Air Canada to launch new flights from Ireland next summer

Air Canada plans to launch new routes from the Republic next summer and to increase flights on existing services.

The carrier said on Wednesday that it will begin flying from Dublin to Montreal and Shannon to Toronto from June, 2018.

Air Canada will also boost its non-stop Dublin-Toronto service, increasing frequencies from the end of October to four times per week from three, and flying every day next summer.

It will also transfer this service to Air Canada itself from its leisure carrier, Air Canada Rouge. The airline will resume its non-stop Dublin-Vancouver flights next summer.

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Benjamin Smith, Air Canada's president of passenger airlines, said that it will use its new single-aisle Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft on the planned flights from Dublin to Montreal and Shannon to Toronto.

The airline plans to use Airbus A330s on the Dublin-Toronto route. All three services will offer economy and business class seats.

Mr Smith said that the airline wanted to capitalise on the increased traffic between the two countries.

"Taken together, Air Canada will offer the best market coverage of any carrier between Ireland and Canada," he added.

Further growth

Bláithín O’Donnell, the airline’s sales manager in Ireland, noted that the recent Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada signalled further growth in business between the two countries.

Niall Gibbons, chief executive of State body Tourism Ireland said that the announcement was good news for the sector.

The announcement comes as Ryanair announced that it plans to launch a service from Shannon to Barcelona-Reus next summer.

The twice-weekly flights will begin on March 27th and run until the end of October.