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Air Canada's keen to fly Melbourne-Vancouver daily & connect Sydney to Toronto

Air Canada's thirst for the Australian market is real and it's getting strong, which means Aussies may soon enjoy more frequency from the Skytrax rated 4-star airline & maybe in the future, new routes.

Air Canada’s thirst for the Australian market is real and it’s getting strong, which means Aussies may soon enjoy more frequency from the Skytrax rated 4-star airline & maybe in the future, new routes.

Speaking to media in Sydney last week, Air Canada’s Vice President of Global Sales said the airline has invested millions in air services to and from Australia and is keen to continue doing so because it’s an “important market”.

Over the last few years, the airline has successfully operated flights out of Sydney, introduced services to Brisbane, and moved its best aircraft (Boeing 787-9) on services from Australia. More recently, Air Canada introduced seasonal flights out of Melbourne, which will be extended to year-round in 2018 to complete the airline’s East Coast network.

Air Canada plane

Initially, the Skytrax 4-star rated carrier (the only international network carrier in North America to receive a 4-Star ranking from Skytrax) will fly from Victoria’s capital three-times weekly, however,VP, Duncan Bureau, has already expressed hopes of increasing this to daily “as soon as possible”.

“We think the Melbourne-Vancouver route will do incredibly well… our hope is that we get that to daily as quickly as possible.”

Duncan Bureau, Air Canada Vice President of Global Sales

But of course, as Bureau points out, the future of the Melbourne route depends on demand from travellers, which means Melburnians need book if they want more departures.

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“I’m very optimistic that we will get it to daily,” Bureau said. “How quickly, I’m not sure, but it’s certainly up to the market that’ll help make it happen.”

The VP expects the Melbourne-Vancouver route to be utilised by leisure travellers and business travellers as well as those flying onward to other parts of Canada and the US, specifically New York.

Why would one choose to fly to NYC via Vancouver as opposed to Los Angeles or any other US gateway?

Bureau said aside from receiving the best inflight product from a North American carrier, guests will find it takes almost exactly the same amount of time to fly via Vancouver (two minutes longer) as it does to stopover at a US gateway, and it’s convenient because guests don’t need to pick up their luggage before boarding their connecting flight and they’ll pass US customs at the Canadian airport where queues are shorter and faster.

“We’ve seen huge growth in the traffic going into the US because of how easy the transition is and we have one of the best products in the air.”

Duncan Bureau, Air Canada Vice President of Global Sales

Air Canada out of Melbourne 3

Outside of the airline’s current East Coast network, Bureau said he’d be keen to one day launch flights from Sydney to Toronto, however, it requires an aircraft capable of flying the distance.

“The aircraft manufacturer that creates the aircraft that has the kind of range that we can match with demand, that’s the aircraft we’re looking for,” he said.

“I think with the right aircraft, we would fly from Sydney to Toronto, that’d be our first choice.”

READ: First look at Air Canada’s revamped lounge in Vancouver

READ: Melbourne’s direct flights to Vancouver take off with Air Canada

Have you flown Air Canada? What did you think of the experience?