Air Canada welcomed the first of its Boeing 767-300ERs converted to cargo planes for its Air Canada Cargo division, marking a return to pure cargo for the airline, which has a long history of transporting cargo around the world.
The first plane, converted to Tel Aviv, Israel, which was already owned by the company itself before being subject to the modification, arrived in Canada last Sunday evening, December 5. The aircraft registered as C-FPCA made a stopover in Shannon, Ireland, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
To celebrate the arrival, Air Canada released an interesting video showing the process of converting the aircraft, including cutting out a large portion of the fuselage to create the cargo door:
Air cargo history on Air Canada
When Trans-Canada Air Lines (TCA) transported its first group of passengers from Vancouver to Seattle on September 1, 1937, the on-board mail bags represented the beginning of Air Canada Cargo.
In 1943, TCA was engaged to transport mail, freight and passengers from Montreal to Scotland, with a stopover in Reykjavik, Iceland. Its inaugural transatlantic cargo flight carried four tonnes of priority cargo.
In 1946, the airline handled cargo on two service lines: “Air Express” for small shipments and “Air Freight” for bulk shipments of a specified minimum weight. The potential for freight arrangements prompted TCA to create a Freight Development Bureau, which introduced a third “air freight” service, giving Canadian retailers, manufacturers and distributors first-time access to transcontinental air freight capacity. .
TCA has also ordered freighters, including a Bristol 170 Mark 31 for an all-cargo route between Montreal, Toronto and New York. Three of the planes were in service from 1953 to 1955, but unfortunately had the shortest career of any aircraft in the TCA fleet, as they were not competitive enough for a transcontinental freight business.
When TCA was renamed Air Canada on New Years Day in 1965, freight traffic was still on the rise and, in addition to acquiring new cargo ships, the company doubled the size of its freight hub in Toronto.
Air Canada quickly began to offer a guaranteed international small parcel service. In 1977 Air Canada Cargo was officially formed and the following year recognized as a separate division within the company, contributing approximately $ 150,000 in operating income.
Over the next several years, Air Canada acquired three Boeing 727-100 cargo aircraft, as well as two Boeing 747 Combis, and later several Douglas DC-8-73Fs.
In the 1980s, Air Canada’s most distinctive cargo paint to date was applied to the DC-8. These freighters remained in service until the 1990s, when Air Canada withdrew its five remaining jets. This marked the end of Air Canada Cargo’s domestic freight network after 34 years of DC-8 flight.
Around this same period, standardized unit loading devices (ULDs) were introduced for the holds of wide-body passenger aircraft, including the Boeing 767s, as well as on the fleet’s narrow-body Airbus A320s. The use of ULDs added the equivalent capacity of four DC-8 freighters to the Air Canada network.
By 2021, even without pure cargo planes, Air Canada Cargo is the largest air cargo service provider in Canada, measured by cargo capacity, with a presence in over 50 countries and with centers in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver. , Chicago, London and Frankfurt.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Air Canada temporarily converted several Boeing 777s and Airbus A330s, removing passenger seats and allowing additional cargo to be carried in the cabin.
Now, in addition to receiving recently converted Boeing 767-300ERs, Air Canada Cargo is expanding and diversifying to include a number of new services, including a partnership with Drone Delivery Canada to help commercialize its drone delivery technology.
With information from Air Canada
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