Originally Posted by
Leyland1989
I remember hearing it from unconfirmed source many years ago that the reason why YYZ-HKG was flown by the 77L as oppose to the 77W like Cathay Pacific was because of AC's freight/mail contract for airmail and EMS parcels, which requires significant belly space that making it difficult to operate with the 77W reliably.
Not sure how much of that is truth or just A.net conspiracy, and that was before the 787 even entre service.
Given the current load factor, I think the 77L is pretty much obsolete in AC's fleet, doubt if they will return to service any time soon if at all.
AC has been operating the YYZ-HKG route with the 400-seat 77W the past few winters. The flight is usually weight restricted and depending on the day (and how much cargo and how much reserve fuel they have to carry) the actual passengers they can carry vary between as low as 325ish to as high as 385ish, leaving most if not all non-rev behind usually.
Cathay uses a 368-seat 77W for the YYZ-HKG route and usually have no problems filling all the seats (and with cargo). I think it comes down to how the two airlines calculate passenger and cabin baggage weights differently.
Going forward, I could see the 77L becoming obsolete at AC. The AC YYZ-HKG flight resumed twice a week this month with a 789 right now with very low passenger load so they can still carry, plus a cargo only flight with a 789 once a week.
The question becomes when travel recovers, will the 789 have enough room for the cargo when the passenger load is full. Plus as @
EdmFlyBoi mentioned, that's a loss of 10 J seats on the 789 and they usually have no problems filling the premium cabin on this route when time was good.