Air Canada - ACA > Reviews > Oh canada.

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Good
Customer Service	Outstanding
Punctuality	Good
Space	Comfortable
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Great airline
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

If you are ever deciding to fly to Canada, always be sure to check out their own airline before hopping onto a British Airways flight.

Air Canada is simply one of the best airlines I have flown on.

Their staff are warm and friendly, their fleet is modern and comfortable and the whole company are a 1st class outfit.

They have a website for you to check out too:
www.aircanada.com/index.htm

When you log on, you will have to make a choice!

Canada, for those of you that dont know, (I should hope you all do!) is situated and joined onto USA along its Northern perimeter.
They speak 2 languages there, with a high proportion of French speaking residents.
There are actual French Orientated parts of the country with most roadsigns being dual nationality.
This extends to their website.
On logging on, you must make a choice:
French or English.
Obviously I took the English option.

Wow. The website is not just a "book online" type site like most airlines offer.
It gives you an in-depth look at the services, fleet, routes and many other things that the airline can offer or provide information on.
It provides all relevant news, flight information and an online booking facility which can supply you with tickets to be picked up at the airport.
You can even search the site for job opportunities within the organisation.

There is a great virtual tour of an airliner on their website. Worth checking out.

Inside the planes.
They are very nice. On my flight to Calgary, I was treated very well, even in Economy class. The seats were very comfortable with quite a bit of legroom, compared to some Atlantic crossings I have made.
The Menu was varied with quite a few options available to me.
In flight movies totalled 4 with in seat viewing screens.
The staff were mostly bilingual as I noticed my first few French-Canadians!
Colour scheme is followed both inside and out.
White planes with Black Tail fins and a Red Maple leaf motif.

THE FLEET.

The fleet comprises of various aircraft to satisfy the numerous types of route and passenger volumes it must carry.

They have one of the most modern fleets too.
Within their ranks they have:

Airbus A319 (36 planes)
Airbus A320 (47 planes)
These serve on the "short hop" domestic routes with 120 passengers and a range of about 2,500 miles.

Airbus A330 (8 planes)
These planes entered service in 1999 and Air Canada was the first North American operator to use the planes. They are medium range airliners which you are most likely to travel back and forth from the UK on. Carrying a total of 272 passengers in comfort during the winter and 292 in the summer. (holiday traffic)

Airbus A340 (12 planes)
These are long range airliners that you would fly transcontinental on to either the Pacific basin or similarly distant destinations. Years of development have lead to this state of the art Airliner.
It comes in 2 forms with a 2 engined and 4 engined version. Air Canada operate the 4 engined version for longer ranges.

Beech 1900H (8 planes)
These planes are normally operated on Private charter basis with a limited mileage of 550 miles.

Boeing 737 (37 planes)
Another short range airliner that operates domestically on the scheduled routes. These ae getting old and being phased out and replaced by more modern Airbuses.

Boeing 747 (3 planes)
While only have 3 planes they are well utilised on routes that require a high level of passengers and cargo similarly.
Typical runs include Tokyo, London and Melbourne.

Boeing 767 (44 planes)
Operate on various medium to long range routes depending on the model. One of the most fuel efficient airliners around.

BAe 146 (10 planes)
The small overhead wing planes operated by some of our budget airlines, these planes are used on short haul routes where passenger numbers are small.

Canadair Regional Jet (50 planes)
Used on routes with small passenger numbers, again, but on routes larger airliners could not support.

Other planes that operate on this basis are the De Havailland Dash-8. They are propellor driven planes with mileage restricted to 750 miles.

Thats over 200 planes operating on various route so they have every possible situation covered.

Main Office.
They operate out of most Canadian Airports with offices in:
Vancouver
Ottawa
Toronto
Montreal
Calgary
Halifax.
Suprising there is no contact in Quebec, which is very French orientated.

They are a great way to get to the Great White North.