MONTREAL, Feb. 5, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada announced today it will launch this summer new, year-round Air Canada rouge services between Hamilton and Calgary and seasonal service between Toronto Pearson and Abbotsford. The non-stop, daily flights will give Canadian travelers more competitively-priced options when flying within Canada.

"Air Canada is very pleased to offer its customers additional options at compelling fares for travel in Canada. Located in the heart of the populous Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario, Hamilton is a convenient departure and arrival point for tourists and visiting friends and relatives. This makes it a market ideally-suited for Air Canada rouge with its competitive cost structure," said Benjamin Smith, President of Passenger Airlines, Air Canada. "Since it was launched a year-and-a-half ago, Air Canada rouge has proven popular with leisure travelers in the transborder and international markets. We are now selectively deploying it on a limited number of new domestic routes, such as Toronto-Abbotsford, as part of our strategy for sustainable, profitable growth and to complement our successful mainline domestic network."

The new daily services will begin operating June 27, 2015. Air Canada rouge will operate both routes with Boeing A319 aircraft with 136 seats offering two comfort choices: 12 Premium rouge seats‎ in the front cabin with enhanced service and personal space; and 124 rouge seats in the second cabin. To mark the launch, Air Canada rouge is offering introductory fares of $198 each way (taxes are extra). The schedule for these flights is:

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 185 destinations on five continents. Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2014 served more than 38 million customers. Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 61 Canadian cities, 50 destinations in the United States and 77 cities in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,321 airports in 193 countries. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax that ranked Air Canada in a worldwide survey of more than 18 million airline passengers as Best Airline in North America in 2014 for the fifth consecutive year. For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com.

About Air Canada rouge

Air Canada rouge is Air Canada's new leisure airline, part of the Air Canada Leisure Group, along with Air Canada Vacations. Together with Air Canada Vacations, Air Canada rouge offers competitively-priced travel to 50 exciting leisure destinations on 68 routes in Europe (including Edinburgh, Venice, Athens, Lisbon, Dublin, Nice, Barcelona, Rome and Manchester) and multiple destinations in Mexico, the U.S. and the Caribbean (including Cuba, Costa Rica, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic) and starting in 2015 – Japan and Canada.

Air Canada rouge offers a unique brand of customer service designed to make every flight a memorable start and end to a wonderful vacation. Aircraft are equipped with player, a next generation in-flight entertainment system that wirelessly streams entertainment to customers' personal electronic devices. Air Canada rouge's player system has proven popular as customers increasingly bring their own personal electronic devices onboard.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary, Air Canada rouge is backed by Air Canada's 75-year reputation for safety and reliability and Air Canada Vacations' 30-plus year history of vacation travel excellence. For more information or to book a flight, visit www.flyrouge.com. Visit Air Canada rouge on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aircanadarouge.

SOURCE Air Canada