5th freedom flying

[schnitzel2k3]

Can anybody explain to me a Canadian airline doing international 5th freedom flying like we live in the desert?

I'm guessing this was the request for widebody crews to increase their monthly credits to 'capture all the flying'.

I would imagine for those that wish to overnight and tour around this isn't a bad option, but still, very strange. I thought AC used to serve Mumbai direct?

I wonder what BA thinks of this.

[AstroPants]

Probably Russian airspace?

[Inverted2]

Weren’t they also doing Hong Kong turns out of Seoul so no crew had to do layovers there because the ChiComs detained a crew that tested positive for the vid?

[schnitzel2k3]

The Russian airspace does seem plausible.

I guess Mumbai is such a money maker, that to stop serving it for the foreseable future while the conflict sorts itself out, would be to big a big blow to revenue.

The funny thing is, if you modify the route slightly to overfly england and then direct, it actually (for todays weather) has a shorter direct enroute time, despite 200nm of extra distance.

[altiplano]

AC has numerous 5th freedom rights around the world, also in SE Asia and South America. They have long operated EZE as a 5th freedom from SCL and GRU.

They are choosing to enact this one largely because they are being forced to make a stop due to Russian airspace avoidance. Might as well pick up a few folks if you have the right to it.

5th freedom rights are give/take other countries have rights in Canada in return. Cathay long operated YVR-JFK until the pandemic and it's own issues, PAL operated YVR-LAS and other US markets, Jet Airways operated LHR-YYZ, I'm sure there are more examples of 5th freedom into/thru Canada.

The ICN stagingd were not 5th freedom flights, they were tech stops due to the China covid imprisonment on layover issues.

[Crewbunk]

I wonder what BA thinks of this.

I wonder what AC thought of BA (both as BOAC and British Airways) flying YUL-ORD, YYZ-DTW, YUL-DTW, YYZ-JFK, etc. BA has enjoyed fifth freedom rights through Canada for more than 6 decades!

[schnitzel2k3]

I wonder what BA thinks of this.

I wonder what AC thought of BA (both as BOAC and British Airways) flying YUL-ORD, YYZ-DTW, YUL-DTW, YYZ-JFK, etc. BA has enjoyed fifth freedom rights through Canada for more than 6 decades!

I certainly didn't realize it was as common as it is. My first post was wondering what happened with the direct India flights - and there didn't seem to be an obvious reason for the stop in Heathrow. All those hubs that BA flies to out of Toronto probably have more consistent loads going back to Heathrow.