Air Canada Rouge was the only regular link with North America for many European airports, including several in France. This will no longer be the case for much of 2021.
It ran regularly from Montreal to Bordeaux and MarseilleAir Canada Rouge is the simplified services subsidiary of the national carrier Air Canada. An airline whose objective is to serve secondary markets or markets with a lower proportion of high-contribution passengers.
The pandemic will have put an end to this air bridge between North America and Europe.. The closure of borders in Canada and Europe grounded Air Canada Rouge aircraft. The 24 Boeing 767-300 which served many European routes have been withdrawn from the Air Canada fleet. And this would appear to be permanent.
A fleet of short and medium-haul aircraft only
Rouge now only operates aircraft Airbus A319 and A321 for a medium-haul network. The aircraft have a capacity of 136 seats for the former and 200 seats for the latter. The airline relaunched operations on 2 November with its first flights between Toronto and Cancun. The carrier is planning other North American routes as and when the restrictions are lifted.
The parent company Air Canada is equally cautious about the recovery of its international routes. In the third quarter, Air Canada recorded a reduction of 96% in the number of passengers on its transatlantic routes (expressed in revenue/passenger/km). Until further notice, it is therefore concentrating on four destinations in Europenamely Brussels, Frankfurt, London-Heathrow and Paris-CDG. While we wait for better days to come.
According to the airline's management, 'classic' Air Canada should be back on most of its routes to France by 2021. The reservation system already allows you to book flights from Montreal to Lyon, Nice, Paris and Toulouse. For this last destination, the following dates were scheduled for June the launch of a scheduled service. A project that was thrown into disarray by the covid pandemic, but which is due to return in 2021.
