Originally Posted by
ChrisA330
It wasn’t speculation. AC specifically mentioned in their PR that 8 A320s would be refurbished.
Indeed, it was confirmed back in October last year that 15* A321 and 8* A320 will be refurbished.
Not entirely sure if the newly announced plan (MAX to Rouge) will change this, no A320 has been refurbished yet and the A321 fleet has grown by 4 since the announcement.
In their vision for 2028, there will only be A220 and A321 (Maybe that includes the A320s?) in the mainline and MAX at Rouge.
Mark Galardo didn't explicitly mention the A319 and A320 will be retired nor the rest of Rouge A320/A321 to be transferred to mainline, only stated that the existing Airbus fleet is nearing its end of life, likely only referring to the A319s since the A320/321 are still in their late teens, early 20s by 2028. Also, the new collective agreement also suggested that there will be no common type between Rouge and Mainline.
I also remember there was a contract with Airbus to retrofit 72 A320s with EIS2... I pulled some number together and they only add up to about 51.