Cuba is a strategically important destination for the Chinese government as it was the first Latin American country to recognise the People’s Republic of China and to establish trade relations and China is currently Cuba’s second largest trading partner after Venezuela with bilateral trade of bilateral of over $1.3 billion in 2014.
Although not formally advertised by the airline as yet, the proposed four times weekly flights between Keflavik International Airport, serving the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, and both Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal and Lester B Pearson International Airport in Toronto are displayed in its website booking engine. This displays four times weekly links on each route launching from May 12, 2016 for Montreal and May 20, 2016 for Toronto.
Subject to obtaining the necessary government approvals, Air Canada rouge, the operator’s leisure business, will introduce a four times weekly link between Montreal and Casablanca from June 3, 2016. The route will be operated using a 280-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft offering a choice of premium and economy cabins and will continue through to October 17, 2016.
Air Canada will use its leisure airline, Air Canada rouge to add flights to Budapest, Glasgow and Warsaw and resume a link to Prague last served in the 1970s, while Air Transat will offer new flights from Canada to Glasgow, Nice, Pisa, Rome and Zagreb.
Icelandair will launch new nonstop service between Keflavik International Airport in Reykjavik and Montreal’s Pierre Trudeau International Airport on 19 May, 2016.
Air China and Air Canada signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2014 setting out the principles for an integrated revenue sharing joint venture. The MoU provides for an enhanced partnership on routes between China and Canada which is expected to stimulate traffic growth between the two countries.
The new flight, operated by a 280-seat Boeing 767-300ER will fly on a twice weekly basis through to October 11, 2015, complementing the airline’s existing link to Venice from Toronto’s Lester B Pearson International Airport for summer 2015, meaning it now offers more seats between Canada and Venice during the peak summer season than any other airline.
Greek start-up, SkyGreece will launch services to Canada, with new routes between Athens, Thessaloniki, Zagreb and Budapest to Toronto, following approval from the Greek and Canadian authorities.
Air Transat have released their timetable for summer 2015 to include a direct service from Montréal to Budapest, and from St. John’s (Newfoundland and Labrador) to London.
First reported by our schedules blog, Airline Route, the initial plan for summer 2015 and winter 2015/2016 suggests BA switching the operational aircraft on three routes. Its daily London Heathrow – Seoul Incheon route and six times weekly London Heathrow – Montreal link will be switched from 777-200ERs to the 787-8, while the daily London Heathrow – Austin service will see a 787-8 replaced by a 777-200ER.
