Air Canada announced this morning that they will transform three of their Boeing 777-300ERs into temporary cargo aircraft to transport vital supplies into Canada. The first aircraft (pictured above) is complete, with the next two aircraft being transformed soon. 

Air Canada plans to use these three aircraft, which would otherwise be parked, to ferry urgent medical supplies and promote the COVID-19 relief efforts around the world. These aircraft are being transformed by Avianor, an airline maintenance company located in Montreal, Canada.

Along with cities that Air Canada's cargo operation already ferries supplies from such as London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Frankfurt, Air Canada plans to use their newly transformed 777s on routes between Canada and Asian and European cities. 

"Bringing critical medical and other vital supplies rapidly to Canada and helping distribute them across the country is imperative to combating the COVID-19 crisis," said Tim Strauss, Vice President of Cargo Operations at Air Canada. "The transformation of the Boeing 777-300ERs, our largest international wide-body aircraft, doubles the capacity of each flight and will enable more goods to move more quickly."

Due to the different engineering specifications and weight/load limits on passenger 777s which are different than their cargo counterparts, supplies transported in the passenger area of the aircraft must be placed in light-weight boxes and loaded through the passenger boarding doors of the aircraft. Engineering complications also make the placement of boxes slightly more difficult, as even weight must be achieved.

These cargo operations are planned to extend to Canada's smaller communities, with Air Canada Express aircraft to transport Cargo from hubs to smaller hospitals in need.

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Learn about Cargo Operations: https://learn.theexplorerblog.com/topics/cargo-ops.php

Sources: DailyHive and Yahoo Finance