Air Canada is Bringing 33+ Year Old Boeing 767s Out of Retirement That Were Grounded in 2020

Air Canada is planning to pull two 33+ year-old Boeing 767s out of retirement after grounding the jets at the start of the pandemic in early 2020 as it seeks to boost capacity to meet demand in the coming years.

Rather than having the planes scrapped as many airlines did with their aging aircraft in the early days of the pandemic, Air Canada decided to send its unwanted passenger 767s into long-term storage in a desert facility near Phoenix, Arizona.

Earlier this year, however, Air Canada had two of its 767s moved from Arizona to Hamilton, where they are being prepared for a reentry back to service in 2025.

One of the 767s is 33 years old, while the second is 34 years old. Both jets are configured with a total of 211 seats each, with 24 Business Class seats and 187 Economy Class seats.

Over the years, Air Canada has operated a total of 65 Boeing 767s, but since the pandemic, the only 767s in the airline’s fleet have been six freighter 767s. The idea of Air Canada bringing back the passenger variant of the jet seemed pretty hard to believe.

Air Canada is planning to refresh its fleet with a variety of newer aircraft, including one Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner which is expected to be delivered in 2025, and 18 stretched 787-10 Dreamliners that will join the Air Canada fleet between 2026 and 2029.

Over the next four years, Air Canada also plans to take delivery of as many as 30 Airbus A321XLR jets, 27 Airbus A220s and 12 Boeing 737MAX jets.

It’s not like Air Canada isn’t busy taking delivery of new jets to boost capacity, but both Airbus and Boeing have experienced pretty significant delays in delivering new aircraft, and this has left a number of airlines in trouble as they scrabble to maintain or boost capacity after scrapping planes during the pandemic.

The plan to return aging Boeing 767s back into service probably wasn’t Air Canada’s first choice, but the strategic decision to place the aircraft into longterm storage rather than having them scrapped has seemingly paid off rather than being forced to curtail capacity due to supply chain constraints across the industry.