Air Canada Makes Strategic Enhancements to its North American Network starting Spring 2015; New services to Terrace, Nanaimo, Comox, Halifax, Austin and Mexico City.

MONTREAL, Dec. 9, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today announced additional details of its previously stated plans for profitable growth. Strategic enhancements include expanding its North American route network with the addition of new non-stop services from Calgary-Terrace; Calgary-Nanaimo; Vancouver-Comox; Toronto-Austin and Montreal-Mexico City. Air Canada is also increasing capacity on key domestic markets that have high volumes of leisure traffic with the expansion of Air Canada rouge to operate the airline's new seasonal Calgary-Halifax route and current Toronto-Kelowna and Toronto-Sydney, NS services. New services are now available for purchase at www.aircanada.com.

"Air Canada continues to strategically add new routes in response to the strong demand in Western Canada, notably the growing business market between Calgary and Terrace/Kitimat in Northern BC, the increasing demand to and from Vancouver Island, and the continued travel demand between Western Canada and Atlantic Canada," said Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines.  "The expansion of Air Canada rouge in North America including on key domestic markets with high leisure demand and to Mexican and Caribbean destinations remains a fundamental element of our strategy for sustainable, profitable growth.

"We look forward to returning to Austin, Texas from Toronto and to Mexico City from Montreal. All of Air Canada's new services are designed to connect conveniently at our Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal hubs, offering customers more choices and easy connections to and from our extensive North American, European, Asian, and South American network," concluded Mr. Smith.

All Air Canada flights provide for Aeroplan accumulation and redemption and, for eligible customers, priority check-in, Maple Leaf Lounge access, priority boarding and other benefits.

Highlights of Air Canada's 2015 North American summer schedule enhancements include:

Calgary-Terrace

• New daily, year-round Air Canada Express service starts June 1 operated by Jazz Aviation LP with 50-seat Bombardier CRJ jets.

Calgary-Nanaimo 

• New daily, year-round Air Canada Express service starts May 1 operated by Jazz Aviation LP with 74-seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft.

Calgary-Halifax

• New summer seasonal six times weekly service starts May 1 operated by Air Canada rouge with 136-seat Airbus A319 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service, increasing up to ten weekly flights during peak summer period.

Vancouver-Comox

• New twice daily, year-round Air Canada Express service starts May 1 operated by Jazz Aviation LP with 50-seat Bombardier Dash 8-300 aircraft.

Kelowna-Toronto

• More than 40 per cent increased capacity year-over-year starting June 1, with up to daily service during peak summer, deployment of 136-seat Air Canada rouge Airbus A319 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service, following the transfer of this route from Air Canada.

Toronto-Austin

• New daily, year-round Air Canada Express service starts May 18 operated by Jazz Aviation LP with 75-seat CRJ-705 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

Toronto-Sarasota

• Winter seasonal service extended effective May 2 offering the only non-stop, year-round flights between Toronto and Sarasota, operated twice weekly by Air Canada with 97-seat EMBRAER 190 jets offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

Toronto-Sydney, NS

• More than 40 per cent increased capacity year-over-year starting May 1 with daily deployment of 136-seat Air Canada rouge Airbus A319 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service, following the seasonal transfer of this route from Air Canada.

Montreal-Mexico City

• New, up to five times weekly, summer seasonal service starts May 2 operated by Air Canada rouge, with 136-seat Airbus A319 aircraft offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

Ottawa-Fort Lauderdale

• Seasonal service now extended to year-round, operated twice weekly by Air Canada with 97-seat EMBRAER 190 jets offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

In addition, starting May 2015, Air Canada will transfer to Air Canada rouge its Calgary-Varadero and Montreal-Varadero routes which will be operated with 142-seat Airbus A319 aircraft, as well as its Montreal-Martinique route operated with 136-seat Airbus A319 offering both premium and economy cabins of service.

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.

About Air Canada rouge
Air Canada rouge is Air Canada's new leisure airline, part of the Air Canada Leisure Group, along with Air Canada Vacations. Together with Air Canada Vacations, Air Canada rouge offers competitively-priced travel to 50 exciting leisure destinations on 68 routes in Europe (including Edinburgh, Venice, Athens, Lisbon, Dublin, Nice, Barcelona, Rome and Manchester) and multiple destinations in Mexico, the U.S. and the Caribbean (including Cuba, Costa Rica, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic) and starting in 2015 – Japan and Canada.

Air Canada rouge offers a unique brand of customer service designed to make every flight a memorable start and end to a wonderful vacation. Aircraft are equipped with player, a next generation in-flight entertainment system that wirelessly streams entertainment to customers' personal electronic devices.  Air Canada rouge's player system has proven popular as customers increasingly bring their own personal electronic devices onboard.  

As a wholly-owned subsidiary, Air Canada rouge is backed by Air Canada's 75-year reputation for safety and reliability and Air Canada Vacations' 30-plus year history of vacation travel excellence.  For more information or to book a flight, visit www.flyrouge.com. Visit Air Canada rouge on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aircanadarouge.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Air Canada's public communications may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements, by their nature, are based on assumptions and are subject to important risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements cannot be relied upon due to, amongst other things, changing external events and general uncertainties of the business. Actual results may differ materially from results indicated in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including without limitation, industry, market, credit and economic conditions, the ability to reduce operating costs and secure financing, pension issues, energy prices, employee and labour relations, currency exchange and interest rates, competition, war, terrorist acts, epidemic diseases, environmental factors (including weather systems and other natural phenomena, and factors arising from man-made sources), insurance issues and costs, changes in demand due to the seasonal nature of the business, supply issues, changes in laws, regulatory developments or proceedings, pending and future litigation and actions by third parties as well as the factors identified throughout Air Canada's public disclosure file available at www.sedar.com.  Any forward-looking statements contained in this news release represent Air Canada's expectations as of the date of this news release and are subject to change after such date.  However, Air Canada disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities regulations.

SOURCE: Air Canada - Route & Network

Isabelle Arthur, (Montréal), [email protected], 514 422-5788; Peter Fitzpatrick, (Toronto), [email protected], 416 263-5576; Angela Ma0h, (Vancouver), [email protected], 604 270-5741; Internet: aircanada.com