By James Pearsom

Air Canada has 19 777-300ERs, the first of which was delivered in 2007. According to ch-aviation, the Canadian flag carrier has 12 in a three-class, 400-seat configuration. More interestingly, seven are in a 450-seat layout, among the world’s highest-capacity 7

The carrier’s 450-seaters

The aircraft have 28 lie-flat beds, 24 premium economy recliners, and 398 seats in economy. Just 6% of the capacity is business (against 10% for its 400-seaters).

A problem is they have just six bathrooms in economy/premium economy, just one for every 70 seats.

Do not be misled. Other carriers have 777s with even more capacity, such as Southwind (up to 550 seats), All Nippon (up to 514), Royal Fleet (492), NordWind (up to 486), Air France (up to 472, used year-round to Montreal and summer only to Quebec City), and Rossiya (457),

Nonetheless, Air Canada’s examples are highly unusual within the context of a North American scheduled airline.

For example, American’s highest-capacity equipment is the 304-seat 777-300ER, Delta’s is one layout of the A350-900 (339 seats), and United’s is the domestic non-ER 777-200 (364). Only Atlas Air, a charter airline, has more seats aboard its only normal-configured 747-400 (528).

 

Naturally, Air Canada’s 450-seat 777-300ERs have fewer business seats and far more in economy than its higher-premium version.

It means they have very low seat-mile costs, precisely what is needed in leisure-heavy markets if they can be consistently filled.

Examining schedules submitted to OAG shows that the following international routes will all see its largest equipment. There is quite a lot of chop-and-change, not just seasonally, which is expected, but also intra-seasonally.

 

 

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