Air Canada disclosed on 9 May that deliveries of its first Airbus A321XLRs and Boeing 787-10s have been delayed into next year.
Chief financial officer John Di Bert said during the company’s quarterly earnings call that the extra-long-range variant of the A321neo “will be delayed by a few months, with the first aircraft now due to be delivered in 2026”.
The Montreal-based carrier had previously disclosed a fleet renewal plan that foresaw A321XLR deliveries beginning in the fourth quarter and continuing through 2029.
On the widebody side, Di Bert says that Air Canada’s first two 787-10s – the largest variant of Boeing’s flagship widebody – have also been delayed into 2026.
”We are proactively managing and working with our partners to mitigate impacts of the OEM delivery delays in 2026 through 2028,” he says.
Air Canada does not cite a reason for the most-recent aircraft delivery delays, though both Airbus and Boeing have been seeking greater production and supply-chain stability for many months. Both airframers have missed delivery targets, in some cases by years.
Notably, the airline is not expecting a short-term impact on aircraft deliveries related to US-imposed tariffs on Canada and Europe. Air Canada did not respond to a request for comment about the delayed A321XLR and 787-10 deliveries.
Fleets data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows that Air Canada has unfilled orders for 18 787-10s, and options for 12 more.
The carrier also holds firm orders for 30 A321XLRs and options to order another 10 between 2030 and 2032, for a potential 40 of the extra-long-range jets. The incoming narrowbodies will be powered by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) PW1100G geared turbofans (GTFs).
Upon placing the A321XLR aircraft order in March 2022, Air Canada had anticipated receiving its first of the type in early 2024, based on Airbus’ prior expectation of clearing type certification in 2023.
Di Bert says Air Canada now expects to take delivery of its first A321XLR and 787-10 in the first three months of next year, and acknowledges that Air Canada is already “waiting for these aircraft”.
“We’re ready to deploy them,” he says. “We’re managing the business around those parameters and we have been… for a couple of years in anticipation.”
Chief executive Michael Rousseau says that both the A321XLR and 787-10 are “important to our New Frontiers plan, our long-range plan”.
“We’re ready to take them in and leverage them as we go forward.”
Meanwhile, the company says it has reached the “peak” of A220-300s grounded due to Pratt & Whitney’s recall of PW1500G GTFs. Air Canada currently has five A220s in “storage”, meaning they have been grounded for more than 30 days, according to Cirium.
“We look forward to a progressive return to service of our Airbus A220 fleet,” says chief commercial officer Mark Galardo.
Air Canada anticipates taking deliveries of eight A220s and three 737 Max 8s for the remainder of 2025, which would leave it with 42 A220s and 48 737 Max at year-end.
The company lost C$102 million ($73 million) during the first quarter, compared with an C$81 million loss during the same period of last year, as its US and transatlantic markets suffered from a downturn in air traffic.
