Air Canada suspends service, closes stations and reduces workforce due to COVID-19

Air Canada announced Tuesday that it is indefinitely suspending service on 30 domestic regional routes and closing eight stations at regional airports in Canada.

These structural changes to Air Canada's domestic regional network are being made as a result of continuing weak demand for both business and leisure travel due to COVID-19 and provincial and federal government-imposed travel restrictions and border closures, which are diminishing prospects for a near-to-mid-term recovery.

As the company has previously reported, Air Canada expects the industry's recovery will take a minimum of three years. As a consequence, other changes to its network and schedule, as well as further service suspensions, will be considered over the coming weeks as the airline takes steps to decisively reduce its overall cost structure and cash burn rate.

As a result of COVID-19, Air Canada reported a net loss of $1.05 billion in the first quarter of 2020. The carrier has undertaken a range of structural changes:

• A workforce reduction of approximately 20,000 employees, representing more than 50 percent of its staff, achieved through layoffs, severances, early retirements and special leaves;
• The permanent removal of 79 aircraft from its mainline and rouge fleets.

Affected customers will be contacted by Air Canada and offered options, including alternative routing where available.

Air Canada reconfigures three Boeing 777s to transport COVID-19 supplies

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.