What is this all about?

There is a plane that I noticed (JZA8789) flying from CYSJ New Brunswick over Maine to CYUL. It’s activity log is strange. It indicates that it always originates from CYSJ and is bound for CYUL. It DOSE NOT indicate that it flys back from CYUL to CYSJ at any time. How is this possible? It also has a weird track. It has a looping like path. Why? What kind of flight is this?
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/JZA8789

Return flight is a different flight #.

Looks like the return flight is JZA8790.

I see. But whats up with the Track?

Are you referring to the “looping” down to the south and coming back up to it? That would be for the direction aircraft were landing/taking off that day. There are days where it lands to the north, and days it lands to the south. Depends on winds, usually.

Return flight is JZA8788.

Air Canada and its partner Jazz usually separate the return portion of a flight by one number. So 8789 and 8788 are most likely the same plane. Flight 8790 and 8791 are the same plane, just flying the route at a different time of day.

The squiggles you refer to " I think " occur when FAA / NAV Canada / FA get thier radar data from two different sites. This happens a lot with flights that parallel the border between the US and Canada. Each reports a slightly different position, so the tracking is displayed as if the plane is zig zagging .

Other wise, the fact that the flight was not in a straight line can be explained by the fact that, depending on winds, planes are directed onto specific paths, much like highways, to get them stacked and spaced for landing at YUL.

Yeah, The “Squiggles” That was what I thought was odd about the Track. The Radar thing makes sense. Thanks!