IIHF U20 Worlds 2021

C-GHQY, Air Canada, Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
seen at London Heathrow in July 2016

With a lot less scheduled flights across the Atlantic and the need to remain within a bubble, all the European teams for the IIHF U20 World Championship in Edmonton will travel to Canada on charter flights for once. The word is that the Swedish, Finnish and Russian team will assemble in Helsinki. The Swiss team will travel from Zurich, while there is another flight that will depart from Vienna. The relatively limited range of the Boeing 737-800 for this long trip means that all these flights will have to make a fuel stop enroute. At least for two flights this is confirmed to be happening in Keflavik.

Update (14 Dec 0130 UTC): All three flights took an additional fuel stop at Goose Bay. From there, it was finally possible to calculate ETAs for the arrivals in Edmonton:

ENT521 SDL 0900-1100 HEL 1730-1900 KEF 2015-1930 YYR 2030-2130 YEG B738 SP-ESH (13/12/20)

ENT535 KTW 1045-1145 VIE 1700-2000 KEF 2115-2030 YYR 2130-2230 YEG B738 SP-ENR (13/12/20)

ENT547 WAW xxxx-0850 ZRH 1415-1700 KEF 1900-1815 YYR 1915-2030 YEG B738 SP-ENO (13/12/20)

SBI8449 SVO 1055-1115 HEL A20N VP-BTX (13/12/20)

An Enter Air Boeing 737-800 taking off from Warsaw-Chopin in August 2019

There appear to be strict rules for the teams on board, with dedicated seating areas for each team and its staff, as well as obviously strict hygiene rules including the wearing of face masks all the time.

Team Sweden has been training in Sundsvall in the past few days and will depart from there to Helsinki, where they will join up with their counterparts from Finland and Russia. The Russian team is set to travel from their training base outside Moscow to Helsinki with S7 Airlines.

Team Switzerland has been training near Zug and will fly from Zurich. It would seem logical that they are to be joined by Team Germany, which has been preparing for the tournament in the South of the country, in Füssen.

The Czech team's training location in the Southeast, in Vyskov, rather close to the Austrian border could indicate that the Czech team will join Team Austria on the flight from Vienna, possibly together with Team Slovakia.

Thanks to sources in North America (notably @sportsaviation on Twitter), there is also a flight for the United States U20s hockey team, which traveled to Edmonton from Detroit with Air Canada:

AC7027 DTW 1700-1910 YEG A319 C-GBIA (14/12/20)

UPDATE (16/12/20, 19.30h):

The teams traveling from Vienna and Helsinki left behind by the playing equipment, as they refused to board their planes with hockey gear in the cabin. After emergency meetings were held at both airports, it was agreed that the equipment was to be shipped to Edmonton with a dedicated cargo flight. This will be an Air Canada Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that will first pick up material in Vienna, then in Helsinki, before a direct flight over to Edmonton.

AC7246 YYZ 0730-2125 VIE B788 C-GHQY (16/12/20, ferry flt)

AC7247 VIE 1630-2000 HEL xxxx-xxxx YEG (17/12/20)

UPDATE (31/12/20, 22.30h):

ENT548P WAW 0732-1019 KEF 1128-1054 YEG B738 SP-ESE (31/12/20)

ENT536 YEG 2200-1100 KEF 1200-1725 ZRH 2040-2140 VIE B738 SP-ESE (02/01/21)

ENT522 YEG 2300-xxxx KEF xxxx-1925 (+1) ARN 2010(+1)-2230(+1) MUC B738 SP-ENO (04/01/21)