New Route of the Day (17 June 2021): Air Canada between Montreal and Cairo

Despite the Canadian government’s hardline approach to international air travel (Cirium Data and Analytics figures for June 2021 show that international capacity from Canadian airports is down over 86% compared with June 2019) the country’s flag-carrier, Air Canada, launched a new long-haul service between Montreal and Cairo in Egypt on 17 June. The 8,750-kilometre route will operate 3-weekly (outbound from Canada on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with return flights on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays). Air Canada will use its 255-seat 787-8s on the route. According to flightradar24.com the inaugural flight (AC 74 operated by C-GHPQ) departed Montreal at 18:21 on Thursday 17 June and landed in Cairo just under nine and a half hours later, at 09:47 the following morning.

New service targets leisure and VFR traffic

Commenting on the new route, Mark Galardo, SVP Network Planning and Revenue Management, Air Canada, said: “Air Canada is pleased to offer its first scheduled flights to Egypt. We are strategically rebuilding our international network by adding new routes that support leisure and visiting friends and family travel. With few non-stop options to Egypt from North America, we see opportunities to launch new non-stop flights to Cairo from Montreal where there is an established Egyptian community. We have also built convenient connections to and from our Cairo flights from across Canada and the US at our Montreal hub. This new route shows our commitment to rebuild our international network and our Montreal hub, which have been dramatically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Fellow Star Alliance member EGYPTAIR currently operates the only other scheduled service between Canada and Egypt. It offers a 3-weekly service between Toronto YYZ and Cairo.