Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 42 seconds.
Air Canada rouge continues its expansion of service between Canada and sunny Mexico with the March 22 launch of up to daily non-stop service between Montreal and Cancun. Air Canada rouge now offers service between Canada and four popular destinations in Mexico: Toronto/Montreal-Cancun, Toronto-Puerto Vallarta, Toronto-Los Cabos, and Toronto-Huatulco. As Air Canada rouge grows and expands, its newly reconfigured 280-seat Boeing 767-300ER, offering customers a freshly updated look inside and out, takes its first scheduled flight from Toronto-Cancun tomorrow.
“Cancun continues to rate as one of the most popular destinations for a sunny getaway and we’re delighted to offer the only daily non-stop service from Montreal to Cancun this summer season,” said Renee Smith-Valade, vice president of customer experience. “With this newest service to Mexico and the exciting addition of another wide-body aircraft to our fleet, our customers can enjoy a growing network of attractive destinations, aircraft featuring a variety of comfort options and warm, welcoming onboard service to help make sure their vacations start the moment they step onboard.”
Flights between Montreal and Cancun will be operated using 136-seat Airbus A319 aircraft, featuring three customer comfort options: rouge, rouge Plus with preferred seating offering additional legroom, and Premium rouge with additional personal space and enhanced service. Premium rouge customers to Sun and North American destinations enjoy priority check-in, security and boarding, complimentary onboard premium food and drink service and a complimentary iPad so that they can enjoy player, Air Canada rouge’s next generation in-flight streaming entertainment system.
Flights are available for purchase at www.aircanada.com and through travel agents.
As Air Canada rouge grows its fleet and route network, the airline’s newest Boeing 767-300ER is joining the family. The carrier’s third Boeing 767-300ER (FIN 633) arrived in Toronto earlier this week and will go into regularly scheduled service tomorrow, flying from Toronto-Cancun.
This latest addition to Air Canada rouge’s fleet was painted and reconfigured over the past 67 days in Singapore to operate under the Air Canada rouge brand. After the aircraft was stripped to its aluminum base, painters applied primer, two coats of white paint and finally used massive stencils to spray on the airline’s distinct red and burgundy branding. This aircraft, and all future B767-300ER aircraft at Air Canada rouge, features a larger, bolder burgundy “rouge” wordmark over the windows. In order to maximize fuel efficiency by adding minimal weight, the least amount of paint possible is applied while achieving optimal coverage. After conversion, the basic empty weight of the Air Canada rouge Boeing 767-300ER is lighter by 47 KG for a total weight of 88,121 KG, even with additional seats and winglets.
This aircraft includes two milestone firsts for Air Canada rouge. It is the first in the airline’s wide-body fleet with winglets, extensions at the end of the aircraft’s wingtips which provide increased lift generation and reduce drag by controlling the turbulence effect. It is also the first Air Canada rouge wide-body aircraft interior in modern grey and burgundy branding with slimline seats in a 280-seat configuration including 24 Premium rouge seats, 28 rouge Plus seats and 228 rouge seats.
This is the 15th aircraft in the Air Canada rouge fleet, which was comprised at launch in July 2013 of just four aircraft and will grow to 33 in 2014, including another B767-300ER this month for a total at year end of 8 Boeing 767-300ER and 25 Airbus A319 aircraft. The newest 767-300ER aircraft will, like other Air Canada rouge Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, fly to European destinations this summer, including four new routes: Montreal-Nice, Montreal-Barcelona, Toronto-Lisbon and Toronto-Manchester. The Boeing 767-300ER fleet will also operate new year-round Toronto-Dublin service, seasonal Montreal-Rome service and the continuation of summer service on routes launched in 2013: Toronto/Montreal-Athens, Toronto-Edinburgh and Toronto-Venice.
