Air Canada Expands Preferred Seating Options for Customers Seeking Additional Legroom on North American Flights

MONTREAL, Aug. 15, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today launched an enhanced Preferred Seats program that offers customers the choice of more seats with additional legroom aboard its North American flights while also making it easier to book a Preferred Seat through multiple channels, including the web, airport kiosks and mobile devices. Details on Preferred Seats are available at www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/traveller/seatselection/preferredseats.html.

"Air Canada is a leader in offering customers options for enhancing their travel and our expanded Preferred Seats program is yet another convenient way travelers can tailor their travel experience to suit their requirements. We have reconfigured our narrow-body aircraft with more Preferred Seats, which provide up to an additional four inches (10.16 cm) of legroom, and are making it easier for customers to conveniently purchase these seats when booking or at any time prior to boarding, including through our website, our airport kiosks or mobile devices. Most Preferred Seats are located near the front of the aircraft, enabling customers to disembark more quickly at destination," said Craig Landry, Vice President of Marketing at Air Canada.

Preferred Seats typically provide 35 inches (88.9 cm) of legroom compared to standard Economy seats that offer between 31 and 33 inches (78.74 cm - 83.82 cm). Given their popularity since the option to purchase them was first introduced in 2009, Air Canada recently completed a reconfiguration of its narrow-body aircraft to add more Preferred Seats fleetwide in its Economy Cabin. For example, on its 97-seat Embraer 190 aircraft it has increased the number of Preferred Seats to 24 from eight, while on its 146-seat Airbus A320 aircraft the number has been increased to 36 from 16. Seat charts showing Preferred Seat locations on Air Canada aircraft are available at www.aircanada.com/en/about/fleet/index.html. Preferred Seats are also available on Air Canada mainline wide-body aircraft and Embraer 175 aircraft operated by SkyRegional for Air Canada Express.

Customers can further personalize their travel by selecting a Preferred Seat for individual legs of their journey or entire trip through a simplified process at the time of booking or at any time prior to boarding on www.aircanada.com. Air Canada is also expanding its kiosk and mobile functions for booking Preferred Seats up until time of boarding that will be available starting at the end of August. The cost for Preferred Seats starts at $20 per flight segment for a Tango fare and varies with the length of each flight leg and a customer's Altitude frequent flier status.

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 180 destinations on five continents.  Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2013 served more than 35 million customers.  Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 60 Canadian cities, 49 destinations in the United States and 73 cities in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,316 airports in 192 countries.  Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax that ranked Air Canada in a worldwide survey of more than 18 million airline passengers as Best Airline in North America in 2014 for the fifth consecutive year.  For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com.

SOURCE: Air Canada

Isabelle Arthur (Montréal)  514 422-5788
Peter Fitzpatrick (Toronto)  416 263-5576
Angela Mah (Vancouver)  604 270-5741

Internet: aircanada.com