how Air Canada chooses to deploy the A330-300s, using them on flights from Toronto and Montreal to key European destinations. It does this either by providing single flights connecting cities or by providing second flights supporting Boeing 777/787 service on higher-capacity routes such as Frankfurt or London.