Air Canada has ordered eight Airbus A350-1000s that will begin to arrive in 2030, ending a decades-long reliance on Boeing 777-300ERs for its long-haul operations. The A350-1000 has a maximum range of 9,000 nautical miles (16,668 km) and will become the airline's flagship, complementing the A321XLRs now joining the fleet. Powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines and built around a composite airframe, the A350 is dramatically more efficient than the 777, burning roughly 25% less fuel per seat. Its cabin can be set to a lower 6,000-foot (1,828.8 m) altitude with enhanced humidity controls, reducing jet lag on flights of 17 hours or more.
The order is driven in large part by geopolitics. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Canada, the US, the UK and the EU banned Russian aircraft from their skies, and Russia barred NATO-aligned nations from its airspace, cutting off the Siberian corridors that carry the shortest Great-Circle routes between North America and Asia. Air Canada added a fuel stop in London to its Vancouver–Delhi service, turning a 14-hour nonstop journey into two flights of about nine and eight hours with a stop of one to two hours. On existing long routes such as Vancouver–Delhi, the 777 often faces strict weight restrictions that force the airline to leave behind passengers or cargo to carry enough fuel — a limitation the A350 removes.
Air Canada passed on the Boeing 777-9 instead. Its current fleet of 19 Boeing 777s is rapidly aging, with an average age now over 16 years, while the 777-9 program has suffered years of rolling setbacks and testing delays, pushing it to 2027 or later. The 777-9 is a super heavy twinjet with a maximum takeoff weight of 775,000 pounds, and its size works against it on Air Canada's longer routes through Russian airspace compared with the A350. The A350-1000 is also narrower than the 777-300ER — 18 feet, five inches (5.61 m) against 19 feet, three inches (5.87 m) — and carries fewer belly cargo containers, up to about 40 against the 777's 44, a trade-off Air Canada accepted for range and efficiency.