Happy Birthday to Canada and Air Canada rouge!

As Canadians celebrate from coast to coast on July 1, 2015, Air Canada's leisure carrier marks two years of operations

TORONTO, July 1, 2015 /CNW/ - Today Air Canada rouge welcomes customers celebrating Canada Day onboard its flights as the airline celebrates its second year in the skies creating a memorable travel experience for customers.

"As an integral component of Air Canada's strategy for sustained profitability, Air Canada rouge continues to grow and successfully expand our market reach," said Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines at Air Canada. "Air Canada rouge is deployed on routes with high leisure travel demand at a competitive cost structure."

By the numbers

Air Canada rouge began operations on July 1, 2013 with a start-up fleet of two Airbus A319 aircraft and two Boeing 767-300ER aircraft on 14 routes from Toronto and Montreal to the Caribbean and Europe. The airline operated 5 flights with 775 customers on the first day of operations.

This year's Canada Day will see Air Canada rouge operate 101 flights and carry more than 15,000 customers. In the last two years, Air Canada rouge has flown over 4.5 million customers to destinations around the world. Air Canada rouge now operates a total of 33 aircraft including 20 Airbus A319 and 13 Boeing 767-300ER aircraft on 67 routes from Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver to 49 destinations in Europe, Mexico, the U.S., the Caribbean, Asia, South America and Canada.

Investing in the customer experience

Air Canada rouge has also completed the conversion of its Premium rouge cabin on the Airbus A319, from 3x3 seating configuration with a blocked middle seat to two side-by-side larger seats in a 2x2 configuration. An additional 30 per cent of carry-on space on the A319 fleet will be available starting this summer thanks to the installation of new overhead bin doors which allow carry-on items to be stowed more efficiently.  Upgrades to the hardware and content offering on the in-flight entertainment system have been made across the Air Canada rouge fleet.  

"Air Canada rouge continues to evolve its product, our brand and our customer experience to ensure that we are meeting the expectations of our customers," said Michael Friisdahl, President and CEO, Air Canada Leisure Group. "It is our responsiveness to customer feedback and to the dynamics and trends of our industry that have helped us create a truly market-leading leisure travel experience."

Air Canada rouge fun facts at two years

• Over 60,000 signature buttons such as "Happy Birthday!" and "First Flight!" distributed to customers celebrating special occasions onboard
• Over 2,500 children's faces painted with onboard face painting kits
• About 3,400 puppets created from air sickness bags (that we know of)
• Nearly 1,500 pairs of custom Fluevog shoes distributed to rouge crew (flight attendants)

About Air Canada and Air Canada rouge

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 190 destinations on five continents.  Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2014 served more than 38 million customers.  Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 64 Canadian cities, 52 destinations in the United States and 78 cities in Europe, the Middle East, 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 1,321 airports in 193 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.

Air Canada rouge is Air Canada's leisure airline. Together with Air Canada Vacations, Air Canada rouge offers competitively-priced travel to 49 exciting leisure destinations on 67 routes in Europe, Mexico, the U.S., the Caribbean, Asia, South America and Canada.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary, Air Canada rouge is backed by Air Canada's 77-year reputation for safety and reliability and Air Canada Vacations' 30-plus year history of vacation travel excellence. For more information, visit www.flyrouge.com or to book a flight visit www.aircanada.com. Visit Air Canada rouge on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aircanadarouge.

SOURCE Air Canada

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