Air Canada Increases Capacity Between Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Halifax, and Happy Valley-Goose Bay and St. John's by 48% for summer 2016

Only daily non-stop flights between Happy Valley-Goose Bay-Halifax and Happy Valley-Goose Bay-St. Johns

ST. JOHN'S, Feb. 29, 2016 /CNW/ - Air Canada today announced it will increase capacity on two of its routes serving Labrador & Newfoundland by 48 per cent for summer 2016 travel. Effective May 1, 2016, flights between Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Halifax, and Happy Valley-Goose Bay and St. John's will be operated by Air Canada Express with 74-seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft instead of the current Bombardier 50-seat CRJ.

"We are pleased to offer our customers in Labrador more capacity to Halifax and St. John's to meet increased travel demand this summer," said Benjamin Smith, President Passenger Airlines Air Canada. "By strategically deploying our fleet to meet seasonal shifts in demand, the additional seats and cargo capacity will benefit both business travel in the hydroelectric sector and the tourism industry."

"We are pleased with the increased capacity into the Labrador market," said Geoff Goodyear, 1st Vice Chair of the Labrador North Chamber of Commerce. "This service upgrade will help support existing economic projects and business development as a whole in our region."

Flights from St. John's are timed to provide an opportunity for same-day return itineraries, while Halifax flights offer convenient connections to/from Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and the Maritimes.    

Flight number	Departs	Arrives
AC8899	Happy Valley-Goose Bay:    08:55	Halifax:                                  11:00
AC8898	Halifax:                                 16:55	Happy Valley-Goose Bay:     18:50
AC8828	Happy Valley-Goose Bay:    19:20	St. Johns:                               21:28
AC8829	St. Johns:                              07:00	Happy Valley-Goose Bay:     08:17

Additional Air Canada Express services to Goose Bay include Gander, which returns to twice daily service effective May 1, 2016, twice daily service from Wabush, and daily service from Deer Lake. These services are all operated using 18-seat Beechcraft aircraft.

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 200 airports on six continents.  Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2015 served more than 41 million customers.  Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 63 airports in Canada, 56 in the United States and 86 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,330 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.  For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.

SOURCE Air Canada

Isabelle Arthur (Montréal), [email protected], 514 422-5788; Peter Fitzpatrick (Toronto), [email protected], 416 263-5576; Angela Mah (Vancouver), [email protected], 604 270-5741; Internet: aircanada.com