Oz non-stop a Vancouver first
Gordon Clark
Province
Air Canada’s long-range Boeing 777, top, offers lie-flat beds on flights down under. Photograph by : Reuters
Air Canada will soon become the world’s first airline to offer daily, non-stop service between Vancouver and Sydney, Australia.
The service, scheduled to launch Dec. 14, was among several routes announced yesterday that will be served by the airline’s new fleet of 18 long-range Boeing 777-200LR and 777-300ER aircraft.
Daniel Shurz, Air Canada’s vice-president of marketing, said the new planes are among the most advanced wide-body aircraft currently flying, offering ranges of up to 17,446 kilometres, tremendous fuel efficiency and luxurious new appointments, such as business-class seats that convert into lie-flat beds — a first for a North American airline — and personal seatback entertainment systems for each passenger.
“They are very efficient aircraft,” Shurz said of the twin-engine aircraft that airlines are using to replace less fuel-efficient four-engine jets such as Boeing 747s and Airbus A340s.
He said the lie-flat beds and personal video systems that provide 80 hours of video and 50 hours of audio on demand should ease travel on flights that can exceed 14 hours in length, such as the new Sydney run.
The new non-stop flight, which will take about 15 hours southbound and 14 hours northbound, cuts three hours off the current routing with a stop in Honolulu.
But the business-class price of $5,808 for a one-way ticket to Sydney will make lying in the new bed-seats an expensive night’s sleep.
Air Canada will launch Boeing 777 service out of Vancouver in July when a pair of the aircraft enter service on the Vancouver-Tokyo run.
Other routes that will be served by the new aircraft include Toronto-London Heathrow, beginning next month, Toronto-Frankfurt and Toronto-Tokyo, beginning in June, and Toronto-Hong Kong, beginning in August.
The new aircraft — which will have 42 business-class seats and either 228 (200LR) or 307 (300ER) economy-class seats, will replace Air Canada’s current fleet of Airbus A340s, which will be phased out of service over the next 13 months. In addition, Air Canada has 14 Boeing 787 aircraft on order that will begin delivery in 2010.
In November 2005, a Boeing 777-200LR set a new world record for distance travelled non-stop by a commercial jetliner, travelling 21,601 km eastbound from Hong Kong to London on a flight of 22 hours and 42 minutes.
© The Vancouver Province 2007