Originally Posted by
YUL_Around_The_World
Because Frankfurt opens up the whole Star Alliance network in Europe and middle east and Asia ... and keeps frequent flyers with Air Canada ... long term ... the other cities are just point-to-point and mostly tourists ... maybe less Toulouse which was spefically open for Airbus Montreal-Toulouse (speculating here)
I am not sure I understand your answer. As an AC flier, I still have other choices to get to FRA either on AC metal or partner metal. If I want to fly to all of the locations you suggested, I can do that on AC metal via one of AC's hubs, or I could choose to fly to FRA (as an example) and connect on a partner carrier. To me it makes more sense to provide connectivity to a much larger network. And YYC-FRA is included in A++ so it's metal neutral. And there are some benefits to premium fliers through the AC hubs that they may not get elsewhere.