Welcome to the Evolution: Air Canada takes flight with summer 2026 international schedule

Air Canada rolled out the details of its international network for Summer 2026, featuring new destinations in Europe and Asia yesterday (Sept. 10), just a day after the airline revealed details of the upcoming addition of the Airbus A320XLR to its fleet.

New routes that begin in 2026 include Montreal to Palma de Mallorca, Spain (announced as the first route to be operated aboard the Airbus A320XLR); Montreal to Catania in Sicily, Italy.

From Toronto, Air Canada will re-establish non-stop flights to Shanghai and Budapest, along with increasing flights to Prague.

And the carrier’s seasonal Vancouver-Bangkok route will now become year-round, — a move that strengthens Air Canada’s position as the only North American carrier offering direct, non-stop service to the Thai capital.

Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer and President, Cargo for Air Canada, said that the carrier’s “continued international expansion reflects our bold ambitions, and leverages our network reach and scale to capitalize on global travel demand driven by leisure travel trends, growing demand for services to Asia, and cargo development opportunities.”

Asked by Travel Press Today what those “ambitions” were, Galardo responded: “Our ambition is to become a leading global international airline. We want to be in the same arena as the British Airways, KLMs, Lufthansas of the world – the Big Brands — and [today’s announcement] reflects that ambition of us becoming a true global international airline that competes on the world stage.”

That ambition goes back to when Calin Rovinescu was Air Canada’s president, with Galardo explaining that: “Our business model is really focused on international long haul and today is the next evolution of that same story that Calin Rovinescu described to you. We’re taking that story and we’re building further upon it and really positioning Air Canada as a leading global airline and also positioning the country in the international arena.”

As for capitalizing on global travel demand, Galardo told TPT that: “Demand to and from Canada to global international markets – Europe, Africa, Asia, even South America – continues to grow at a fairly strong pace and we see that all the way through the next year based on the booking samples that we have, [and] based on the market data that we have.”

And he added: “We continue to expect that international demand to and from Canada will continue to grow and I project that it will continue to grow in the years to come.”

But there’s more, with Galardo telling TPT that: “We want more than our fair share of the traffic, international traffic, destined to the US, but having them transit through our Canadian hubs and that’s a growing part of our business strategy.”

And he said that the airline’s Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal hubs “give us very interesting prospects to grow our global network and each of those hubs have amazing geography when you look at where they’re positioned on the US international market.”

And stay tuned … more to come with Mark Galardo in an upcoming issue …

Go to www.aircanada.com for more.