MONTREAL, June 29, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada Rouge is celebrating its birthday, marking five years of providing customers with memorable beginnings and endings to their holidays. From its first flight on Canada Day 2013, Air Canada's leisure carrier has grown to more than 50 aircraft from four, expanded to over 100 routes on five continents from an initial 14 routes, flown more than 25 million customers, and directly created 2,000 high-quality jobs for Canadians.

"In five short years Air Canada Rouge has established itself as an integral part of our Air Canada family by delivering an excellent customer experience in key leisure markets and in helping achieve our strategic business objectives. It allows us to offer travellers a much greater variety of attractive destinations while enabling us to successfully compete in an evolving industry. In doing so, it has exceeded all our expectations," said Benjamin Smith, President, Airlines and Chief Operating Officer, at Air Canada. "I commend our team at Air Canada Rouge for their devotion to making every flight memorable and I thank our customers for entrusting us with their holiday plans by choosing to fly with Air Canada Rouge."

For summer 2018, Air Canada Rouge has added more exciting international and domestic routes, including: Toronto and Montreal to Bucharest; Toronto to Porto and Zagreb; Toronto to Nanaimo and Kamloops, B.C.; Montreal to Lisbon and Montreal to Victoria, B.C.

Launched on July 1, 2013, Air Canada Rouge has continually refined its services for customers, including upgrades to its streaming in-flight entertainment system, new onboard food options and enhancements to the Premium Rouge cabin. Air Canada Rouge has also begun offering high-speed, satellite internet aboard its aircraft, giving customers access to the fastest internet service on a Canadian airline.

Fast Facts about Air Canada Rouge

• Over 25 million customers carried since launch
• Service to more than 70 destinations on five continents
• Over 2,000 high-quality incremental jobs created, including almost 600 pilots and over 1400 Rouge Crew
• Fleet of 53 aircraft (22 Airbus A319s, 6 Airbus A321s and 25 Boeing 767s).
• High-speed satellite internet being implemented across entire fleet

For more information, visit flyrouge.com or to book a flight visit aircanada.com. Connect with Air Canada Rouge on Facebook at facebook.com/aircanadarouge and on Instagram at instagram.com/aircanadarouge.

About Air Canada 

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 220 airports on six continents.  Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2017 served more than 48 million customers.  Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 64 airports in Canada, 59 in the United States and 97 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,317 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, which also named Air Canada the 2017 Best Airline in North America.  Air Canada was also named the 2018 Eco-Airline of the Year by the respected airline industry publication Air Transport World for its commitment to emissions reductions. For more information, please visit: aircanada.com/media, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.  

Internet: aircanada.com

SOURCE Air Canada