Canadian flag carrier Air Canada has announced early preparations for next year’s summer schedule. The airline is restoring suspended services, increasing frequencies, and adding a new route.
Preparing for summer 2023
Although the winter 2022 travel season has recently started, airlines are planning for next year as always. Air Canada has already made an announcement about its summer 2023 operations. Earlier today, Air Canada announced a new route between Montreal and Fort McMurray that will launch in June next year. The Canadian carrier is also bringing back suspended routes and increasing frequencies on other routes.
On June 20, 2023, Air Canada will launch its new route between Montreal and Fort McMurray, which Air Canada Rouge will operate three times weekly on its Airbus A319 aircraft. The A319s have the capacity for 136 passengers in a two-cabin configuration, Premium Rouge and Economy. Air Canada will be the only Canadian carrier to connect Fort McMurray to Quebec and Toronto nonstop.
“Our new Montreal-Fort McMurray service brings easier access from eastern Canada to one of the critical economic hubs of Alberta. And with the prudent restoration of suspended routes and increased frequencies on others, we are improving our customers’ options for domestic travel. We are looking forward to an exceptional summer, with service on 97 domestic routes to 51 Canadian airports, making us the largest Canadian carrier, with the most seats and capacity available for travellers.” – Mark Galardo, Senior Vice President of Network Planning and Revenue Management, Air Canada
Route frequency increases
Air Canada announced frequency increases on eight of its domestic routes:
Connecting North America and Bangkok
Air Canada recently launched the world’s only flight connecting North America to Bangkok. The inaugural flight, AC65, took off from Vancouver International Airport (YVR) at 23:30 on December 2 and landed in Bangkok at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 06:29 local time. The aircraft used on the inaugural flight was a four-year-old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, registration C-FVLZ.
Air Canada will fly from YVR to BKK four times weekly, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays until April. Flights have a duration time of about 16 hours. Air Canada is expecting its new route to be highly successful, and though it is seasonal, the airline will bring the route back next winter if it is successful.
Thailand is an extremely popular tourist destination, drawing people from the entire world, but it is often hard to get to, requiring long flights. For the past ten years, no airline has connected Thailand with North America. The last airline to do so was Thai Airways, which operated nonstop flights from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to BKK. Air Canada now has a monopoly on service from North America to Thailand and may not face competition anytime soon.
Source: simpleflying.com