Air Canada has announced Vancouver to Miami, reconnecting the two airports after an 18-year absence. The route is a significant decision. Not only was Miami Vancouver's second-largest unserved US destination (behind only Fort Lauderdale), but Vancouver was overwhelmingly Miami's largest unserved Canadian market.

What's happening?

Beginning just before Christmas on December 17th, the 2,801-mile (4,507km) route to Miami will use 169-seat B737 MAX 8s. These have 16 business class recliners and 153 seats in economy. Miami will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays with the following schedule (all times are local). It is likely to be year-round.

  • Vancouver to Miami: AC1034, 08:20-17:06 (5h 46m block time)
  • Miami to Vancouver: AC1035, 18:00-21:45 (6h 45m)

US Department of Transportation data shows that Vancouver-Miami was last served by Air Canada between July 2001 (that fateful year) and April 2004 on a low-frequency basis, primarily by the A319. It replaced American, which ran 1x daily from May 1996 to February 1997, mainly by the B757-200.

Vancouver to Miami
Miami will be Vancouver's longest US route, even beating those to Hawaii. Image: GCMap.

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A look at Vancouver-Miami

According to booking data, Vancouver-Miami had about 56,000 roundtrip point-to-point (P2P) passengers in 2019, equating to passengers daily each way (PDEW) of 77. It is a solid P2P market in itself. It had an average one-way fare of over US$300 (excluding any fuel surcharges and taxes).

In addition, Fort Lauderdale, up the road from Miami, had 76,000 (PDEW of 104). Air Transat launched a 2x weekly Vancouver-Fort Lauderdale service in December 2019, but the pandemic meant it only lasted until March 2020.

Flight search data from Kiwi.com, which provides intelligence for new route opportunities and underserved markets, shows that the market had 567,000 annual searches pre-pandemic. Searches from Vancouver for July and August were primarily driven by cruise demand, while those in Miami were keen to visit the mountains and nature of British Columbia. In December, searches were mainly from Canada for the warm weather of South Florida.

Boeing_737-8_Max_Air_Canada_C-FSJJ_(29091944097)
The MAX 8 will be used. Photo: Mark Harkin via Flickr.

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What Vancouver says

While I was at anna.aero, I wrote an article about the potential of this route. I spoke to Russ Atkinson, Director of Air Service Development at the Vancouver Airport Authority. He said that:

Vancouver has been analyzing the Miami opportunity for quite some time... we are now the largest North American market without a direct service to Miami. While the local Miami P2P demand represents an opportunity in itself... the unserved route represents a missing piece in our strategy of connecting Canada to the world and in connecting Asia-Pacific to the Americas.

Air Canada will focus on the P2P demand and connectivity between Miami and Auckland, Brisbane, Hong Kong, and Sydney. Air Canada's schedule means more Asian destinations aren't reachable on a two-way basis. These four destinations had around 51,000 Miami passengers and are reachable with a quick connection in Vancouver.

Air Canada Miami over Vancouver
Miami to Hong Kong over Vancouver is just 2% longer than a non-stop would be. It's 11% for Brisbane, 13% for Sydney, and 22% for Auckland. Image: GCMap.

Better with American?

Of course, things could be different. Suppose American were to serve Vancouver from its enormous Miami Latin America hub. It could target P2P demand and the 750,000+ passengers to/from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean (data excluding Mexico). But it's great that the two airports will finally be reconnected.

What are your thoughts about the route? Let us know in the comments.