Tullstr

Received yesterday a notification that two flights booked for February have been cancelled/had equipment changes.

AC 851 (London - Calgary) looks to be switched from a 787 to a 767 for the whole of February.
AC 868 (Toronto - London - Morning flight) seems to be removed from the schedule for the whole of February and March.

Does anybody have any information on the reasons for the above? Is it a shortage of 787 aircraft that normally operate these routes.

Disappointing as want to avoid the sub par 767 business product and a 12 hour wait at Toronto for an evening flight.

Plumber

Just flew on this LHR-YOW (only a 7 hour flight).... These birds really are old and tired.... they never did update the IFEs and the thing kept needing a reset.

eastcoastcan

I find the lay flats very comfortable, and for a 7 hour flight I don't usually use the IFE or eat.

YOWCDNFF

Could be some sort of heavy maintenance for one of the aircraft type and the need to shift planes around. It is fairly normal for AC to "update" their winter schedule on the fly by reducing flights over a certain time periods or subbing equipment - there has been a few such changes put in the system in the last few days such as the 767 showing up on YYZ-SFO. Now, this could also have to do with the 737 Max and the need to keep more capacity in North America and sun destinations over the winter months, and much less so to Europe...

WaytoomuchEurope

Interesting because I've been looking at a variety of routes to and from LHR in January and most of them seem to include a 767.

The classic pod is more comfortable for resting in my opinion, but you're right, the IFE is garbage. Just pre-load some stuff on your phone/tablet/laptop.

nave888

Yikes. YYC-LHR has really taken a hit over the last few years... It used to be daily with either a 333/789, plus a daily BA 763 (later 788/789). A couple years ago, BA pulled back to seasonal service, and AC has gone from 789 to 788 to 763. With Westjet expanding so much out of YYC and KLM seemingly doing well with their daily AMS service, I wonder if AC's YYC-LHR is in trouble of going seasonal?

Plumber

I used to prefer these old 'pod's to the current seat offerings on the newer planes. The thing I do like about the 767 seats, is that your head is angled away from the aisle, whereas on the 787, 777 the seat is angled so that your head is near the aisle.

However, the newer seats have grown on me, and I now like them better... I will probably avoid this 767 flight in the future.

One positive is that I did not have to think about a deflating seat!

RatherBeInYOW

Besides the IFE I am not sure I would describe the business product ono the 767 as inferior. The seat is comfortable, roomy, I prefer the tray table set-up and it won't deflate. And the 767 Y product, again modulo the old IFE, is definitely superior to the 787 Y product. As an SE who can grab Y exit / bulkhead and as someone who can OPM in PY when the price is right I'll be happy when the 788 takes over YOW-LHR this spring. But in some ways I'll miss the 767s.

As to why; I am guessing given how overloaded AC was this past summer that they're using winter to get some maintenance done.

Adam Smith

I think you're reading way too much in to a short-term change of equipment, nor is your description of the historical situation quite accurate.

Firstly, 763s have been present on the route off and on for years. The equipment used to be more variable, with 77Ls, 773s, 788s, 333s, 763s... The last couple of years, it has much more consistently been 789s.

Demand has certainly taken a hit since oil prices crashed. 77W to 789 in the summer is a downgauge, for sure. There was discussion about this in another thread when BA first announced it was cutting back service. But keep in mind that:

1. For most of next year, it's still 789. 333 in April/May and October, rest of the time 789.
2. WS seems to have been very successful with its flight. A few years ago, it didn't exist. Then they started less than daily service with the crappy old QF 763s. Now it's 6-7x weekly on 789s, which are actually decent, and have a lot of seats.
3. BA will back next summer.

I don't see any danger of YYC-LHR going seasonal. But unless we see a big rebound in the economy around here, we're not going to get back to the days of the big capacity that existed for a brief period.

There's also some discussion in that other thread about structural changes to LHR, with AC emphasizing connections on its own metal via YYZ/YUL (and now even YVR, to a lesser extent) rather than via a partner at LHR.

YXUFlyboy

Agreed with Adam. YYC-FRA is a 77W in Feb. and has much more to do with availability of aircraft than a likely huge upgauge needed for FRA in winter. So far this month they've been rotating a 788/789 between LHR and FRA. For the immediate future, I don't see any danger for either LHR or FRA, and I think NRT will stick around and go to a 788 in S2021. The latter route is likely safe unless WS tries to go to Asia, but that's a few years off yet.

StuMcIlwain

AC is short of planes due to the 737MAX grounding. The longer the grounding drags on, the bigger the problem. I doubt it is anything more than AC using the slower winter months (for flights to Europe) to catch up on some deferred maintenance.

Personally, I still like the 767s, old pods and all.