Committed To Vancouver

Vancouver’s growing prominence in the Air Canada route network was confirmed at a New Routes event by the airline last week, at a club in the fashionable Yaletown district of the city.

Leading the presentation was Bonnie Walker, AC director of sales for western Canada. She told assembled agents, tour operators and corporate partners that Air Canada had inaugurated 11 routes from YVR in 2017. These include the destinations of Denver, Dallas, Boston, Phoenix, Frankfurt, Nagoya, Taipei and Gatwick.

In December, Air Canada will start flights to Melbourne, which is the airline’s third destination in Australia after Sydney and Brisbane; plus Yellowknife, complementing AC’s service from YEG & YYC; and Orlando, “where we will welcome Florida residents with access to some of the best skiing in North America,” said Walker – not to mention the southbound flow of traffic to the city of theme parks. As well, Air Canada will resume flights to New Delhi in October.

For 2018, the airline has announced to new services from YVR to Paris and Zurich.

Also, “the Melbourne flights will be going year round as of June,” said Walker. “We’re also re-introducing seasonal services to Dublin for next summer and double daily flights to Heathrow.”

Walker touched on flight routes from central Canada that will be serviced by the new B737 MAX aircraft that are coming on stream.

These are scheduled to operate on Montreal-Dublin flights, and on Toronto-Shannon flights. “These aircraft open up more routes, more economically,” she said.

Walker noted that Air Canada capacity from Vancouver YVR has risen by 60% over the past five years. “The pace of growth has been incredible and we have been very successful. But we realize we could not have done this alone, and we thank our partners, YVR and the government for making this possible.”

Seen in the photo:

Bonnie Walker, Air Canada director of sales for western Canada, met with travel sales professionals at a recent New Routes event in Vancouver, including (l. to r.) Hank Oostveen, VP of UNIGLOBE Travel Western Canada; Deddy K Geese, manager at Hagen’s Travel & Cruises in Maple Ridge; and Derek Swaile, manager of Hagen’s Travel & Cruises in Vancouver.