Review of Air Canada flight from Toronto to Cancún in Business

Hello Dear Reader,   

This is the report of flight AC 899 from Vienna - Schwechat Internacional Airport (IATA: VIE - ICAO: LOWW) to Toronto - Lester B. Pearson International Airport (IATA: YYZ - ICAO: CYYZ) with Air Canada, member of Star Alliance, in Business class, on Mar/14th.   

This report is from Mar/14th, before the Anti-Corona Virus measures restrict the entering of Passengers in Canada (announced on Mar/16th) and cancel most of the flights.   

Is the flag carrier of Canada, founded in 1937 and is based at Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary Airports. Currently has 185 airplanes (Airbus A200, A320F, A330, Boeing 737, 767, 777, 787 & Embraer E-190) with an average age of 13,4y, operating routes to 222 destinations.   

In 2019 reached a record of 51,5 million passengers.   

Check also the full flight report video including the Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Business Lounge at Toronto Airport:

Departure airport

Toronto Airport is located 20km northwest to the city and has 2 terminals: T1, the 12th largest in the world, is used by Air Canada & Star Alliance Partners and T3 by the other airlines and alliances. With 5 runways, it is the 30th busiest airport in the world and last year handled 50,5 million passengers.   

I arrived from Vienna, with Air Canada, at gate E75 and followed the signs to the transfer area where my passport was checked by an automated machine and I accessed the departures terminal without any additional x-ray or security screening.  

Lounge

I went to the Air Canada Maple Leaf for International Departures.   

The lounge has a 2 wide seating areas, dining area, another area with a self-service bar, private living rooms, a free-mobile phone area. I was in the lounge in the afternoon but they still had 1 hot dish with garnish, salads and dips. 

Boarding

The boarding gate for this flight was the E78 located in the end of the concourse E, on the left side.

The last flight of my airplane was the AC903, from Miami, which had arrived at 14h30, so a rotation of 2h10 minutes was expected.

I boarded the airplane around 14h00.

The boarding started with Business Class and Gold Card members followed by Economy Class.

Flight

This flight was operated by an Airbus A330-343X (fitted with Rolls&Royce Trent 700 engines), Registration C-GHKW, with 18,7 years old and serial number 408. The cabin, with the old configuration, had 9 rows of business class seats, in the configuration 1-1-1, ensuring all the passengers have access to the corridor, with a total of 27 seats, in the first section of the aircraft. The 2nd section starts with 3 rows of Premium Economy seats, on 2-3-2 configuration and a total of 21 seats, followed by the economy class in 2-4-2, except the last 5 rows, with 2-3-2. The total number of seats in Economy class is 224. I was seated at 8A in Business Class. Was the old Business Class seat, was very worn but considering the duration of the flight I consider it very good. Usually Air Canada is using this A330s with the old configuration to operate short flights with an increased capacity.   

Just for curiosity, the last flight of this airplane was on Mar/19th, and was grounded in Montreal.   

Again, the crew was superb and gave me a warm welcome onboard. The purser also introduced herself and we talked about my holiday plans and she gave me some tips in Cancun. 

A pillow, blanket and a seat cover, like on long-haul flight, was offered for this flight.

The crew also distributed headphones from economy class, but considering the length of the flight is ok.   

The aircraft pushed-back 16h42 and taxied to the runway 23. The captain announced our take-off was going to be delayed due to Air Traffic restrictions.   

The actual departure time was at 17h10, 30 after scheduled departure (at 16h40).   

Almost 1 hour after departure, the crew started the dinning service.

Firstly drinks and almonds were served, like on the previous flight, followed by the main course: salad with bell pepper, Texan-style barbecue chicken with cornbread (to be honest, not the best presentation for a business class dish) and cappuccino cheesecake (I think the best part of this meal). 

After it they made the duty free sales. 

The flight was uneventful and I spent my time resting.   

The aircraft landed on Runway 12L at 19h46 (-1h than in Toronto), at Cancun Airport, 1 minute after scheduled arrived (at 19h45)   

I taxied to the stand 39 and arrived there at 19h50.   

The flight time was 3h36 and block time 4h08. 

Arrival Airport

Cancún International Airport, located 15km south of Cancún city center, has 2 runways and 4 terminals: T1 is used usually for Charter flights from Magni Airlines, T2 (gates A and B) for most of the domestic flights, all international flights to Central and South America and a few long-haul flights to Europe. The T3 (Gates C) mostly for North American destinations and some European flights and the T4 for some flights to North America and most of the flights to Europe.   

It is Latin America's fourth and Mexico's second busiest airport, after Mexico City. In 2019 handled 25,5 million passengers, 35% of them where international, (a 1.1% increase compared to 2018).

The disembark was made by the airbridge of gate C14 and I access the Terminal 3 where Air Canada operates.   

I passed the Passport Control (was actually very surprised because the customs officer was very nice and was smiling for me, which is not very common, but is actually the first image we get from the country) and picked up my luggage 20 minutes after in-block.   

Thank you very much for browsing through my flight report,
Fábio Conceição   

(Data source: Airfleets.net, Wikipedia.org, Airports and Airline’s Website)