Air Canada has resumed Montreal to Cairo. The first summer-seasonal service of 2023 left Canada in early May, with the last from Egypt planned for October 27th.
Air Canada launched the route in 2021, 12 years after EgyptAir ended it. Revolving around the Egyptian diaspora in Montreal and connections over Montreal in particular, Air Canada and EgyptAir – both Star Alliance carriers – codeshare, including beyond each other’s hubs.
Air Canada is back in Cairo
On May 2nd, Air Canada relaunched the 5,436-mile (8,748 km) link from Montreal, its second-largest hub, to Egypt’s capital. It is Air Canada’s third African destination from Montreal, alongside Algiers and Casablanca, also focused on diaspora.
Operating thrice weekly, Cairo will see both the 255-seat Boeing 787-8 and – much more frequently, crucially through the peak summer – the 298-seat 787-9.
The 787-9 has 30 seats in Signature, 21 in premium economy, and 247 in regular economy. The -9 variant provides 10 more business seats (+50%) than the smaller -8 and 33 more in economy (+15%).
Now mainly by the 787-9
Since launching in June 2021, the route has almost always been operated by the smaller 787-8, but it will now primarily see the 787-9.
As Air Canada mainly had four weekly flights last summer, against three now, capacity has been reduced by 126 weekly seats (double for both ways).
One fewer roundtrip will, of course, nicely reduce the route’s operating expenses, while the bigger aircraft will reduce seat-mile costs. Hopefully, yields will improve somewhat from fewer seats for sale and more business. When combined with lower costs, performance will hopefully improve further.
What’s the schedule?
It is scheduled as follows, with all times local:
- Cairo to Montreal: AC74, 17:30-10:55+1 (10h 25m block time)
- Montreal to Cairo: AC75, 12:40-16:50 (11h 10m)
Where do passengers go?
According to Cirium data supplied by airlines, Air Canada had 49,568 roundtrip Montreal-Cairo seats last year. Relating that to booking data suggests it achieved a very strong seat load factor of 94%, helped, of course, by only being summer-seasonal.
Passengers in 2022 can be broken down as flying this:
- To/from Cairo, transiting Montreal: ~56% of passengers
- Point-to-point: (i.e., only between Montreal and Cairo): 35%
- Transiting Montreal and Cairo (‘bridging’): ~5%
- To/from Montreal, transiting Cairo: ~4%
Cairo over Montreal to Toronto was #1
Of the largest category (those transiting Montreal), booking data shows that flying to/from the US was the most popular market, then across wider Canada.
When broken down by airport, Cairo over Montreal to/from Toronto was the leading market, despite EgyptAir’s daily non-stop. It was presumably cheaper to connect in Montreal with Air Canada than to pay the premium for a non-stop. EgyptAir codeshares with Air Canada on Montreal-Toronto.
The next most popular airport-level origin and destination was Cairo-Los Angeles. Booking data suggests that Air Canada carried just under 3,000 roundtrip Los Angeles passengers over Montreal. When split over 190 flights (two ways) last summer, each flight had around 15 passengers traveling to/from California airport.
