Air Canada’s Airbus A321XLR debut is looking much different to what many had initially expected. Its first-ever A321XLR route was meant to be to Palma de Mallorca, operating from its Montreal hub as of June 2026. Now, it appears the Spanish holiday resort will not see the aircraft type at all.

Additionally, flights from Montreal to Dublin are being switched from the Airbus A321XLR to another aircraft type as well, becoming the second route in this situation after Palma de Mallorca.

The type’s other destinations remain intact, albeit changed slightly. Porto will see the A321XLR a little later than planned, while adjustments have been made to its other routes to Edinburgh and Toulouse.

This information was shared in this week’s schedule filings update published every Saturday on Aerospace Global News, analysing data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

The carrier’s new inaugural A321XLR flight is on 15 May 2026 to Toulouse. This is very much subject to change, though.

Air Canada has made changes to its summer 2026 Airbus A321XLR debut

Air Canada has decided to remove the Airbus A321XLR on flights to Dublin, Palma de Mallorca, and the majority of its services to Edinburgh this summer. Aerospace Global News has reached out to the company for a comment, though a representative was not immediately available.

The nature and details of the changes are listed in the table below. It is worth noting that this concerns the A321XLR flights only.

Air Canada will also fly to Berlin, though there has been no change to that route.

In other words, the carrier will only have four regular A321XLR routes this summer. It will fly regularly to Berlin, Nantes, Porto and Toulouse. Services to Edinburgh will be short-lived on the type, as well as the brief Toronto-London Heathrow operation.

The carrier’s regular A321XLR routes are shown below.

Flight testing and possible payload restrictions

In its initial press releases last year, the company had commented on what was required for the aircraft’s integration into its fleet. It noted that the planes would be delivered at the start of this year,and would undergo testing and certification “in the early months of 2026,” according to Alexandre Lefevre, Vice President of Network Planning North America and Scheduling at Air Canada.

He added: “But you can expect them to be in full commercial service by next summer.”

It seems the plane ‘s debut has been pushed slightly, with only Toulouse launching in May as its inaugural destination. The remaining A321XLR flights on other routes will be added from June and July.

In an interview with The Airline Observer last year, Air Canada’s Chief Commercial Officer Mark Galardo said that heat concerns at some destinations will have an impact on payload.

“If you’re in a smaller airport where you have an obstacle at the end of the runway, or you have a short runway, or you have heat concerns, it starts to cut down the payload. That’s something I don’t think we factored in when we made the purchase decision, he admitted.”

It is not immediately clear if this is related to these changes.

Featured image: Airbus

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