Air Canada and United Airline are adding a pair of new transborder routes between the USA and Canada and beefing up service on existing routes as part of a closer partnership in 2023.
As Air Canada And United Strengthen Relationship, Two New Routes Added As Well As Coordinated 2023 Schedule
United and Air Canada are not only joint venture partners on select transatlantic routes, but also joint venture partners for transborder travel between the USA and Canada. That means, to put it simply, that not only do the two carriers coordinate schedules and sell codeshares, but they share revenue on a number of routes.
Planning on a continued post-pandemic rebound in travel demand, United and Air Canada have announced two new routes for summer 2023 including:
- Washington Dulles (IAD) ⇄ Calgary (YYC) – operated by United Airlines
- Washington Dulles (IAD) ⇄ Vancouver (YVR) – operated by Air Canada
The flights will operate according to the following schedule:
|
Flight |
Departs | Arrives | Frequency |
|
AC 1036 |
Vancouver 8:15 | Washington 16:16 | Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun |
|
AC 1037 |
Washington 17:10 | Vancouver 20:01 | Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun |
| UA 2221 | Calgary 13:30 | Washington 19:54 |
Daily |
|
UA 1125 |
Washington 9:00 | Calgary 11:59 |
Daily |
In total, United and Air Canada plan 80 transborder codeshare routes and more than 260 daily flights. This represents a 20% capacity increase versus summer 2022. Highlights include “shuttle service” in the following markets:
|
Route |
Frequency | First Departure | Last Departure |
|
Toronto-Chicago |
13- times Daily
|
06:30 | 21:15 |
|
Chicago-Toronto |
07:10 | 21:15 | |
|
Toronto-New York/Newark |
16-times Daily
|
06:15 |
21:00 |
| New York/Newark-Toronto | 06:00 |
20:15 |
|
| Vancouver-San Francisco |
11-times Daily
|
07:00 |
21:00 |
|
San Francisco-Vancouver |
06:45 |
21:00 |
Vancouver will also see an increase in service:
- Chicago (ORD) – 3 daily flights
- Houston (IAH) – 3 daily flights
- Los Angeles (LAX) – up to 7 daily flights
- Newark (EWR) – 3 daily flights
Other highlights:
- Calgary (YYC) ⇄ Chicago – 2 daily flights
- Calgary ⇄ Houston – 2 daily flights
- Edmonton (YEG) ⇄ Denver – 2 daily flights
Finally, note that neither United nor Air Canada have announced any sort of reciprocal upgrade program on these flights for frequent flyers, which often marks JV relationships. The new routes and schedules are subject to regulatory approval.
CONCLUSION
After signing a transborder joint venture agreement in July 2022, United and Air Canada are coordinating schedules for summer 2023 schedule. In so doing, the carriers will increase service on many routes and add a pair of new flights from Washington Dulles.
Good to see more trans acceptance, everyone is welcome
Aaron is finally gonna travel and book these trans routes.
Sometimes, it’s cheaper to have a self-connecting ticket through YYZ via UA/AC. I know near the end of last year, I had to go the west coast a few times and saw that it was cheaper than traditional transcons in J this way and still got to the west coast in a lie-flat seat.
Great to see that this partnership is getting stronger. Just hope that the ground customer service for both of these airlines also improve…
What is a self-connecting ticket? Is this where you fly between two points in the US through a connection in YYZ, which cannot be booked on one ticket due to US laws?
Basically a self-connection is where you book two tickets and have to connect by yourself (i.e recheck bags, check-in again, etc) on the form of ABC-DEF and booking another ticket DEF-GHI.
US and Canadian airlines do not sell tickets where it is US-Canada-US or Canada-US-Canada because it breaks some law or something, but you can self connect seamlessly if you fly with *A carriers because YYZ Terminal 1 doesn’t have you go through Canadian customs and you just need to go through US customs to reenter the US and say that you’re just transiting.
9 daily flights between IAH and YVR? That is not right. I see 3 daily flights max in the schedule with 2 operated by UA and 1 operated by AC. The numbers for YVR are incorrect in this article as the UA press release doesn’t even mention that.
Ditto with EWR.
There are three daily flights during the summer.
And AC is all Max 8 they used to put Dreamliners on that route.
No way they increase to 9.
All those frequencies mentioned on the article are correct. Just do a search on united.com for lets say 7/12/23.
EWR-YYZ 16 a day (9 UA Express and 7 AC Jazz)
ORD- YYZ 13 a day (3 UA Express, 3 UA and 7 AC Jazz)
SFO-YVR 11 a day ( 2 UA Express, 4 UA, 4 AC Jazz and 1 AC)
LAX-YVR 7 a day (2 UA and 5 AC)
There are 3 a day IAH-YVR, just as mentioned on the article.
I sure hope this relationship has worked out all of the bugs. I flew Air Canada on a booked United flight in 2018 and they double booked my seat. I was picked off at the last minute since I was told even with status an Air Canada ticket has priority. Air Canada told me I couldn’t get out for three days but thanks to United they got me home two hours later. Air Canada paid me $325 (exchange rate) and United called asking for details since they were building a case to break their deal with Air Canada at the time. I won’t take my chance again with Air Canada again since this my one time experience with them.
Having flown ORD – YYZ – ORD earlier this week on a UA-booked AC Jazz flight, and having a couple of Toronto trips on my calendar for later this year, I’m excited about this. There’s nothing like 13-daily service to ensure that 1) I can accommodate my business schedule easily and 2) that I’m not stuck at Pearson due to Act Of Dog. Thank you, you Star Alliance founder members. And thank you, AC, for your lounge at YYZ pre-clearance. Nice place, but as other sites have said, unbelievably crowded.