Todays flight was on the backbone of Air Canada’s narrowbody fleet; the Airbus 320-2. Air Canada’s Airbus 320 family has been flying across the country for almost thirty five years with the Airbus 320 being the most popular version of this aircraft. Consistent with the age of this aircraft, the Air Canada Business Class cabin also offers a dated experience. It has been a few years since I’ve sat in this product. Let’s see how the product has fared over the years.

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This post is one chapter on a winter work trip within Canada. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Air Canada Aeroplan Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Air Canada Business Class A320-2, Vancouver International Airport – Winnipeg Richardson International Airport

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Air Canada remains the dominant business travellers’ choice within Canada, with the only real option for work related travel. With the only real frequent flier program Aeroplan, it remains the choice of most serious travellers within Canada. Today’s travels were related to a series of meetings I needed to attend in eastern Canada.

As a result of better fare options, I found myself on a connecting flight between Vancouver and Montreal. The first segment was this post on Air Canada Business Class Vancouver – Winnipeg (this post), and the second flight was on Air Canada Business Class Winnipeg – Montreal.

Checking into Air Canada Business Class:

I checked in using the Air Canada app. I received my pre-assigned seat (2A) on the shady side of the plane. I was placed into boarding group 1, which was the highest possible boarding group aside from those travellers that needed a little extra time to board.

I used the digital boarding card, briefly stopping by an Air Canada kiosk to get a paper boarding card re-print. While the digital boarding card is fine under almost all circumstances, it’s still nice to have a paper card to save on the iPhone battery.

I briefly stopped into visit the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge – Vancouver Domestic, access which was included in the business class ticket. As my home lounge, since I’ve reviewed this place many times before, I won’t do so again.

Air Canada
Business Class
YVR – YWG (Vancouver International Airport – Winnipeg Richardson International Airport)
AC 292 – Business Class (P)

8:30 AM – 1:04PM
Dec 4, 2023
Booked: Airbus 320-2
Flown: Airbus 320-2

On Board Air Canada Business Class:

Air Canada has been flying the Airbus 320-2 series since the year 1990, with various deliveries until 2003. The Air Canada Business Class cabin on the Airbus 320-2 represents their oldest business class cabin. At the time of this report, there are 16 remaining in the Air Canada fleet.

It last had a makeover under the Air Canada XM project in the year 2005 which installed glacier blue seating and personal video back screens. A lot has changed since then and the cabin is looking quite dated by today’s standards. Fortunately, a new cabin is underway, which should see most planes retro-fitted by the end of the year 2025.

For today’s flight, I entered the Air Canada Business Class A320-2 cabin. The narrow body cabin is set up with four rows of business class in a 2 – 2 configuration.

I found my way to my assigned Seat 2A, which is actually the bulkhead seat row on the left hand side of the plane. There is no Seat 1A / 1C, since there is a cupboard for coats in this area. I had no issues storing my carry on luggage in the overhead bins, despite the older configurations.

I did find that the video screen and entertainment system, which has been around since 2005, has well past it’s peak performance. My personal video screen often glitched to a frozen state, and took a substantial amount of time to respond to touch screen inputs.

When you think that a modern smartphone’s lifecycle is about three years, an audio / video entertainment system that’s been around for almost 18 years, the age of the system really stands out.

In terms of seat comfort, the space was about “as expected” for a domestic first / business class seat. The seat offered a reasonable amount of shoulder room. Showing it’s age, the seat didn’t offered many places to store digital devices such as cell phones or computers. I would end up storing these in the bulkhead wall pocket in front of me.

Pre Departure Services:

While most United States carriers offer an open bar pre-departure beverage, Air Canada simply offers a small bottle of Naya Water which was waiting on the seat. A complimentary pair of headphones was also resting on the console for use with the in flight entertainment system.

During the pre-departure period, the flight attendants also passed out a printed breakfast menu. Air Canada continues to offer a printed menu, which is a great touch that makes the service feel more upscale.

The breakfast featured a choice of two hot entrees, along with a starter of fruits, bread rolls and jam.

The flip side of the breakfast menu offered the drink list. It offered a list of beers, unspecified wines, spirits. Given the morning flight, I just stuck with the Lavazza Coffee.

The Meal: Breakfast

Todays flight was marked at two hours and forty minutes gate to gate. After about one hour of flight time, breakfast was served.

Breakfast today consisted of the very familiar parsley omelette with a parmsean spinach and chicken sausage, hashbrown potatoes and tomato chutney. There have been many variations of this menu item on the Air Canada Business Class breakfast menu for several years. This was served with a firm ciabatta styled warmed roll, īögo youghurt, along with mixed fruits.

This was probably my twentieth version of the parsley omelette. It’s fair to say that the parsley omelette hasn’t improved over time. The chicken sausage was fairly dry, and the hash brown potatoes were fairly limp. I’ve had better hash browns at my local McDonald’s restaurant. The best part of the meal was that it was served on board, meaning that I didn’t have to stop in advance of getting on the flight.

In Fight Entertainment:

During the flight, I played around with the older in flight entertainment system. As mentioned earlier, the flight entertainment system is quite dated. Most inputs are not responsive to inputs by today’s standards, with a substantial touch delay when commands are entered.

The entertainment system offered a flight map, along with a limited number of movies. The system does not have the same number of movies that you might expect from an overseas flight. As a result, there are only about thirty – forty movies which makes the selection a little limited.

I ended up settling into Crimson Tide running in the background. It wasn’t an exciting choice, but seemed to be among the most current for my generation.

Landing at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport:

Instead of watching the movie, I ended up taking in views from the wing for most of the flight. I was flying during winter, and as a result, the views of the Canadian landscape were always engaging and interesting.

We eventually started a descent into Winnipeg over some flat prairie landscapes.

Upon landing at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport, we pulled up to gate 10 and parked next to another Air Canada Airbus 320 aircraft. With snow all over the ground, it surely looked cold outside.

I ended up disembarking the plane. I went for a visit to the Plaza Premium Lounge – Winnipeg Airport, had a quick stop through the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge – Winnipeg before getting onto my connecting flight Air Canada Business Class Winnipeg – Montreal.

The Bottom Line: Air Canada Business Class A320-2

The Air Canada Business Class on the Airbus 320-2 is nearing the end of it’s business cycle. The aircraft features a comfortable seat, but the features of the experience are quite dated as compared to today’s standards.

While you will get a business class expereince with priority services, the cabin is less convenient for the storage of electronic devices, the in flight food is relatively basic and unchanged, and the entertainment system is a relic from a completely different generation. Despite this, there is are improvements on the way, and we should see some changes to this aircraft by the end of 2025.

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If you’ve flown Air Canada Business Class, have you enjoyed an Air Canada Business Class Omelette in your travels ?

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