100,000miler

I really will miss the non stop to GIG. Very bad timing that last months enRoute magazine featured Rio as a tourism destination when the other hand was cutting the flight.

Nevertheless, why does AC not work with its other *A partners to market other routes to GIG?

UAL has a n/s from IAH which is fed by lots of AC flights. What about via AC to BOG, or SCL or MEX

The only route AC markets (for those of us interested in AQD) is now on an old 763 to GRU. That route used to be a 777. Try upgrading on that one?

ACYYZ/SD

Trust me, we're going to miss the non-stop as well

With current conditions in Brazil most International airlines have been making adjustments with Rio being the major casualty. With TAM having left Star Alliance, AC has been working with GOL as an alliance partner and codeshare activity has been stepping up with Avianca. Short of the non-stop, a direct connection to/from AC090/091 would be ideal, however GOL has to assign an aircraft to an airport (GRU) which has significantly less activity than its domestic Sister airport (CGH). It's for GOL's marketing department to decide whether there is enough feed to profitably deploy such a flight.

FYI - the 787 is assigned to GRU effective December 1.

Adam Smith

https://www.google.com/flights/

But seriously, AC's website is set up to keep us on its own metal as much as possible. They force those of us who want more convenient or comfortable options to work hard at finding them.

That being said, a Google Flight search for random dates in February did show me YYZ-BOG-GIG (AC-AV) for way cheaper than AC's site and similar to what UA was selling YYZ-IAH-GIG for.

But are those options really all that superior to AC's old 763? If you connect via BOG, you get... an old 763! on YYZ-BOG. Then AV will stick you on a 319 for a 6-hour redeye to GIG. And AV's J seats (in the 320 family) are not comfortable. Plus a long layover in BOG. I'd take YYZ-GRU-GIG over that combo.

Or you can do a CR7 or CRA to IAH, then UA's medicore 2-2-2 J product IAH-GIG. Or you can spend a combined total of 12.5 hours on CM's 737s on YYZ-PTY-GIG.

Other than AC putting a 777 back on the route and/or having its own non-stop, I'm really not seeing any great alternatives within *A. What *A airline are you proposing to fly from MEX or SCL, other than adding another stop, given the poor *A presence in Brazil?

But I agree AC's website would be a lot better if they actually offered some other options rather than forcing one to Google Flights etc.

EDIT: just saw ACYYZ/SD's post. If the route is going to a 787 later this year, this seems even clearer to me.

ACYYZ/SD

I have absolutely no insight on the decision to suspend the route, but guessing that advance booking numbers (Post Rio 2016) were way down, which wouldn't even make it viable to be operated by Rouge. Hopefully the flight will return when market conditions improve.

Jumper Jack

Wow that's grimm, not even a post olympic tourism boost

Stranger

The issue is, Brazil is suffering from a major recession. In addition to political instability and Zica.

BTW you like Grimm tales apparently?

Wpgjetse

Watching the Olympic, there was not even a tourism boost during the games.

drvannostren

As others have said regarding the Brazilian economy. You may have seen the ridiculous flight sales out of the country just trying to get people to fill their aircrafts.

There's a couple other things at play here too. The aircrafts seem to sit in Brazil for long periods of time. Many of them arrive in the early morning, then don't depart until late at night to accomplish the both direction red-eye. As we all know, planes only make money while in the air, so having 2 aircrafts daily just sitting in Brazil doesn't really do them a lot of good.

I do agree with you that there should be some marketing towards BOG-GIG, but with YYZ-BOG having just been Rouged, it'll be unappealing for many. SCL doesn't serve as much of a connection point for them because there's very little Star Alliance presence in SCL and none to GIG, same goes for MEX. I would however suggest IAH and PTY as good options though PTY is also Rouge fwiw.

172pilot

It's not just GIG. AC doesn't code share on any UA South American routes. With YYZ-SCL/EZE not being daily, try booking a trip on AC without spending extra days to match their schedule. I end up booking UA more often than not because AC one way and UA the other typically adds $2,000 to the J price.

quantumofforce

While the planes sit all day in South America, they could do a deep cleaning of the interior and rotate the planes on the route.

Stranger

Not sure if that's what you meant, but indeed they could do YYZ-GRU-GIG-GRU-YYZ. Time is there. Not sure about crewing issue and max time.

Even YYZ-GRU-GIG-YYZ, although that might not be a good idea given that more premium traffic is out of GRU not GIG.

Busing people to Congonhas is not really an option given Sao Paulo traffic.