Review of Air Canada Rouge flight Orlando → Toronto in Economy

from the 407 to the 416

Welcome to my report of Air Canada Rouge from Orlando MCO to Toronto YYZ.

The route is currently operated by Boeing 767's and A319's multiple times daily. Rouge, along with other Canadian carriers including mainline Air Canada, Westjet, Sunwing, AirTransat and SWOOP, all use gates in the same concourse. Occasionally Rouge have aircraft swaps with mainline which I was hoping happened on my flight as it has before on the YYZ-BGI flight (77W,789). 

The price for this flight was $350USD and I opted for the bigger rouge variant which offers lightly more legroom over the A319. A few week prior I had flown down on SWOOP from YHM which you should check out after reading this report. I hope you enjoy.

AIRCRAFT & FLIGHT DETAILS
Aircraft Registration: C-GHLA
Aircraft Type: Boeing 767-35H(ER)
Operator: Air Canada Rouge
Delivered: 2016
MSN: 26387
STD: 10:35 AM
ATD: 12:44 PM
ETA: 1:16 PM
ATA: 2:59 PM
Flight Time: 2:15

terminal & departure

I arrived at MCO around 7:30AM, early enough to try to beat the peak TSA lines. To my surprise the airport was relatively moderate with 15-20 minutes waits at TSA. Air Canada had sent an email prior to desk check-in notifying that our aircraft would be an hour late. With that, I decided to stack up on some Panda express and Chick Fil-A in the meanwhile. There was also ample seating space pre-security. 

MCO's Hyatt & building TSA lines. It was 8:50am when casually sat and watched as my Rouge aircraft had yet to depart from YYZ. 

In the middle of the airport's terminal you can find this interesting piece depicting "The Traveller". It caught many people, including myself by surprise.

Trains connect all four of the remote concourses. 

DL Crj-900, A321 & B717 using the 70s gates

Central spot of the concourse. There are numerous food options also. 

Since my incoming aircraft had not yet landed I had walked around the terminal and did some spotting. SWOOP and Emirates were both boarding further down this departure hall. 

C-GKOB as ROU 1635 to Montreal was about to push back

N713SY as SCX340 to MSP. I found it quite rare to see an unwingletted 737-700 in 2018.  These few gates seemed to be the ones which SunCountry uses at MCO. The load factor seemed relatively light in comparison to that of DL. 

Minutes later, our 767 arrived at gate 97 and deboarded. It took about 45 minutes get onboard as our departure time was pushed from 12 noon to 12:45 pm.

Another Rouge A319 to YYZ came in and departed before our aircraft. 

<b style="font-style: italic;">Reason behind each delay -
The captain explained that the plane had a series of mechanical and de-icing issues which pushed back the departure. After boarding, we sat in the aircraft with no air condition as the APU was inop. The aircraft sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes before push back. 

IN-FLIGHT

Before push back I noticed the difference in leg room between the 767 and A319

Mood lighting was set. The load was 60% or so on this flight. The cabin was quite old as these 767s came from AC. 

SunCountry's new livery was spotted. This was recently revealed in December. BW 738 from POS can also be spotted. The white tailed birds in their fleet were the ones which were painted in the Air Jamaican livery before full acquisition of the airline. 

EK 220 to DXB. I remember when this was my first EK flight back in fall of 2015. 

The icelandic sisters bask in the Floridian sunshine. I believe they have evening departures back to the North Atlantic. 

Some spotting during taxi

Momentarily we were airborne. The aircraft made an immediately left turn and headed north bound to YYZ. 

We flew at 27,000 ft for most of the flight. Skies got quite overcast so views were limited. 

I believe the food was complimentary due to such a late delay on both legs of the flight. I opted for water however. 

arrival

Descent began over upstate NY and it was evident that Toronto was overcast. 

Final into RWY 06L

Our aircraft pulled into T1 and our lengthly traveling day was done. Many passengers missed their connections but AC had already assigned those passengers to other flights before we landed. Agents met them at the airbridge and escorted them in the terminal. 

One last look at the aircraft perched at gate 180

It took about 5 minutes to get past customs and immigration. This was great! Our flight landed with AC from LAX and the other Rouge flight from MCO.