Proud Wings Pt2: Vintage 737s

The multiple mergers that created Canadian Airlines International in 1987 created an impressively homogenous fleet, unlike that which Continental Airlines accumulated during the same period through its own multi-merger. Nonetheless that fleet was largely built around older technology aircraft, which although reliable were increasingly uncompetitive into the 1990s. Unfortunately given Canadian's weak financial status replacing these older aircraft would never be achieved.

Canadian Airlines Boeing 737-217Adv C-GCPX Aeroclassics 1:400 Scale Model Airliner

Canadian Airlines International was the result of the merger of various provincial airlines with Canada's second force CPAir (briefly Canadian Pacific again before the merger). The prime mover in all of this was Pacific Western, which undertook the reverse takeover of CPAir. Other well known names subsumed in the resulting airline were Nordair, Eastern Provincial and the remnants of Quebecair. Wardair would later be added also but is not relevant for this piece.

1969 build 737-217 C-FCPV in 1983 at San Francisco

The core of all of the 5 components of Canadian in 1987 was the at the time increasingly popular Boeing 737. However by the mid-80s it was the 737-300 and 400, which were new to the market and successfully fighting it out with the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and beginning to come up against the new Airbus A320. The latter was at the time still very much an unknown quantity and Airbus wasn't the force it would become later in the 1990s. The older 737-200 was actually still in production with the last delivered to Xiamen Airlines in August 1988. By that time the 737-300 had been in service for nearly 4 years.

1982 build 737-275 C-GVPW nearly new in 1984

The 737-200 had first flown in mid-1967 and sold poorly until the base type was updated into the 737-200 Advanced model, which entered service with All Nippon in 1971. Outsold by its larger brother the 727 (especially in the 727-200 Advanced form) the 737 came into its own during the early deregulation years (powering expansion at airlines like Piedmont) and sold well with an eventual 1,095 aircraft built. In Canada the 737 had always had success however and none of the provincial airlines (Nordair, Pacific Western, Quebecair, Transair, Eastern Provincial) had ordered the competing Douglas DC-9. Only Quebecair strayed from the 737 pack and bought BAC One-Elevens, however by the early 1980s it had replaced these with 737s also.

1974 build C-GBPW in the Canadian chevron scheme in 2001

All this love for the baby Boeing meant that the new Canadian Airlines received 70 Boeing 737-200s upon formation, alongside fourteen widebody DC-10s. CPAir had itself already decided to focus on the 737-200 and its infant plans to replace them with 737-300s was swiftly rejected and the small number operated sold on in 1986 when the impending avalanche of series 200s became apparent. Canadian actually operated 3 others for small periods between 1987 and 1989 but all were off-loaded permanently to Britain's Monarch Airlines in April 1989.

Canadian's 737s built before 1980 (shaded aircraft were leases)

Even though all the 70 737s were series 200s they were not all equal. In fact they included aircraft produced from almost the entire length of the production run - from C-FNAB delivered to Nordair in 1968 to C-GWPW delivered new to Pacific Western in 1985. Nine or ten of the fleet were original non-Advanced 737-200s and helpfully using the Boeing customer designator you can determine the original customer as follows:

• 737-2E1: Eastern Provincial
• 737-242: Nordair
• 737-275: Pacific Western
• 737-217: CPAir
• 737-296: Quebecair

Various other customer numbers were littered throughout the fleet noting aircraft originally delivered to other operators and leased either from them or through lessors like ILFC and GPA. These included Malaysia Singapore Airlines (212),  Transavia (2K2), Monarch (2T7), Orion Airways (2T5) and Britannia (204).

Canadian's 737-200s built from 1980-85 (shaded aircraft were 'short' leases)

Trimming the 737 fleet began soon after the merger, though initially 3 aircraft were added on short 6 month to 1.5 year leases. Six of the leased frames were returned by 1990 with the remaining 3 gone by the end of 1991. The five eldest aircraft were also all disposed of quickly. These included a pair of 242Cs, a pair of 217s and one of the three 1969 build 2E1s. The remaining pair of 1960s build frames were stored in March 1993. Around the same time the next 7 oldest aircraft were also sold whilst three 1974 built frames were leased out to America West in 1989 for nearly a decade. This left 46 aircraft in the fleet into early 1995.

1982 build ex-Pacific Western 737-275 C-FCPM in the Proud Wings scheme in 2000

Further withdrawals were limited with the last two pre-1974 aircraft and another from 1975 going in late 1995 and two 1980 series 275s sold to Bahamasair in December 1997. The three aircraft with America West were however returned and re-entered service. That left 44 737-200s in the fleet into the new millenium - the oldest of which was C-GAPW dating from 1974. This compared to only 13 A320s with the two types forming the entire short-haul fleet.

1979 build ex-CPAir 737-217 C-GCPO in the transitional scheme in 2001

The 737s transferred to the Air Canada fleet and I imagine were not warmly welcomed. Air Canada was at the time just about to finish replacing its very last Douglas DC-9-30s with new Airbus A319s. Their last DC-9 was retired finally on January 18, 2002 and it had been a lengthy process from the original A319 order in 1994. Fortunately Air Canada at the time had several sub-businesses which could use the 737-200s. Nineteen went to the new Air Canada ZIP low-cost subsidiary which operated against WestJet in Western Canada until September 2004. The last series 200 in mainline service appears to have been sometime during 2003. This brought to an end 737-200 operations with the regulated era airlines but certainly not series 200 operations in Canada.

1980 build ex-Quebecair and Canadian 737-296 in full Air Canada colours in 2001

Though I'm sure Canadian would have preferred to have replaced the 200s in the early 90s they continued to do everything that was asked of them into the 2000s and wore a wide array of Canadian liveries during their long careers.

1979 build ex-CPAir 737-217 C-GCPN finishing her career colourfully!

Reference

Photos from Wikipedia
Canadian Airlines. RZJets.net
Canadian Airlines. Airfleets
2002. When Air Canada DC-9 Retired? Airliners.net
2003. Air Canada Boeing 737 retirement. Airliners.net