Air Canada is reconfiguring the cabins
of three of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to give them additional
cargo capacity to combat the COVID-19 crisis, the company announced
on Saturday. The first aircraft conversion is complete and is now in
service, with the second and third aircraft to be completed shortly.
"The transformation of the Boeing
777-300ERs doubles the capacity of each flight and will enable more
goods to move more quickly," said Tim Strauss, Vice
President – Cargo at Air Canada.
"Air Canada's engineering
team worked around the clock to oversee the conversion work. The next
two aircraft are on track to be completed and will be in operation
within the coming days," said Richard Steer, Senior
Vice President, Operations at Air Canada.
The three Boeing 777-300ER aircraft are
being converted by Avianor, an aircraft maintenance and cabin
integration specialist, at its Montreal-Mirabel facility.
Avianor developed a specific engineering solution to remove 422
passenger seats and designate cargo loading zones for light weight
boxes containing medical equipment and restrained with cargo nets.
This modification has been developed, produced and implemented within
six days.
Air Canada has operated 40
all-cargo flights since March 22 and plans to operate up to
20 all-cargo flights per week using a combination of the three newly
converted Boeing 777s, Boeing 787s and Boeing 777s.
