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
