Rouge being replaced by Mainline for Hawaii/Mexico and Osaka routes from YVR/YYC
Feb 24, 2018, 10:00 am
#1
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Rouge being replaced by Mainline for Hawaii/Mexico and Osaka routes from YVR/YYC
Saw this on Airliners.net this morning... mainline will be replacing Rouge on the following routes, operated by the 737-8 Max. Not sure the 7M8 is an upgrade over the 763 except for AVOD. The costs of the 7M8 must be really impressive!
Starting with next winter schedule the following flights will be transferred from Air Canada Rouge to Air Canada mainline. Boeing 7M8 aircraft will be used with an increase in frequency.
YVR-HNL 2 X Daily
YVR-OGG 2 X Daily
YVR-KOA 4 X Weekly
YVR-CUN 4 X Weekly
YVR-ZIH 3 X Weekly
YYC-OGG 4 X Weekly
YYC-CUN 3 X Weekly
Vancouver to Osaka will return to mainline May 2019 with Boeing 787 service, frequency to be firmed at later date.
YVR-HNL 2 X Daily
YVR-OGG 2 X Daily
YVR-KOA 4 X Weekly
YVR-CUN 4 X Weekly
YVR-ZIH 3 X Weekly
YYC-OGG 4 X Weekly
YYC-CUN 3 X Weekly
Vancouver to Osaka will return to mainline May 2019 with Boeing 787 service, frequency to be firmed at later date.
Last edited by Orcair; Feb 24, 2018 at 10:02 am Reason: Clarification
Feb 24, 2018, 11:56 am
#4
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Feb 24, 2018, 2:25 pm
#5
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Rouge to focus its efforts on eastern Canada. I think it is fair to say us Westerners understand the desire of Rouge to go back to its roots and focus on Central and Eastern Canada. We will accept those mainline aircraft in its place. If you AC wants to send those C-series aircraft our way, we won't complain either. We don't want to see our YYZ friends deprived of the opportunity to enjoy a Rouge flight.
Feb 24, 2018, 3:35 pm
#6
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Don't know if its really a matter of the 7M8 costing less, but more so a matter of matching capacity with demand. For the past year, its been pretty trivial to get Western Canada to Hawaii fares for $400-$500 all-in, which means that there was rampant overcapacity on the routes. A 7M8 swap will tighten that up, and will free the Rouge 767s for purposes such as leisure-heavy domestic transcons (YVR-YYZ, etc.)
Feb 24, 2018, 6:46 pm
#7
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If this is true, looks like YYC-OGG gets an extra weekly flight that will somewhat offset the cut in capacity from the downgauge.
I just hope they adjust the schedule; the times of the flights this year were absolutely craptacular. A redeye leaving at 7/8PM and arriving YYC at 5AM is pretty much the worst possible thing. If they expect us to sit in recliners for 6 hours, I for one won't do it overnight.
Nice. Having the 767 significantly reduces the appeal of that flight to NRT.
I just hope they adjust the schedule; the times of the flights this year were absolutely craptacular. A redeye leaving at 7/8PM and arriving YYC at 5AM is pretty much the worst possible thing. If they expect us to sit in recliners for 6 hours, I for one won't do it overnight.
Nice. Having the 767 significantly reduces the appeal of that flight to NRT.
Feb 24, 2018, 6:46 pm
#8
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Feb 24, 2018, 7:24 pm
#9
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A couple of FAs were talking loudly about this on the 192 bus Thursday night (early Friday morning), and the impression I got from that conversation is that frequency on the Hawaii routes is supposed to increase enough to more than offset the apparently smaller plane capacity. Take that with all the requisite grains of salt...
Feb 24, 2018, 8:32 pm
#10
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I'm not really surprised to see mainline back on the Hawaii routes. This is something that was mentioned in mid-December in this thread. Also something several YVR-based FA had been talking about last Fall. I haven't flown the 7M8 yet so I can't comment on the added value compared to Rouge.
Last edited by DNAwizard; Feb 24, 2018 at 8:42 pm Reason: Typo
Feb 24, 2018, 8:37 pm
#11
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I heard exactly the same information from a reliable source last week, so I'm confident that the "rumour" is true.
But it seems the 7M8 swap won't tighten that up. YVR-OGG 5 times weekly on a rouge 767 is 1400 seats. That's being increased to 14 times weekly on a 7M8 for 2380 seats. This would seem to be all about matching the frequency of other carriers, notably WS. WS has 2 daily YVR-OGG flights. In the summer it's been even worse with AC offering a pathetic one weekly OGG flight while other carriers have daily service. I haven't heard what AC's summer frequency is going to be but I sure hope they make it daily.
A quick and sloppy calculation indicates that two 7M8 flights burn less fuel than one 767 flight with capacity of ~20% more seats. Presumably, like WS, one of the daily flights will be a morning departure from YVR and an afternoon return from OGG/HNL. Having a non-redeye option would be a big improvement IMO.
Don't know if its really a matter of the 7M8 costing less, but more so a matter of matching capacity with demand. For the past year, its been pretty trivial to get Western Canada to Hawaii fares for $400-$500 all-in, which means that there was rampant overcapacity on the routes. A 7M8 swap will tighten that up, and will free the Rouge 767s for purposes such as leisure-heavy domestic transcons (YVR-YYZ, etc.)
A quick and sloppy calculation indicates that two 7M8 flights burn less fuel than one 767 flight with capacity of ~20% more seats. Presumably, like WS, one of the daily flights will be a morning departure from YVR and an afternoon return from OGG/HNL. Having a non-redeye option would be a big improvement IMO.
Feb 24, 2018, 8:58 pm
#12
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I'm unwilling to do redeyes from Hawaii because I just don't want to get on a long overnight flight from a tropical location when I haven't showered recently.
However, morning departures on United to LAX or SFO and onwards was pretty attainable as a fixed mileage reward
However, morning departures on United to LAX or SFO and onwards was pretty attainable as a fixed mileage reward
Feb 24, 2018, 9:01 pm
#13
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When it was a mainline pod and it left at 11PM, the OGG-YYC flight wasn't so terrible. I actually had a pretty decent sleep on it the last time. But with rouge, forget about it.