This occasion and spotting trip should've happened last month, and I'm referring to Air Canada bringing back their seasonal-daily flights between Portland and Toronto, which was transferred over to their low-cost subsidiary, Air Canada Rouge. Originally slated to reinstate/inaugurate flights on May 24, Air Canada pushed back the start date until today due to the airline having to enact on mitigation measures which include schedule changes, temporary route suspensions, and fleet utilization as a result of the ongoing worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet, of which Air Canada currently have over 20 in their fleet not flying. But the new Air Canada Rouge service between Portland and Toronto have finally started today with the inaugural arrival and it's another exciting new sight in terms of airline colors at PDX!
Air Canada Rouge is a low-cost subsidiary airline owned by Air Canada. Established in December 2012 with flights beginning on July 1, 2013 from eastern hubs at Montréal and Toronto, Rouge flights are integrated into the Air Canada mainline and Air Canada Express networks, with fares being sold with Air Canada flight numbers in a manner similar to how regional flights are listed and handled. Air Canada Rouge was established in order to help the mainline parent company to compete more efficiently with other low-cost carriers in Canada such as Air Transat, Sunwing, and WestJet in the leisure and vacation travel market, largely operating routes to Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. Air Canada transferred two Airbus A319s and two Boeing 767s from their mainline fleet when they launched the Rouge subsidiary. Within a year and a half after launching, the Air Canada Rouge fleet rapidly expanded to a fleet of 28 aircraft, which also saw the addition of the A321 to the fleet, and the airline began service out of western Canada to predominately serve leisure markets from Vancouver and Calgary to various destinations in the western United States and Asia.
Today, Air Canada Rouge predominantly fly to leisure destinations in Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Mexico, and the United States with a fleet of 60 aircraft consisting of the Airbus A319, A320 (which is a new addition as of this year, all coming from Mexican low-cost carrier, Interjet), and A321 for short to medium-haul routes and the Boeing 767-300ER for the long-haul routes; the airline expects to have fleet total of 64 aircraft by the end of 2019.
Portland (PDX) 46
Preview:
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900/ER (N297AK) arriving on 28R as ASA140 from Anchorage. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-932/ER (N865DN) arriving on 28R as DAL725 from Minneapolis/St. Paul. |
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| Compass Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N602CZ) airborne off 28R as CPZ5842 for Seattle/Tacoma. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-932/ER (N862DN) arriving on 28R as DAL2618 from New York-JFK. |
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| United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N4901U) airborne off 28R as UAL2233 for San Francisco. Formerly registered as B-6275 with China Southern Airlines. |
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| Icelandair Boeing 757-256 (TF-FIR) "Vatnajökull" taxiing for departure as ICE662 for Reykjavik-Keflavik. Great to see this livery again! |
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| Jazz Air (d/b/a Air Canada Express) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-FSRN) airborne off 28R as JZA8126 for Vancouver. |
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| ICE662 airborne off 28R, homeward bound to Reykjavik-Keflavik. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N793SA) airborne off 28R as SWA6961 for San Diego. |
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| Learjet 55 (N69VH) airborne off 28R. |
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| United Airlines Airbus A319-131 (N829UA) airborne off 28R as UAL611 for Denver. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N530AS) arriving on 28R as ASA309 from San Jose. |
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| Spirit Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N631NK) taxiing for departure as NKS293 for Las Vegas. |
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| United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N494UA) vacating 28R after arriving as UAL251 from Washington-Dulles. |
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| NKS293 airborne off 28R headed for Las Vegas. |
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| Air Canada Rouge Airbus A319-112 (C-GITR) arriving on 28R as ROU1841 from Toronto-Pearson. The inaugural arrival of Air Canada Rouge into Portland as well as the resumption of Air Canada's seasonal service to Toronto for 2019! Although this year's flights started a month later than originally scheduled. My first time seeing the Rouge livery! |
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| Rouge replaces mainline E-190s from previous years. Flights will still be once-daily for the summer season with the arrival during the evening hours and the departure back to Toronto is on the following morning after the A319 makes an overnight stay in Portland. Scheduled to depart back to Toronto tomorrow morning as ROU1840. Welcome to Portland, Air Canada Rouge! |
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| United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N452UA) airborne off 28R as UAL1460 for San Francisco. |
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| GMJ Air Shuttle Embraer EMB-145XR ERJ-145XR (N386AZ) clearing 28R as A4 after arriving as HGT4112 from San Jose. Used to shuttle employees of Intel between Hillsboro and other Intel sites in California and Arizona. My first time seeing one of these ERJ-145 operations! These flights are usually operated out of Hillsboro, but the main runway there is undergoing a repaving project, hence the "High Tech" call-sign being heard at PDX for the time being. |
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| Frontier Airlines Airbus A320-251N (N350FR) "Miracle the Seagull" getting towed to the remote ramp. Arrived earlier in the evening from Denver as FFT793 and was scheduled to return to Denver as FFT794; however the return-flight was cancelled this evening. |
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| Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-214 (N842VA) departing on 28L as ASA1642 for Las Vegas. Formerly "reel steel" with Virgin America. |
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| Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A321-271N (N214HA) "Kukui" arriving on 28L as HAL26 from Honolulu. This is actually my first time seeing a Hawaiian Airlines arrival into PDX and such an opportunity is only available during this time of year when the daylight hours are much longer. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N188SY) arriving on 28L as SKW3307 from Salt Lake City. |
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| United Parcel Service - UPS Airlines Airbus A300F4-622R (N145UP) taxiing for departure as UPS975 for Ontario. Check out the double beacon light! |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-73V (N7840A) arriving on 28L as SWA990 from Oakland. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N182SY) departing on 28L as SKW3479 for Boise. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N520AS) taxiing for departure as ASA534 for Los Angeles. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N514AS) arriving on 28L as ASA834 from Honolulu. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N289CT) taxiing for departure as SWA6560 for Oakland. |
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| UPS975 departing on 28L for Ontario. |
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