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Air Canada replaces the Airbus A321XLR with an Airbus A330-300 on the Montreal-Lyon route starting October 25, 2026. The airline points to demand from Canadian travellers heading to the French Alps ski resorts. The schedule calls for 3 weekly flights in November, then 4 per week from December through late March.
The route turns ten this year. For a Canadian skier, this Montreal-Lyon flight is the shortest way into Savoie and Isère: a 2-hour drive from Lyon-Saint-Exupéry airport to the first resorts. We have followed this route since it launched. The switch to a widebody in midwinter changes one thing above all: the number of seats available, and therefore your odds of finding an award seat.
Air Canada put its new A321XLR on the route in early September 2026, with up to five weekly flights. The winter season then shifts to the A330-300, a far larger aircraft.
Lyon airport describes that aircraft as a three-cabin A330-300 seating 297. It also notes that Air Canada is the only carrier offering year-round transatlantic service from Lyon, which sets this route apart from purely seasonal ones.
Jean-François Raudin, Air Canada’s France director, puts a number on the demand in Lyon Capitale: some flights carry 232 pairs of skis. The airport itself reports 164 pairs over a single weekend, and calls it a genuine operational challenge.
That is where the aircraft choice matters. An A330 does not just add seats, it adds hold space. On a route where passengers travel with two-metre ski bags, the constraint is not the number of seats, it is the volume below the floor.
More seats means more inventory to fill. As a result, Aeroplan award seats generally open up more easily on a widebody than on a 150-seat narrowbody.
The points cost of a one-way flight to Europe varies with demand, date and cabin. Aeroplan uses dynamic pricing, so we publish no fixed figure here, because it would change the following week. Check the availability calendar when you book instead.
In addition, a flight operated by Air Canada earns Aeroplan points and status qualification, unlike a flight bought through a tour operator. To compare your options, see our page on the best Aeroplan credit cards.
A transatlantic ticket in winter is a significant expense. However, a welcome offer often covers a good part of the trip. Here are the cards we single out for this kind of travel, with the estimated first-year value from our own evaluation.
Click a card name to see the full offer. To widen the comparison, see our page on the best credit cards or our selection of Aeroplan cards.
Lyon-Saint-Exupéry serves the major resorts of Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Isère. In addition, the airport runs direct shuttles to the valleys during the winter season.
Before you ski, the city is worth a two-day stop. For a sense of what a week on the slopes costs when you pay with points, read our account below.
This aircraft change does not lower ticket prices. It does, however, add seats on four weekly departures at the height of ski season, which feeds directly into award availability.
Our practical advice: watch January and March dates, which draw smaller crowds than spring break. Moreover, book early if you want Signature Class, because the A330 offers only a limited number of those seats.
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Here are questions we see most often in the Milesopedia community about the Montreal-Lyon flight.
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