Last week, Air Canada announced new service to Barcelona and Athens from Toronto and Montreal, with 767-300s configured to seat 244 passengers.
Wait, 244 seats? That’s way bigger than what Air Canada currently has on its 763s. I asked about how the cabin would be configured and received this answer:
These two new seasonal routes for the summer of 2010 to leisure destinations Athens and Barcelona will offer Economy service in both cabins and will be operated using Boeing 767-300ER aircraft that will be specially configured: 222 seats that provide 31 inches of legroom, and the option of a forward cabin with 24 seats that are larger and provide enhanced legroom of 38 inches.
Air Canada has three 763s left that weren’t refurbished as part of Project XM. They were supposed to leave the fleet, according to this report, but now, there’s a use for them.
I was told that the three aircraft will go under a “cabin refresh program and reconfiguration this fall” and that the 767s “will be operated to select seasonal leisure destinations.”
This news article also reports that there will be a third market served this summer in addition to Barcelona and Athens, and that they will be used for new seasonal service from Calgary to Honolulu and Maui, and some other leisure routes.
This is pretty interesting here, as Air Canada is kind of making an LCC within itself, not necessarily in terms of the costs, but simply how it will be laying out the cabin. Note how the forward cabin will still be receiving “economy service.” Plus, right now the front cabin has 58-60 inches of legroom – that’s going down to 38 inches! (This almost sounds like Air Transat.)
Will it work? I think there’s a solid chance here. Delta and United, for example, use 767s that are in domestic configurations on Hawaii routes. These aircraft seat more and have premium offerings that certainly aren’t as luxurious as the international aircraft. (The domestic United 763s, for example, won’t be receiving the new business and first seats, as far as I know.)
As always…we’ll see how it goes. 
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