Air Canada rouge Expands In The West

Air Canada has announced that its leisure carrier subsidiary, Air Canada rouge, is expanding to Western Canada to serve a number of predominantly leisure markets from Vancouver and Calgary to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Anchorage. Flights on these routes, currently operated by Air Canada, will be converted to Air Canada rouge service beginning this spring, as will flights to San Diego from Toronto.

In addition, the airline announced that it will introduce new seasonal non-stop service operated by Air Canada rouge between Vancouver and Phoenix beginning Dec. 17, 2014. Existing service from Calgary and Toronto to Phoenix will also be converted to Air Canada rouge. Flights and optional Air Canada Vacations packages are available for purchase at http://www.aircanada.com .

Ben Smith, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer, said that: “The expansion of our leisure carrier to Vancouver and Calgary, in tandem with Air Canada’s mainline fleet renewal, is a key element of our strategy for sustainable, profitable growth at both airlines.”

Smith pointed out that: “California and the U.S. Southwest are favourite vacation destinations for our Western Canada customers and Anchorage is an important port of call offered with Air Canada Vacations cruise packages. Air Canada rouge is best suited to compete more cost effectively in these markets where there is both a high leisure travel demand and low-cost competition.”

And he added: “We will continue to evaluate future market opportunities as new aircraft are introduced into the mainline fleet and existing aircraft are released for operation by Air Canada rouge as market demand warrants. Since its launch in July 2013, we have successfully deployed Air Canada rouge to serve Caribbean, European and select sun destinations in the United States. We look forward to offering customers in Western Canada a full range of products and services offered by both airlines, each suited to specific markets on a route-by-route basis.”

For more, go to http://www.aircanada.com/en/about/rouge.html .