LONDON – Canada’s national flag carrier Air Canada has today announced its plans for restoration of suspended services, new routes, and an increase in flight frequencies as it prepares its summer 2023 schedule.
Starting June 20th 2023, a new non-stop route between Montreal (YUL) and Fort McMurray (YMM) will be launched. The three times weekly service will utilise one of Air Canada Rouge’s Airbus A319’s and will run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday on flight numbers AC1942/3.
This will provide 136 seats configured in Premium Rouge and Economy Class seating arrangements. With YUL – YMM in the route network, paired with an existing Toronto service, Air Canada will be the only airline connecting Fort McMurray non-stop to Quebec and Ontario.
Mark Galardo, Senior Vice President of Network Planning and Revenue Management at Air Canada said: ”As the country’s flag carrier, Air Canada’s increased Canadian summer schedule further reinforces our role in providing critical connectivity to Canadians coast-to-coast.”
“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.”
The seasonal routes it plans to resume include: Gander-Toronto from June 1, Ontario (London) – Montreal starting June 17, Fort McMurray-Toronto starting May 1 and Calgary-Quebec starting June 19.
Additional to these resumptions, a wide body service will be scheduled between Ottawa and Vancouver. Planned for daily operation, it will offer travellers more options to leisure destinations like Kelowna and Victoria.
| Route | Frequency (Summer 2023 versus Summer 2022) |
| Edmonton-Montreal | Increases to four times daily from twice daily |
| Vancouver-Montreal | Increases to six times daily from five daily |
| Calgary-Toronto | Increases to 13 times daily from 11 daily |
| Kelowna-Vancouver | Increases to eight times daily from seven daily |
| Winnipeg-Toronto | Increases to seven times daily from five daily |
| Saint John-Toronto | Increases to three times daily from once daily |
| Kelowna-Toronto | Increases to two times daily from once daily |
| Quebec City-Vancouver | Increases to five times from three times weekly |
The above table outlines the 13 daily flight frequency increases across eight key domestic routes, these increases will support both business and leisure travellers throughout Canada.
“Furthermore, we’ve built our Canadian summer schedule to synchronize with our recently announced summer international schedule, facilitating connectivity through our hubs for our customers, whether they’re traveling within Canada, across the border to the US, or to our many destinations worldwide,” continued Galardo.
Back in October, AviationSource reported on Air Canada’s plans to expand its network to new routes within Europe, and restore routes affected by the Covid19 pandemic.
With this well and truly underway, it looks to prove that Air Canada is taking its post-pandemic ramp up seriously and succeeding in doing so.
You can read the 2023 expansion article here.
