Air Canada Cancels This 7-Hour Long-Haul Route To Europe: See Map Now

Published Nov 9, 2026, 10:00 AM EST Prachi is a London-based journalist with extensive experience in the aviation industry. She has worked for several leading industry publications, covering a broad range of topics. Her expertise lies in aircraft maintenance, emerging technologies, and advanced air mobility. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Journalism, focusing on data journalism and its potential to transform conventional aviation reporting. Air Canada is the largest airline operating flights between Canada and Europe. It serves more than 40 destinations across the continent, and most of these routes are operated by its mainline fleet. However, the carrier has been making changes to its transatlantic network. For summer 2027, the Star Alliance founding member had planned to transfer three European routes to its leisure subsidiary, Air Canada Rouge. These included services between Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) and Keflavik International Airport (KEF) in Iceland, and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and João Paulo II Airport (PDL) in Ponta Delgada, Portugal. Halifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) to Brussels Airport (BRU) in Belgium also features. However, following its latest weekend schedule update, Air Canada has removed the Halifax–Brussels route altogether. This comes as YHZ is losing other transatlantic services as well for summer 2027. Air Canada Drops Halifax–Brussels After Just One Summer Credit: Great Circle Map Air Canada launched flights between Halifax and Brussels in June 2026, marking the first time the two cities had been connected by nonstop scheduled services. The route operated three times weekly during the summer season until September 5, using Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets. Frequency Flight Route Timing (local) Equipment Tue, Thu, Sat AC2084 YHZ – BRU 8:30 PM – 7:50 AM+1 737 MAX 8 Wed, Fri, Sun AC2085 BRU – YHZ 9:55 AM – 12:10 PM 737 MAX 8 Covering approximately 3,074 miles (4,947 km), it was the airline’s third-longest scheduled route operated by the aircraft type in terms of flight duration, with a block time exceeding seven hours in each direction. Until the latest schedule update, Rouge was due to take over the route on June 17, 2027, running through September 5 with the above-mentioned schedule. A total of 35 departures had been scheduled from the East Coast hub, the same number as in 2026, but these have now been removed. Air Canada will continue to serve Brussels from YUL year-round with daily flights, as well as four-weekly flights from YYZ during the summer season. Halifax Is Losing More Transatlantic Routes Credit: EQRoy | Shutterstock This comes as YHZ has lost several other transatlantic services. Back in September, Simple Flying reported that WestJet was dropping two European routes from the airport, namely Copenhagen Airport (CPH) in Denmark and Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD) in Spain (both were introduced in May only). The airline primarily cited rising jet fuel prices as the reason for withdrawal, although passenger demand and travel patterns also played a part in its decision. For the Denmark route, for instance, it had expected its codeshare agreement with SAS to generate onward connecting traffic across Scandinavia, but relatively few passengers traveled beyond Copenhagen. Halifax Stanfield International Airport Transatlantic Network in Summer 2027* Operator Destination Air Canada London Heathrow, United Kingdom Discover Airlines Frankfurt, Germany Edelweiss Air Zurich, Switzerland WestJet Amsterdam, Netherlands; Barcelona, Spain; Paris, France; Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; London Gatwick, United Kingdom; Lisbon, Portugal *Based on July 2027 schedule Instead, around 62% of passengers reportedly used Copenhagen as their final destination and connected through Halifax to other Canadian cities, including Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver. Madrid showed a similar pattern, as an estimated 67% of passengers traveling on the route connected through Halifax. Besides this, Icelandair has also canceled its service between Halifax and Reykjavík, which it had only resumed in 2024. However, the route had seen capacity reductions over the past two years, which suggests that demand was weaker than expected. More Boeing 737 MAX 8 Routes Are Moving To Air Canada Rouge Credit: Peter Bueno | Shutterstock Whether poor route performance was behind the Brussels cut remains unclear, as Air Canada has not confirmed why it removed the flights from its schedule. With that being said, the Star Alliance member is still planning to expand its European operations next summer. According to aviation analytics company Cirium, both its scheduled flights and seat capacity to Europe will increase compared to summer 2026. From June 1, Rouge will take over the six weekly flights between Montréal and Reykjavik, followed by the three weekly Toronto–Ponta Delgada service from June 17. The leisure subsidiary will also continue operating five weekly flights between Toronto and Reykjavik, as it did this summer. All three routes will use 737 MAX 8 jets and are scheduled to be the Canadian flag carrier's only European services operated by the type next summer. These changes are part of a wider fleet restructuring at Air Canada, which is gradually transferring 45 MAX 8 aircraft from its mainline fleet to its leisure subsidiary. As part of the transition, Rouge is retiring its aging Airbus A319s and transferring its newer Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft to the mainline operation.