MONTREAL, May 27, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today announced the appointment of Duncan Bureau as Vice-President, Global Sales.

Mr. Bureau will report directly to Ben Smith, Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer, and in this newly defined position will be responsible for revenue generated through all sales channels from all points of sale. He will be based in Toronto.

Mr. Bureau has extensive airline industry sales and product distribution experience in Canada and in Asia where he was most recently Senior Vice-President, Global Sales and Distribution at Malaysia Airlines.   He was previously with WestJet where he held the position of Vice-President Sales and Distribution between 2006 and 2012.

"I am pleased to announce Duncan Bureau's appointment to this key role of leading the sales team at Air Canada as we focus on maintaining a competitive advantage in the domestic Canadian market while we expand our international network," said Ben Smith, Executive Vice-President and Chief Commercial Officer.  "His proven talent, leadership skills and broad industry experience in sales, business development and product distribution in Canada and Asia make him the right candidate for this role as we work with key corporate, trade and distribution partners to create new business opportunities and continue to innovate the way we sell and distribute our product."

He succeeds Zeina Gedeon who has elected to leave the company to pursue other interests. "We thank Zeina for her dynamic leadership and strong contribution to the airline in a number of senior positions including that of President and CEO of Air Canada Vacations from 2006-2012 and we wish her well in her future endeavours," said Ben Smith.

Duncan Bureau's appointment is effective June 9, 2014.

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 180 destinations on five continents.  Canada's flag carrier is the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2013 served more than 35 million customers.  Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 60 Canadian cities, 49 destinations in the United States and 73 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 1,269 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 2013 for the fourth consecutive year.  For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com.

SOURCE Air Canada