Air Canada eyes a return to Melbourne

EXCLUSIVE | With flights to Sydney and Brisbane now on Air Canada’s route map, the airline is eyeing Melbourne as its next opportunity Down Under. Demand to Australia is strong, Air Canada has a local partner in Virgin Australia, and Aussies love travelling to Canada. But launching a new route isn’t that simple.

Sure, Melbourne is about to become Australia’s most populous city. For that matter, Air Canada previously ran seasonal Melbourne-Vancouver flights, albeit in the pre-pandemic era of travel. But Melbourne brings with it a unique challenge for North American carriers.

Mark Nasr – President of Aeroplan and Air Canada’s Executive Vice President, Marking and Digital – explains. We catch up in Dubai on the sidelines of the recent invitation-only IATA AGM.

Air Canada’s current flights to Australia

As is true of many international airlines, Air Canada began its Australian journey by flying to Sydney. After years of serving Australia’s business capital, Air Canada spread its wings north to Queensland, adding Brisbane to its map.

‘We were first into Brisbane from the North American side,’ Nasr proudly shares, speaking of carriers based across Canada and the contiguous United States. (US-based Hawaiian Airlines previously ran direct Brisbane-Honolulu flights, which have since been withdrawn). As for Brisbane, ‘we’ve been there for years.’

‘I believe we launched Brisbane in 2016, if memory serves me correctly. We love Brisbane … and I suspect we will stick with it for the long haul. It’s a great market for us.’ But serving Australia isn’t just about travellers flying to Canada. Through its hub in Vancouver, Air Canada offers some very swift connections to the US.

‘We’re still the quickest way of getting between Brisbane and New York,’ Nasr continues. By flying through Vancouver and completing US Preclearance on the ground in Canada, ‘you don’t have to go through the process like arriving in LAX, which is heinous.’ In Vancouver, there’s generally no requirement to collect and re-check your bags, either.

As for its homeland, what else drives demand for Air Canada’s current flights from Brisbane and Sydney to Vancouver itself? ‘We’ve got a base of Canadian expats,’ Nasr shares. Beyond that, ‘Canada is a popular destination for gap student years and for skiing in the southern summer, and that creates a little bit of a customer base as well.’

Certainly, the ability to indirectly earn Aeroplan Points via the HSBC Star Alliance Credit Card gives a nice incremental boost. When looking to add a new destination to Air Canada’s network – Melbourne, for instance – it all helps.

The challenge of flying to Melbourne

As for Melbourne, population isn’t the issue. There’s also clearly no shortage of Melbournian travellers venturing to North America. After all, United Airlines, Air Canada’s Star Alliance partner, already offers direct flights from Melbourne to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Oneworld-based rival Qantas also runs direct service to LA and Dallas/Fort Worth, with its low-cost offshoot Jetstar flying Melbourne-Honolulu as well.

‘Melbourne, we haven’t brought back,’ acknowledges the Air Canada marketing boss. ‘But it’s on the list in the future, once we get some (more) aircraft.’ Even though Air Canada has flown to Melbourne previously, it’s tricky. ‘Half of our widebody types couldn’t do that kind of mission,’ Nasr explains.

‘We need, first of all, the right aircraft capable of that mission (year-round). And then we need that to be the right next opportunity for the aircraft.’ For Air Canada, ‘the issue (with Melbourne) is the distance, particularly from Vancouver. Vancouver’s a little further, obviously, than Los Angeles (and) the US west coast, and we’re short on planes.’

It seems, Air Canada had hoped to revisit the topic sooner, but the airline is facing ‘well-documented delivery delays from several manufacturers. It’s not just one or two – or suppliers of manufacturers. So as we build back the long-haul fleet, then there exists the opportunity to take a second look at re-entering Melbourne.’

With so many moving parts, there’s ‘no timeline yet. It’s a dynamic opportunity because you have Russian overflight issues, you have other things affecting demand right now. And we look at the network holistically and where we’re going to deploy the aircraft.

For now, most of Air Canada’s customers ‘are going through Sydney for the most part,’ when flying to or from Melbourne. ‘There’s Brisbane as well, but (it’s) Sydney for the most part.’

Other regional routes for Air Canada

Beyond Sydney, Brisbane and the possibility of Melbourne, Air Canada has been busily expanding its network in recent years. The carrier already runs seasonal non-stop flights between Auckland and Vancouver, which will return this summer (or ‘northern winter’, as it’s known in the airline business).

More broadly in Asia Pacific, ‘we added Bangkok,’ Nasr continues. Air Canada’s flight is the ‘first nonstop North American service to Bangkok. We’re the only North American service to Bangkok. We love that service. It’s going great.’

‘It’s interesting – it takes Americans to Bangkok, and people from throughout Canada. But it’s increased the size of the local market of Vancouverites that are going to Bangkok because now there’s this great aspirational destination, which is just so much easier. It’s nonstop. And then we added Singapore this year. That’s doing great.’

These are strategic plays for Air Canada, too. Bangkok is the home hub of its Star Alliance partner Thai Airways. Equally, Singapore is the base of Singapore Airlines, another Star Alliance carrier.

‘There are other opportunities in North Asia as well,’ Nasr hints. Evidently, watch this space. Admittedly, though, we’ll be watching more closely for an Air Canada aircraft in Melbourne. Time will tell.

Also read: Guide to Air Canada lounge access for Velocity Gold and Platinum

Featured image courtesy of Air Canada. Chris Chamberlin attended the IATA AGM in Dubai as a guest of IATA.

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