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Air Canada is to begin Vancouver to Bangkok, linking North America and Thailand with the only non-stop service - a significant development. Starting this winter, it will be Air Canada's seventh Asian destination from its Pacific hub in British Columbia.

First Canadian flight in 22 years

According to AeroRoutes, the last time a Canadian carrier served Bangkok was 22 years ago. Canadian Airlines operated Vancouver-Hong Kong-Bangkok until 2000, when Air Canada acquired the airline.

Air Canada's new Bangkok link marks the only non-stop Bangkok-North America service in over a decade. Thai Airways served Bangkok-JFK and Los Angeles, each non-stop. JFK ended in 2008 and Los Angeles in April 2012. It used gas-guzzling A340-500s on the 8,677 miles (13,963km) to JFK and 8,269 miles (13,308km) to Los Angeles. The type was designed for such missions.

There has been a one-stop service more recently. United operated San Francisco-Tokyo Narita-Bangkok until March 2014; UA837/UA838 mainly used B747-400s. Meanwhile, Delta operated Los Angeles-Narita-Bangkok until October 2016, latterly with the B777-200LR.

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Air Canada to Bangkok

The route from Vancouver to Bangkok is some 7,344 miles (11,819km) long. It'll leave Vancouver on December 1st, with the first flight from the Thai capital on the 4th. It'll use B787-9s. Winter is the peak time to visit Thailand.

While the first service from Canada is on a Thursday, it'll then operate to Asia on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, returning on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Ending in mid-April, the schedule is as follows, with all times local:

• Vancouver-Bangkok: AC65, 23:00-05:55+2 days (block time of 15h 55m)
• Bangkok-Vancouver: AC66, 08:30-06:35, arriving back the same day (13h 5m)

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Over 1.4 million people

The market between USA/Canada and Bangkok is enormous. Booking data shows that over 1.4 million people were carried in 2019, the last normal year. (There's no point looking at 2020/2021 data as it'd be absurdly abnormal. Air Canada would have used 2019 figures as it reflects the normal situation, to which we are increasingly returning.) Around 85% of the 1.4 million were to/from the US. Taipei was the leading transit airport, followed by Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul.

With around one in five passengers, Los Angeles-Bangkok was overwhelmingly the most significant market. Next was JFK, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, Toronto, Washington Dulles, Seattle, Newark, and Houston.

It is good that Vancouver featured so highly – it had around 73,000 passengers – as it'll drive point-to-point traffic, subject to fares given it'll be diaspora and tourists that mainly drives demand. P2P traffic is essential as it is higher-yielding than transit traffic. Over 70% of the passengers booked tickets in Canada.

Still, transit will be important too. Most of the ten markets mentioned above (and many more) will be connected on a two-way basis over Vancouver, sometimes with barely 90 minutes to wait.

It's not just passenger volume

The problem of US/Canada-Bangkok is not passenger volume. The problem is average fares in themselves and when related to distance.

Booking data suggests that the average Vancouver-Bangkok-Vancouver fare in winter 2019 was US$408 one-way, excluding fuel surcharges (add 20%+ each way, kept by airlines) and taxes. Despite Vancouver-Bangkok being 57% longer than Vancouver-Tokyo Narita, the latter achieved a 25% higher fare.

Narita's fare per mile was 96% higher than Bangkok's when spread over distance. The Thai capital underperformed from a relatively low proportion of premium demand compounded by a much longer length. It'll be interesting to see how Air Canada performs.

Would you like to fly Air Canada to Bangkok? Let us know in the comments.