Revised agreement supports Canadian flag carrier's goal of international expansion

MONTREAL, July 4, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada welcomes today's announcement by the Canadian Government of an amended bilateral air services agreement between Canada and The People's Republic of China.

"Air Canada applauds these changes to the bilateral and we thank the Canadian and Chinese governments for their hard work to expand the agreement. Air Canada fully supports the liberalization of air services between Canada and China, which is Canada's second largest trading partner and a key market for our airline," said Ben Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Air Canada. "This summer Air Canada has already added a total of seven weekly return flights to Beijing from Toronto and Vancouver, raising the number of Air Canada return flights to Beijing and Shanghai to 35 per week. The enhanced bilateral further expands opportunities for Air Canada to extend its coverage of cities in China in cooperation with our Star Alliance partners Air China and Shenzhen Airlines. These changes will also support our international expansion, which we intend to accelerate as five new Boeing 777-300 aircraft start entering service in our fleet this month and the first of 37 Dreamliners begin arriving in early 2014."

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 175 destinations on five continents.  Canada's flag carrier is the 15th largest commercial airline in the world and in 2012 served close to 35 million customers.  Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 59 Canadian cities, 53 destinations in the United States and 67 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 1,328 destinations in 195 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 2013 for the fourth consecutive year.  For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com.

SOURCE: Air Canada