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Air Canada is ripping seats out of 3 of its largest jets to turn them into cargo planes. See inside the new Boeing 777 temporary conversions.
Air Canada is ripping seats out of 3 of its largest jets to turn them into cargo planes. See inside the new Boeing 777 temporary conversions.
Thomas PalliniApr 14, 2020, 20:37 IST
Air CanadaInside an Air Canada Boeing 777-300ER.
Air Canada is taking its cargo-only flights to the next level with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft reconfigured to hold cargo in passenger cabins.
The process entails removing economy and premium economy cabin seats to store additional cargo, bringing the aircraft's total freight capacity to nearly 90 metric tons.
Three aircraft will receive the temporary conversion with the first two already being deployed to cities in Asia.
Air Canada, like many global airlines, decided to make the shift to cargo-only flights once the demand for passenger travel dried up.
Without a dedicated cargo fleet, the Canadian flag carrier began flying its passenger jets with underbellies full of freight and empty passenger cabins above, until the potential of the underused cabins was realized.
To maximize cargo capacity on its largest jets, three Boeing 777-300ER planes will have their passenger seats removed to create more space for potential freight. While airliners are no stranger to cargo conversions, as seen with many of the freighters flying today, this temporary setup will preserve the cabin's integrity while the cargo is flown.
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The reconfiguration process is currently ongoing with two returning to service after the short stay near Montreal at Mirabel Airport.
The trio will deploy to global destinations primarily in Europe and Asia to bring home well-needed medical supplies as Canada weathers the COVID-19 that's hit close to home with nearly 25,000 reported cases, including the First Lady of Canada, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau.
Take a look inside Air Canada's new Boeing 777-300ER freighters.
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Three of Air Canada's Boeing 777-300ERs, the carrier's largest plane, will undergo the reconfiguration to fly freight in both passenger cabins and cargo holds.
In the past month alone, the carrier has flown 40 cargo-only flights and is aiming for 20 per week moving forward. The three reconfigured 777s will join the existing fleet of standard configuration 777 and 787 Dreamliner aircraft flying primarily to Europe and Asia.
Each aircraft with have four cargo zones with the business class cabins remaining untouched with seats left intact. The maximum weight of each zone varies but hovers around 3,000 pounds.
The conversions are being performed by Avianor at the firm's facility at Montreal's Mirabel Airport. The cabin reconfiguration specialist designed and implemented the concept in six days, quickly clearing it with Canada's aviation regulator Transport Canada.
Lightweight boxes will be placed in the cabin with heftier cargo being loaded into the hold below. As no major modifications beyond the seat removal are being performed, the cabin is limited in what it can carry.
Loading the passenger cabin also isn't as easy as the hold since all boxes must be able to pass through the narrower boarding doors that aren't designed for freight.
Air Canada isn't the first carrier to hold cargo in its passenger cabin but is one of the few to reconfigure entire aircraft to do so.
The new configuration allows the aircraft to fly nearly 90 metric tons of cargo across both platforms, the equivalent of 9 million masks or enough to cover just over a fourth of Canada's population.
