Air Canada has formally retired its fleet of Boeing 767s after flying various iterations of the type for almost 38 years. It’s last revenue flight with Boeing’s first two-aisle, two-engine airliner came June 2 when one operated Rapidair’s Flight AC439 shuttle from Montreal to Toronto. The short hop was not a typical use for 767s. Between 1982 and 1996 the airline bought 25 of the aircraft, using them mostly on long-haul routes. The main line had only five 767s left by the time it ended flights but its budget spinoff Rouge had 25 and all of them are being sent to the desert, too.
Like most airlines, Air Canada is getting rid of its older, less efficient aircraft in the wake of the decimation of air travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Airlines all over the world are slashing destinations and frequencies amid predictions that air travel will not reach 2019 levels until at least 2022. Air Canada flew its 767s a lot and one of its airframes was retired with more than 138,000 hours on it. It’s being converted for freight by its new owner. It’s most famous 767, C-GAUN, better known as the Gimli Glider, was retired in 2013, 30 years after Capt. Robert Pearson and FO Maurice Quintal deadsticked it to a rough, but successful emergency landing at a decommissioned military base in Gimli, Manitoba.