Enhanced summer schedule offers Canadian communities more service

    MONTREAL, Feb. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada announced today that with its
aircraft refurbishment program substantially complete, travellers taking
advantage of the airline's expanded summer schedule will travel in greater
comfort than ever before.
    "Air Canada is passing a milestone in its aircraft interior refurbishment
program. The renewal of our regular narrow body fleet will be complete by
June 1 and three quarters of our wide-body aircraft will also be ready for the
summer, meaning we can now guarantee a new or refurbished aircraft on our
major routes. With our new aircraft and refitted interiors, Air Canada
customers will be more comfortable than any armchair traveller, enjoying
lie-flat suites in Executive First on international flights and new seats
throughout all our aircraft, each featuring a personal audio-visual
entertainment system with free access to 36 movies and hundreds of CDs, a
120-volt power plug, a USB port and more," said Ben Smith, Executive Vice
President, Commercial, at Air Canada. "Further enhancing the travel experience
on Air Canada this summer is the consolidation of our operations in a single
terminal at our Toronto hub. With its new Maple Leaf Lounges, conveniently
located gates, and customs pre-clearance to the U.S., travellers can connect
seamlessly with our national, transborder and international network."
    Customers booking travel through www.aircanada.com are able to determine
at the time of booking through a red star designator that their chosen flight
will be operated with a new or refurbished aircraft. Recently, Air Canada
upgraded its reservation system to make it easier for travel agents to
identify new aircraft or those with the new interiors.
    Air Canada's 142 regular Embraer and Airbus narrowbody aircraft serving
primarily domestic and transborder routes will be either new or refurbished as
of June 1. Forty-five of its 60 long-haul, widebody aircraft will be either
new or have refitted interiors by the same date, allowing Air Canada to
designate key international routes to be served exclusively by these aircraft.
Among these routes are: Ottawa-London, Montreal-Paris, Toronto-Frankfurt,
Toronto-Tel Aviv, Toronto-Munich, Toronto-Zurich, and Toronto-Madrid. All
Toronto-Asia services will be operated using Boeing 777s equipped with the new
interiors as will Vancouver-Sydney.
    Air Canada also announced today its schedule for the summer of 2008. The
airline is introducing 13 new routes this summer. Schedule highlights include:

    Western Canada:
    ---------------

    Air Canada is increasing frequencies or capacity on 17 intra-Western
Canada routes as well as on routes to eastern Canada. The changes include a
new daily non-stop between Saskatoon and Ottawa and adding a second daily
frequency between Vancouver and Regina, a third daily flight between Vancouver
and Prince Rupert, a third daily flight between Kamloops and Calgary, a fourth
daily flight each between Calgary and the cities of Fort McMurray and
Victoria, and a fifth daily flight between Edmonton and Fort McMurray and
between Calgary and Montreal. In addition, Air Canada will expand to year
round the recently added second daily flight from Edmonton to Ottawa and a
third daily flight from Calgary to Ottawa introduced with the winter schedule.

    Central and Eastern Canada:
    ---------------------------

    Air Canada is adding new routes and increasing frequencies or capacity on
eight routes within Ontario and Quebec and on two routes in Atlantic Canada,
as well as adding additional service to Western Canada. The changes include
new non-stop daily service between Ottawa and the cities of Saskatoon, Thunder
Bay, and Charlottetown. There is also an added daily frequency between Toronto
and Sarnia. Other enhancements include a sixth daily frequency each between
St. John's, Nfld. and both Halifax and Toronto.

    Transborder:
    ------------

    Air Canada is adding four new transborder routes with daily service this
summer and increasing frequencies or capacity on 14 other routes. The new
routes are Toronto and Austin, Toronto and Richmond Va. (twice daily), Ottawa
and Washington (National Airport) and Calgary and Chicago. In addition to
these new routes, Air Canada is increasing service on other routes, including
adding a second daily frequency between Montreal and San Francisco, a third
daily frequency between Toronto and Charlotte, a second frequency between
Toronto and Kansas City and a second weekly frequency between Vancouver and
Maui. Finally, Air Canada is adding a 13th daily flight between Toronto and
New York. This brings to 24 the number of daily flights Air Canada operates to
three New York airports from Toronto (13 to La Guardia, seven to Newark and
four to Westchester County), providing customers the best choice for travel to
the area.

    International:
    --------------

    Air Canada is launching this summer the new international non-stop routes
of Toronto-Madrid and Ottawa-Frankfurt. As well, it is improving capacity or
frequencies on other routes and these include increasing the number of flights
between Vancouver and Seoul to ten a week from seven (pending government
approval), boosting service between Toronto and Tel Aviv to daily from five
times a week and increasing flights from Toronto to Buenos Aires/Santiago to
daily, up from five a week.

    Montreal-based Air Canada provides scheduled and charter air
transportation for passengers and cargo to more than 170 destinations on five
continents. Canada's flag carrier is the 14th largest commercial airline in
the world and serves 32 million customers annually with a fleet consisting of
335 aircraft. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, providing the
world's most comprehensive air transportation network.