Originally Posted by
Leyland1989
It's technically the last of the 48 mainline A319. Not exactly the end of an era, but they were once the backbone of Air Canada domestic/trans boarder ops, succeeding the DC-9.
Fond memories on the A319, including crossing the pond once on C-GITR.
The torch is now officially passed on to the A220 fleet.
As for being the backbone, sounds like a bit of an exaggeration. Was between the 320 and the 319.
I still recall a gate agent, complaining on how cheap AC is, when they bought the non-containerized version of the 319, meaning that luggage had to be boarded individually rather than in standard containers, as in the 320. Making this a slower process. Incidentally, yesterday we flew on a TP 321LR, and I noticed also luggage being loaded individually. (And no, not a transatlantic flight; for a two hours flight their lay flat seat is nice).
But you are right of course that the 319 is pretty much dead, with the 223 being much more cost-effective.
And if you look at the Airbus order book, the soft spot for the narrow body series is now clearly the 321. And probably more and more the XLR. With not so many orders for the 320. With airlines, such as AF, asking for a 225.