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Air Canada to operate B777-300ER with new business seats and ten-across in economy

Published: 07/02/2013 - Filed under: News »

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Air Canada’s new B777-300ERs (it has five of these planes on order for delivery this year and next) will see the carrier return to a three-class layout.

With these new planes, Air Canada will change the business class layout, moving away from its existing herringbone configuration, and the carrier will also introduce a premium economy cabin. 

But the downside is that the carrier will join the “ten across club” with denser 3-4-3 seating (compared with today’s 3-3-3 layout) in the rear cabin zone.

Details of the new B777-300ER’s configuration are now posted on the carrier’s website here (click on "Three cabin configuration").

All told Air Canada’s new B777-300ER will accommodate a whopping 458 passengers. This is probably the highest number of seats installed on any carrier’s B777-300ER seen to date, with the exception of Air France services to overseas departments, as flagged up by a reader below.

Indeed it is on a par with the number of seats other airlines install on their double-decker A380s. Korean Air configures its superjumbo for 409 passengers, while Singapore Airlines has two configurations for its A380 aircraft - one with 407 seats and another with 471.

Business class will be configured with six or four-across depending on the row number while premium economy will be eight across 2-4-2.

All told there will be 36 seats in business, 24 in premium economy and 398 in the economy cabin.

The new plane’s first route is scheduled for the popular Montreal to Paris CDG route with a provisional starting date sometime in July. The flights to be operated are the overnight service AC870 from Montreal, returning on daytime flight AC871 from Paris CDG.

For more information visit aircanada.com.

Report by Alex McWhirter

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COMMENTS » 

sparkyflyer - 07/02/2013 14:01

Sounds truly awful. A colleague of mind is due to go to Canada in a few months, and goes quite regularly, so I hope he will miss this new 10 across battery hen plan. In any case I will advise him accordingly!

alastair00 - 07/02/2013 15:03

Emirates uses this 10-row seating plan on their 777-300ER aircraft. It is not the most pleasant of experiences...

EricYuDysanco - 07/02/2013 15:32

Just awful! Shame on Air Canada to squeeze more passengers into their 777-300ERs at the expense of the passengers comfort!

LetsFlyNow - 07/02/2013 16:45

458!!!!!!! Almost unbelievable. Cattle class will probably have those thin LH seats on 747/748 allowing for higher capacity.

Premium economy will probably have more leg room as i can't imagine how a 2-4-2 configuration is worth being called premium eco.

sparkyflyer - 07/02/2013 17:13

I have mentioned on this site before how awful 10 across was on a 777 LHR to DXB, and this put me off EK , so not even tempted with their F & J products.

On further examination of the article and link to the AC seat plan, it is even more ghastly than first thought, as they are reducing the seat pitch, so less leg, knee and arm/elbow room!

sjldtlon1 - 07/02/2013 17:51

There is 1 lavatory to every 20 passengers in Executive First and 1 lavatory to every 66 passengers in Economy.

I shudder at the thought...

Ab0dache - 07/02/2013 18:05

Air France services the overseas departments of France with B777 300 having 468 seats.
Those planes have then more than 458 seats for a 8 to 11 hours twice daily "domestic" services to Pointe-à-pitre, Fort de France, Saint-denis de la Réunion or Cayenne.
These planes are also used to some "leisure" destination such as Bangkok or sometimes Montréal in the summer.

And Air France is leading in terms of seats offered on the route Montréal-CDG.

This is probably why Air Canada starts to put this new aircrafty configuration on the same route. In a way, it is still slighty a better configuration than AF (?!) Here they know they will not compete againts a better seat configuration.

TamsynGlosslie - 14/02/2013 14:17

Absolutely ghastly plan from Air Canada! I remember when it was pleasant to fly this airline. Unfortunately, I need to fly to Toronto every year. Although inconvenient to switch to other airlines as I prefer to fly out of London, I will find a way in the future.

KSHaggag - 14/02/2013 15:32

Sparkflyer !

EK has always been the best airline at squeezing passengers in all cabins so far !...

Arcanum - 14/02/2013 23:54

@Tamsyn - There is non-stop service from London to several major cities in Canada on BA.

2Toronto - 16/02/2013 02:38

AC Longhaul sucks. Even j class is a joke. Rather fly YYZ-LHR on BA, or detour on LH or even LX via New York. I was once tempted to fly via DXB as rebuttal to AC-EK dispute.

pitr134 - 01/03/2013 10:19

Shame on you Air Canada!!! I will have to choose other airline!

eejp1007 - 03/04/2013 08:26

The only one with more seats on a 777-300 I can think of is ANA with a whopping 514 but these are only used on domestic services so usually nothing more than a couple of hours with the odd 3 hour leg to Okinawa.

https://www.ana.co.jp/dom/inflight/seatmap/773/

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