Air Canada has announced fall season cuts on many non stop routes from Calgary International Airport in the Province of Alberta, Canada. The city will be impacted by the service suspension of many domestic, transborder and international routes. Primarily, those most impacted will be Calgary’s business travellers who will now have to take a connecting flight in order to stay loyal to Air Canada, or switch to Westjet if they are insistent on a faster non stop flight.

Air Canada Cuts Several Domestic & International Flights from Calgary; Cites Pilot Shortage.

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The effects of travel after the pandemic in an environment after the pandemic has caused pressures on airlines throughout North America. We are now learning of intended cuts to Air Canada’s domestic and international routes from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

In a email to Calgary Aeroplan Elite members, and reported on by several national news outlets, Air Canada announced a reduction in services from and to the Calgary International Airport.

The Routes Impacted:

Air Canada has announced that the following routes will be suspended at the end of schedule (effective October 30, 2023):

• Air Canada Flights between Calgary and Halifax
• Air Canada Flights between Calgary and Ottawa
• Air Canada Flights between Calgary and Los Angeles
• Air Canada Flights between Calgary and Honolulu
• Air Canada Flights between Calgary and Cancun
• Air Canada Flights between Calgary and Frankfurt

Air Canada is offering connections for these destinations with multiple options serviced every day via hubs in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.

Air Canada also announced that their flights between Calgary and Frankfurt will now be serviced non‑stop by a Lufthansa Group airline. In essence, the flights will no longer be operated by Air Canada aircraft, and instead be operated by a Lufthansa Group aircraft such as Lufthansa Mainline or Eurowings.

Air Canada has assured travellers that they will proactively accommodate all customers impacted by these bookings and they will hear from Air Canada about alternative travel options, re-routing through other airports, or the choice of a full refund.

These cuts don’t impact accessing the comfortable Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Calgary.

Air Canada Cites Pilot Shortages:

While not reported in the email to Aeroplan Elite members, Air Canada has reported to broadcast news agencies that “pilot shortages” are the cause for many of these route cancellations.

As reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in a memo sent to staff, Air Canada Executive Vice President Mark Galardo stated: “I understand that it’s frustrating to see that we are adding new routes from our hubs while suspending services from Calgary, but in the current landscape these service suspensions are the right decision.”

The routes are operated by a variety of equipment including Airbus 220-300, Boeing 737 Max 8 and Airbus 330-300 aircraft. As a result, there isn’t one particular equipment type that you could link the shortages to.

What This Means to Air Canada In Calgary:

The city of Calgary is home to a large business travel community with a number of oil and gas energy offices located in Calgary and throughout Alberta. It’s no secret that Air Canada’s largest competitor “Westjet Airlines” is based in Calgary.

The cutting of these domestic, transborder and international routes will greatly impact the ability of Calgary based travellers to get to their destinations. While it may have been easy to cut a few routes, Air Canada hasn’t spared many routes and has arguably cut a wide swath through many access points out of Calgary that include both business, leisure and sun destinations.

Those that are on the road quite a bit as Air Canada Aeroplan Elite travellers will be the most impacted, as they will now need to take a connection in Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal in order to get to their final destinations. Despite assurance language in the email to elite travellers the contrary, the natural question is how committed Air Canada actually is to Calgary when many of these routes will be lost to Westjet offering non stop service on the routes.

On a personal note, I used to regularly commute through Calgary International Airport on a domestic Canadian Vancouver – Ottawa route, taking Air Canada 343 Calgary – Ottawa on a regular basis. The price of the connecting flight always made more sense to my employer versus a non stop from Vancouver – Ottawa.

Connecting in Calgary International Airport was always more pleasant than connecting in Toronto Pearson International Airport. Gates were closer together, there were less delays and you generally got out much quicker.Now that this connection point will cease to exist after October 30, 2023, I’ll be relegated to the non stop flight or a connection in Toronto. This will certainly have a price point impact on the travel budget.

I will also particularly miss the suspension of service of Air Canada Calgary – Frankfurt. This route used to be among the easiest to get upgrades on, as it was much more elite light compared to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. I had benefitted from elite upgrades travelling this route over the years, thanks to a lighter business class demand. The cutting of this route means that Air Canada loyalists will have to fly well out of their way in order to get over to Europe.

My Thoughts on Air Canada’s Move To Cut Flights from Calgary.

Air Canada has announced the service suspension of several key route to and from the Calgary International Airport. These routes include both business routes, European Routes, and Routes serving leisure destinations.

Unfortunately, Air Canada has decided that they don’t have enough resources to go against Westjet Airlines which is based in Calgary; and are better off shifting their resources somewhere else.

The biggest impacts will be felt by Calgary’s Aeroplan Elite community, who will have to take connections in order to stay loyal to Air Canada. One has to question how far this community will go in order to stay loyal, or whether they will switch to Westjet Airlines and their less exciting loyalty program.

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If you have been impacted by these Calgary based cuts, what do your future Air Canada loyalty plans look like?

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