YVR - CUN with 787-9
 

I am planning on using a couple of my North America priority rewards in February and just saw that AC is operating the 787-9 on the YVR-CUN route on Fridays as well as Sundays.
When I originally checked this was planned to be operated by the 737 MAX which it looks like won't be flying yet that early in 2021 for AC but the 787-9 seems like a lot of seats for this route and I wonder what the chances are of this being downgraded to an A319 like the YYZ-CUN route is.

I would love to use the miles to fly in Premium Economy but have a feeling that this might be too much plane for this route and most certainly would be downgraded unless there is a lot of cargo between the 2 cities which I can't imagine. Maybe containers with snow to Cancun and fresh fruits coming back? :D

Does anyone have some insights on this and maybe there is a really good reason AC is using the 787-9 on this route though it doesn't look like it's because of passenger loads.
Just trying to gage what our chances are on actually getting to fly on the 787.

YVR-CUN is well outside the range of a 319, and just barely over the range limit of a 320 or 321, but well within the range of a 7M8.

Since the tech stop would be on US soil I wouldn't call that terribly likely, so, yeah, until the 7M8 comes back into service, it'll have to stay on a widebody if they want to fly it direct.

...that said, we've now had ample evidence that if that plane doesn't fill up, they'll simply cancel it and reroute you through Toronto.

Toronto (or Calgary or Montreal).

I noticed that on the 19DEC the YYC-CUN-YYC is still showing on the expected A319 but the YYZ-CUN-YYZ is now on a 787-900 as well.

In normal times, I would switch in a heartbeat to the YYZ connection but not with a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

For some reason I thougth that the A319 could do the 5.5 hour flight to/from Cancun but I guess it would be pushing it, though Avianca used to (maybe still is) flying the A319 between Montevideo and Bogota, a 6.5 hour long route and 200 miles longer than YVR - CUN but maybe they are flying a different version of the A319.

I doubt the 7M8 is coming back this soon though we wouldn't mind if that was the case.
Both my son and I are airplane enthusiasts and just like the idea of flying again on the 787-9 on a 'shorter' route like this one. :)

We were considering to route via YUL or YYZ. YUL shows the A330 which we love but from YYZ on the dates we would flly in February it shows a Rouge A319 which we are not to keen on flying.
I'll wait a little longer to see what the chances are these flights being cancelled and AC routing anyone booked via YYZ or YUL. At this point flights look extremely empty in February and I doubt they would fly a half empty 787 to CUN, though we did have a flight on SWISS with only 12 Economy passengers on a A340 from YUL to ZRH. :D

You're right to worry about YUL-CUN getting swapped to a 319, that's a definite possibility. It really looks like AC's just sort of throwing 330s at those Sun routes to see if they get lucky, then downgauging anything that doesn't sell.

And yes, YYC-CUN is just inside the non-stop range of a 319.

Pretty certain I have operated the A319 YVR-CUN in years past. The A319 has operated YYZ-BOG and YYZ-SFO with flying times verging on 6 hours.

I've been VDB'd off of EWR-YVR multiple times when it was on a 319, when they needed to reduce loads to avoid a tech stop in Winnipeg. It's a shorter route than CUN-YVR, but IIRC it's more directly into the wind.

I don't doubt that a load-limited 319 can fly further.

​​​​​​​YYZ-SFO is 500 miles shorter than YVR-CUN, I think I've flown that one in a 319 as well.

I don't know anything about the inner workings at AC, and this is only based on a couple of flights last month.

I flew YYZ-YVR and TATL from YYZ. All four flights were 787s, and lightly occupied (guessing YYZ-YVR was about 10% one way and 30% the other; TATL about 10% both ways - eastbound 4J/0PY/36Y). Given how little air travel there is these days, I imagine there was equipment available to use A321 or similar for the YVR flights. It almost feels like AC is flying WB aircraft to give people space. But that's just my observations from 4 segments.

Thank you for your 'real life' experience which is hopeful. That has also been my experience when flying TATL though not with AC.
The busiest flight which I would say was 95% full was with AC YVR - YUL on a A330.

I also imagine that AC can keep it's pilots 'current' by flying these kind of routes with larger aircraft and different aircraft types since they need a certain number of take offs and landings on any particular type.

I was a passenger on said flight in March 2002.
At the turn on the century, the 319 operated YHZ-YVR and a few years later MIA-YVR.

2,760 and 2,801 miles, respectively, with CUN at 2,780

I was wrong above when I said CUN-YVR is "well outside" the range of the 319, I should have said "a little outside the range of the 319" with a full payload, which AC lists at 2,760 miles, but on all the routes we've been talking about here, the westbound flight is nearly straight into the wind. So, a route that's an easy reach heading east, can become payload- and passenger-limited heading west.

Also very possible that AC has since refitted different fuel tanks and failed to update its published specs.

The motivation may also be cargo. Passenger volumes may be down but Cargo is not. With fewer aircraft flying the cost of moving goods by air cargo is much higher that in years past. There would be no shortage of cargo to move between Vancouver and Toronto as well as to Europe.

To a tourist destination in Mexico, not certain, perhaps.

As someone on the ground (American that lives in Mexico), I can assure you there are plenty of passengers from US/Canada, especially to the Cancun area. I saw a recent clip on the news that said resorts and hotels are now running at on average at ~70% capacity (usually this year its close to 100%). Mexico took advantage of all the other countries being closed by leaving their borders wide open its led to a flood of tourists from US, Canada and now increasingly from places like Peru and Colombia as well. Of course this doesn't mean that some individual routes are running at really low capacity, esp from Canada where a mandatory 14 day qurantine discourages ppl from leaving, but generally speaking i'd say a 10% capacity flight to Mexico is more the exception then the rule.

Also this thread is really fascinating as I had no idea that Air Canada does wide bodies to Cancun, is this a normal thing or just because of the pandemic? I usually ski in whistler and while there are tons of airlines that fly MEX YVR (I think 4 or 5 airlines), all are narrow body jets, and the flight is just long enough you'd really appreciate a layflat for the 6 hour flight, perhaps stopping by Cancun and then picking up a 787 or a330 from there next time could be an option in 2021.

The AC rouge 767s were regulars on the YYZ-CUN and YVR-CUN route, and currently AC YYZ-MEX is a single daily flight operated by a 787-800 on some days.

As far as MEX-YVR goes, the route has changed considerably during the pandemic. AC is down to 1-2x weekly and AM currently 4x weekly. In addition, 4O cannot fly to Canada for a number of reasons now. The awful 515 am departure time on the AC MEX-YVR flight keeps me away as it makes for a groggy day upon arrival.

For Canadians, the mandatory 14-day quarantine for all arrivals except for those arriving in YYC and remaining in Alberta for 14 days and getting tested twice. Its tough to even consider for many people, especially families.