Yes Air Nova did. I think it closed about 20 years ago.
AC has never had a pilot base there. (There used to be an AC FA base but it closed al long time ago)

The chart is out of date. The A321s are now 30" in economy as well.

The A220s are now advertised with 30" pitch, although they haven't changed anything on those planes, so they maybe they have some 30" rows and some 31" rows?

Yes. Somebody here had shared an internal cad drawing, some rows are indeed have more pitch than the others usually +/- an inch, even seat width can be varied +/- 0.5" on some models.

You're not wrong about Halifax getting all the crappy planes. It seems every single YYZ-YHZ-YYZ I take is on the old A321.

As for YHZ-LHR, I'm really hoping it doesn't get rouged but I think that's exactly what's going to happen. The J loads are usually always full on this route, so they'd lose some revenue there by rouging it but I don't see them putting the A321XL on that route nor the A330.

Galardo has said on the record (Why Air Canada Wants More Range in its Long-Haul Fleet) that the XLR eventually will replace 7M8 on YHZ-LHR.That being said,.. he could have been speaking out of turn, or they could very well have changed their strategy/direction since that interview.

It's YYZ that's the problem . YHZ to and from YUL is mostly A220s running back and forth.

Now, if you're talking about the rubbish PAL birds that we get to fly to and from YOW...

Right now there is no J on YHZ-LHR, they sell the recliners as PY for TATL flights. If they move to the XLR it will be J, and they have also said they plan on moving the daytripper back to YYZ, so even more reason to have lie flats if YHZ goes back to a red-eye.

You're right, it is sold as PY. You do get access to the lounge though as if you were in J and you also get the J class meal as if you were on a widebody. However, what's really frustrating is you're charged J level redemption rates. More often than not the YHZ-LHR is far more points in PY than it you did J reward and connect in Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.

We recently flew this route and there is no lounge access without paying in YHZ. Fortunately had credits to burn. I wouldn't describe the meal as J class either and the second meal is the same as economy.

Leeham modeling suggests a 13% reduction in range for the -500 (but then the map they show indicates 2,900 nautical miles vs. 3,100nm - which is a much smaller 6.5% gap, so perhaps call it 2,700 nautical miles range...
https://leehamnews.com/2026/02/19/ai...es-challenges/

I noted that their gcmap graph uses ATL & CDG as centre points. Hubs for both airlines who want a larger C Series and have stated range is not a factor for their use.

The longest current route operated by a C Series is RIX-DXB, if correct, this represents 2.685mi (2,332nm) real world use. YUL-YVR is 1,995nm or roughly 15% less. It would seem that for real world use, a YUL-YVR use would pe possible, but perhaps not plausible year-round. And YUL-SFO/LAX out of contention.

Still not convinced this plane is right for AC and more of a get out of jail card for Airbus who wants to keep producing A321s so they can't sell anymore A320s for most customers

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I would beg to differ. The -500 could probably be deployed on 90%+ of AC's frequencies in North America. The outliers can be served by the MAX and 321XLR.

At the end of the day it will come down to whether Airbus can produce and sell the thing for a price that is competitive with the MAX and A320 after taking into account superior operating economics. The challenge for them will be that it currently costs more to manufacture the 220 than the 320 and they have limited 220 capacity, so the -500 only makes sense if Airbus can use it as a strategy to free up room on the line to sell more A321's.

I would agree with the 90% rule, if not for the fact that YULYYZ --> YVR/SFO/LAX are probably in the top 10 most important NA routes where the added capacity is needed. So if the model works outside of the pareto optimal routes, then why bother?

And this is from the guy who thinks the C-Series is the best plane in AC's narrow-body fleet. By a country mile.

If I were a betting man, I would suggest that AC has plans to make YYZ/YUL <-> YVR/SFO/LAX all Signature Service by using a combo of XLR and widebodies, so if correct the point becomes moot.

In terms of why bother it is to get lower cost and better passenger experience on other busy routes like YUL/YYZ/YOW <-> YWG/YEG/YYC/ORD/DEN...

So given that AC only flies the A220 in North America, range isn't a huge factor. What is a factor is how will the additional capacity of a 225 stretch fit into AC's fleet and will they be able to fill those additional seats at a profit.

According to ChatGPT Air Canada's top ten airports in terms of number of flights are YYZ, YUL, YVR, YYC, YOW, LGA, EWR, BOS, JFK, and LHR. All of these airport (with the exception of LHR) would benefit from the increased capacity of a 225

Here we go again...
A220-500's lack of TCON range won't be a deal breaker if the intent is to replace their existing A320 fleet in circa 2030. -500 shares the same crew pool and hopefully the same for parts and maintenance (likely but not guaranteed), it's no different than buying more -300 if the potential revenue it can generate makes up the difference in the extra capex.

Some current AC A320 routes I could found at a glance;

Perfectly within range:
YVR-YLWY
VR-YYC
YVR-YEG
YVR-YWG
YVR-LAS
YVR-PSP
YVR-ORD

YUL-YWG
YUL-MIA

YOW-YYC

YYZ-YOW
YYZ-YUL
YYZ-YQB
YYZ-YHZ
YYZ-YYT
YYZ-YWG
YYZ-YQR
YYZ-YYC
YYZ-YEG
YYZ-YMM
YYZ-LGA
YYZ-PBI

Stretching the limit but probably okay:
YVR-IAH

Probably out of range:
YYZ-YVR (Plenty of XLR available to fly this route in the future)
YYZ-YYJ (Seems like an A220-300 sized route)
YYZ-LAX (Plenty of XLR available to fly this route in the future)
YWG-CUN (Should be flown by Rouge anyway)


The question we should be asking isn't the range. It's if AC need to fill the gap between A220-300 and MAX/A321.

I certainly see the extra 4 Business class seat on the -500 would be helpful on some days and time between YYZ-YOW.