Air Cda expands South America svcs

[ptbodale]

AC will expand its services to South America for the Winter of 08


Winter service expanded to Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Air Canada is enhancing service to its major South American destinations next winter with the introduction of new non-stop service to Buenos Aires, an exclusive flight to Santiago and the introduction of a Boeing 777-300ER for Sao Paulo.

“Air Canada is improving its services to Argentina, Brazil and Chile in response to continued strength in these markets during the busy southern hemisphere summer, including the demand for connections between South America and our global network through our Toronto hub to Europe and Asia. By establishing two separate, non-stop services for Argentina and Chile and deploying our largest, most modern aircraft for Brazil, customers will have faster travel times and better connection opportunities than previously,” said Ben Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. “Moreover, all the aircraft serving these routes will feature lie-flat suites in Executive First and personal audio visual entertainment, a power plug
and USB port at every seat to provide customers the most modern amenities in the sky today.” For additional details, read the news release available on aircanada.com (About Air Canada/Media Centre/News Releases).

[DAL767-400ER]

Wow, good to see an airline finally use the 77W to South America, so far that's not been the case. Not seeing any flight times, I take it this will be a red-eye flight in both directions?

[TAP-A343]

Good luck to AC connecting South American pax to Europe.

[CathayPacific]

Good luck to AC connecting South American pax to Europe.

I suppose many South America bound passengers are from Asia actually, since the East Coast of North America actually lies at a better geographic position to connect between East Asia and South America than the West Coast (e.g. LAX). Besides, most Asian except Japanese and Korean cannot transfer through USA without a visa. Air Canada runs daily non-stop flights from Toronto to Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and HongKong. All things considered, it is actually the most convenient choice for East Asian to go to Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Brazil via YYZ with AC.

While in the European theatre, it faces fierce competition with Iberia and TAP, and of course all the other European carriers flying to GRU and EZE non-stop from their European hubs. AC also competes with AA for connecting passengers from European since EU citizens do not need visa to transit through USA and AA can offer much better connections through MIA.

[ptbodale]

Good luck to AC connecting South American pax to Europe.

We do get some European destined passengers, however the great majority of them are connecting on to Asia. Presently they will stay as red-eyes as their arrival in YYZ in the early morning gives the pax time to connect the pax to the NRT and HKG non-stops or out to YVR for KIX and ICN.

[uy707]

Sao Paulo hosts the largest Japanase speaking community outside Japan
I also expect an increase of sixth freedom from Europe, anyway, for instance, some people who can't stand flying with either AA or CO anymore but can't either get a seat on a Euorpean player for one reason or another.

[ptbodale]

Sao Paulo hosts the largest Japanase speaking community outside Japan.

I've seen up to 50% of the pax connect onto NRT.