Flight Review: Air Canada Business Class New York-LaGuardia – Toronto

For a quick trip to Toronto to experience Canadian culture, I wanted to go Canadian all the way and booked my first-ever flight on Air Canada, which operates multiple daily flights connecting the Big Apple with Canada’s largest city.

Given a surprising lack of traffic en route to LaGuardia, I had time to stop at Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge. The lounge offers great views albeit with a limited selection of snacks. Had I been hungry (which was not the case with a mid-afternoon departure), I would have been better off at the nearby American Express Centurion Lounge, but I wanted to stick with the Canadian theme.

The Maple Leaf Lounge is located before the security checkpoint but, at that time of day, there was virtually no one at the Pre Check line so I headed to the departure gate only a few minutes prior to the start of boarding.

BOARDING

Air Canada boards business-class passengers first and that group was called just as I arrived at the gate. I was one of the first on the aircraft, an Airbus A319, and flight attendants were in the aisles welcoming passengers, hanging up coats and, in business, offering pre-departure beverages.

Given that the A319 only seats 120 passengers and we were far from full, boarding was accomplished quickly and we were soon preparing for departure.

FLIGHT PLAN

Flight 717 pushed back seven minutes early, at 3:33 p.m., and, following a quick taxi of 12 minutes, was airborne at 3:45 p.m.

Our flight plan took us in a northwesterly direction over the Bronx and Rockland county and briefly over northeastern Pennsylvania. We continued over western New York State and crossed into Canadian airspace over Lake Ontario turning to a slightly more northerly course at this point for our final approach into Toronto-Pearson International Airport.

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