“With leisure time at a premium, Air Canada
Rouge will combine affordable fares, great
service and choice leisure destinations with
those bene ts offered by Air Canada and Air
Canada Vacations.”
Initial destinations were a mix of new
(Venice and Edinburgh) and existing
seasonal routes from Montreal and Toronto
to Athens, transferred from the parent,
in addition to existing Air Canada ights
operated in conjunction with Air Canada
Vacations to Cuba, the Dominican Republic,
Jamaica and Costa Rica.
Rouge was one of the pioneering carriers
to permit passengers to use their own
personal entertainment devices using a
wireless streaming app called ‘Player’, which
can be downloaded before ight.
The airline promotes itself as a part
of the whole holiday experience, even
sending cabin crews to the Disney Institute
for service training, as well as courses
conducted by Air Canada.
Rouge expanded to other popular
holiday destinations as the parent airlineredeployed aircraft following introduction of
the new 787 Dreamliner (a -8 variant) into
mainline operations. This began on May 18,
2014 with the arrival of AC7008 at Toronto’s
Pearson Airport, carrying 100 employees
on its delivery ight. The 787-9 arrived just
over a year later on July 31, 2015. In just
18 months the Rouge eet had reached 28
aircraft, operating mainly to Europe, the USA
and the Caribbean.
There were other changes in 2014. In the
July, a new International Premium Economy
cabin was unveiled, rst introduced on the
Montreal – Paris route, featuring larger,
wider seats providing more recline. It also
announced the purchase of 61 Boeing 737
MAX aircraft, which will eventually replace
the entire Airbus eet.GROWING GLOBAL REACH
The whole company now comprises three
divisions: Air Canada, its leisure carrier Air
Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express,
providing regional and charter services.
It is the nation’s largest domestic and
international airline serving more than 200
airports on six continents.
In 2016, there was a signi cant increase
in global reach with the launch of 28 routes
including 15 international and 12 US trans-
border routes. In total that year the airline
ew 45 million passengers. A new service
to Morocco enabled the airline to join the
elite club of global carriers serving six
continents. Other routes included Toronto to
Seoul, London Gatwick, Prague, Budapest
and Warsaw, with Montreal to Casablancahttp://www.aviation-news.co.uk 81Above: During its 70th anniversary year in
2007 Air Canada welcomed the rst of its
new Boeing 777-300ERs con gured with
42 Executive First Suites and 307 seats in
Economy Class. Air Canada
Right: Air Canada’s rst Boeing 737 MAX 8,
C-FTJV. Air CanadaThe airline’s International Business Class cabin on a Dreamliner. Air CanadaNew employee uniforms were introduced to
coincide with the launch of the current livery.
Air Canada78-82_canadaDCDC.mfDC.mfDC.indd 81 08/01/2018 11:31