Air Canada says it wants to fly a lot more US passengers on long-haul international flights through its hub airports in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver as part of an ambitious plan to add $900 million in additional revenue to its bottom line.
The airline currently serves more than 60 destinations throughout the United States, and it wants passengers who are looking for a long-haul international flight in these cities to consider connecting through Canada rather than choosing a more expensive non-stop flight or connecting through another US hub.
During an annual Investor Day presentation on Tuesday, Air Canada said that 80% of the US to International market could efficiently connect through its hub cities with flight distances the same or close to the non-stop option.
For example, flying from Detroit to Barcelona, Spain, with a stopover in Toronto, would cover the exact same distance as the non-stop option, while someone flying from Philadephia to Osaka, Japan, would only travel 11 miles further if they connected in Toronto.
While Toronto is Air Canada’s global hub, Montreal would act as its transatlantic hub, connecting cities like Cincinnati to Athens and St. Louis to Madrid, in the same distance as non-stop flight options.
Meanwhile, Vancouver is Air Canada’s transpacific hub, able to get passengers flying from Austin to Seoul, South Korea, in nearly the same distance as a non-stop flight.
Air Canada believes as many as 366,000 US passengers could efficiently connect through its Canadian hub airports per day on what are known as ‘sixth freedom flights.’
A sixth freedom flight is when an airline from Country A carries passengers from Country B to Country C via its home country.
The US market is, of course, already inundated with sixth-freedom operators, although the connecting part of the journey normally happens a lot closer to the final destination.
For example, many European airlines operate sixth freedom flights, transporting passengers from cities across the United States to destinations throughout Europe, with a connection in their respective home hubs.
The same is true for Emirates and Qatar Airways, which transport passengers to the Middle East and destinations throughout the region.
At present, Air Canada only accounts for 1% of the US’ sixth freedom market, but it wants to at least double that market share as part of its ‘New Frontiers’ business strategy.
Of course, one of the issues with Sixth Freedom flights is the very fact that passengers have to connect in a third city – a process that not only takes time but increases the risk of delays, causing havoc with someone’s itinerary.
Air Canada will need to prove that it can efficiently connect passengers through its hubs with the shortest possible connections and as few misconnects as possible.
That’s perhaps why, however, Air Canada is looking to tap into the market of US cities that don’t have non-stop flight options and already require a connecting flight for many international destinations.
It would be nice if you could connect in Canada when flying on a US to US itinerary. Something like RDU-YYZ-SEA would be great.
I have often used Toronto as a connecting point from Philadelphia to Japan and the found the experience okay. I think they would need to work on the connecting process and make it more pleasant for those with U.S. citizenship to make the connection in time. I remember the lines being terrible. The other issue is that the weather in Toronto can be absolutely horrible in Winter
I don’t connect through Canada because it requires additional passport control and customs clearance in Canada each direction. Neither Canada nor the USA recognizes international transit passengers. Absent a change in that policy in Canada, good luck Air Canada.