I just arrived on an Air Canada flight from New York’s LaGuardia airport. I have two hours to make my connection to Montreal at 20h30. Toronto is Air Canada’s primary hub from which it serves destinations across the globe. Then there’s Vancouver, which serves as an important gateway to the Asia Pacific region, and Montreal, which primarily serves the Francophone market.

Air Canada Transfer US to Domestic

The flight from New York ends at a dedicated pier on the F concourse which handles flights to and from the US. The pier I’m ejected into from the aircraft is either new and still under construction, or a provisional solution. It’s quite a long walk to the transfer area. My first stop is at immigration, where I have to self-declare for customs. Beyond that is the checkpoint to access the domestic airside area. From what I understand, if you’ve arrived in Toronto from the US on Air Canada, there is no need to undergo security screening again. However, if you’ve arrived on another carrier, you will have to clear security again.

The Air Canada Maple Leaf Domestic Lounge on the D Concourse

The Air Canada lounge is located two floors up from the public airside area of the D concourse for domestic departures and is accessible by lift. This lounge is not particularly attractive. It’s crowded and it looks tired and worn. Some of the furnishings are broken in places. I park myself at the long table by the buffet and decide to have a proper dinner before my onward connection. It’ll be late by the time I reach the hotel in Montreal.

The Air Canada Café Toronto

I leave the lounge again fairly soon. It’s really not a very inviting place that makes you want to linger. I head downstairs to the main concourse, and that’s where I spot the Air Canada Café exactly opposite my departure gate at D20. Inside there’s a row of wide, open refrigerators stacked with a variety of cold dishes in take-away containers – things like salads, yogurt with berries, that kind of thing. There are also paper bags, so I’m assuming the idea is that you help yourself and then eat on the plane. I think this is a really clever idea and something that I’m sure would work very well in Europe, where sector lengths tend to be fairly short.

Air Canada Business Class Boarding

Boarding starts thirty minutes before departure. The three wheelchairs board first, and then it’s group 1’s turn, which is Business Class passengers and status card holders. The boarding announcements are made in English and near-incomprehensible French and are barked rather than spoken.

The Air Canada Business Class Cabin & Seat

Well, this looks much nicer than the cabin on the rickety old Embraer that brought me in from LaGuardia on the previous flight. On the Airbus A 220-300 Air Canada has installed a dedicated Business Class cabin with twelve seats on three rows in a 2+2 abreast seating configuration. The seat is wide and comfortable. The seat pitch is good and there is decent storage room in the sides of the seat, under the armrests.

The Air Canada Business Class Servive & Crew

The crew on this flight is really great. The service is done by the purser and a junior cabin crew. The purser is just excellent, jovial and makes very good, crisp, and clear announcements. He’s probably in his early forties and in my biased imagination I’m thinking he must have been a hockey player in a previous career because he’s huge. In his uniform jacket he’s practically square shaped and looks seriously oversized in the A 220’s single-aisle cabin. He hands out small bottles of still water and welcomes each passenger aboard individually. The flight time to Montreal is announced as 55 minutes.

The Air Canada Business Class Snack

Once we’re airborne and the fasten seatbelt sign is turned off, the former hockey player/wall/purser passes through the cabin handing out plush and fluffy hot towels of the epidermis melting heat variety. With a flight time of under one hour, the service is limited to a selection of snacks from a basket, and a drink. I go for a packet of crisps and a glass of ginger ale.

Arrival in Montreal

The flight passes quickly, and soon we’re in the descent to Montreal. By the time we touch down, it’s gone 21h30 and it’s nearly dark. We taxi to our stand on the domestic pier, and the airbridge is quickly moved into position. Domestic arrivals are conveniently located in Montreal. I exit the aircraft, and seven minutes later, I’m already in a taxi taking me to my hotel in old Montreal.