Originally Posted by
buckeyefanflyer
Air Canada has flown CLE-YYZ since the 1960’s never a break in service that’s 60 years. Not just connections it’s a business route between 2 large cities. Maybe UA could fly the route feed Florida connections.
Didn't they suspend the route during COVID?
I suspect a decent part of the suspension has to do with AC phasing out 50-seat aircraft from their fleet and being able to make more money deploying the aircraft they have on routes that have higher demand.
If AC can't profitably run/justify the route I doubt UA could from a domestic spoke to an International outstation -- perhaps the CRJ550 would be appealing, but would it be appealing enough? Plus the effort of positioning in and out a small aircraft
Meanwhile AC has a strong YYZ-Florida network so how many people would do Florida->CLE->YYZ when they can do Florida->YYZ?
For reference the data reported 12/1/2023 (the last month data is available for in DOT's public data set) QK (Jazz Aviation, LP -- Air Canada Express) carried 1895 passengers between CLE and YYZ -- that's only about 61 passengers per day. Probably doable if you have a spare CRJ-700/ERJ-170/ERJ-175 lying around but not even a chance of being profitable with a 737 or larger.
Interestingly the spring/early summer of 2023 showed a significant spike (6000+ passengers for two months, 4000+ for a couple more) before dropping back into the +/-2000 passenger groove, which likely explains why AC is coming back for the summer but putting a pause for the winter.