Air Canada eyes new long-haul destinations from Pearson Airport in Mississauga, Ontario
Published May 8, 2024 at 10:24 am
Air Canada is looking at adding new, long-haul destinations from Pearson Airport in Mississauga, according to a new report.
The travel industry is beginning to recover from pandemic restrictions and while some budget airlines are struggling, others are looking to future growth.
Travel was at 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in July 2023 and is expected to fully recover in 2024, according to United Nations Tourism.
An estimated 700 million tourists travelled internationally between January and July 2023, up 43 per cent from the same period of 2022 but still 16 per cent below 2019 levels.
Air Canada paints an optimistic look at the industry in its first-quarter investor overview for 2024 noting that “recovery (is) well underway.”
A chart shows a sharp decline in passengers in 2020 and 2021 with numbers slowly returning in 2022 and 2023.
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The report includes forward-looking information that may or may not come to fruition including expanding routes from Pearson Airport in Mississauga.
New, direct, long-haul destinations being considered include African cities Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; Lagos, Nigeria; and Tunis, Tunisia, according to maps shared in the report and a post from aviation news outlet Simple Flying.
European destinations considered include Oslo, Norway; Marseille, France; Porto, Portugal and Berlin, Germany.
Istanbul, Turkey is also mentioned as a possible long-haul destination.
It appears as if most of these flights would leave from Pearson but a few could fly out of Montreal.
There are also possible future routes from Vancouver to Manila, Philippines; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Melbourne, Australia.
Just when or if these long-haul routes would added is not yet known. Travellers will have to watch Air Canada for announcements in the future.
But Air Canada is also in the process of arranging lease agreements for some additional Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft that would be scheduled for delivery in 2024 and enter service in 2025, upon completion of reconfiguration, according to the company’s first-quarter media release.
See the full report from Air Canada here.
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