Virgin Australia has announced that it will begin selling codeshare services on Air Canada flights between Los Angeles and three major Canadian cities from today, enabling customers to enjoy new connections between Australia and Canada.
Today’s announcement represents the implementation of the first phase of the strategic cooperation agreement between Virgin Australia and Air Canada, following the airlines’ execution of a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2016.
From today, customers traveling on Virgin Australia’s 18 return services per week between Australia and Los Angeles will also be able to book travel on Air Canada’s flights between Los Angeles and Toronto, Calgary and Montreal, for travel from 1 June 2017.
As part of the strategic cooperation between the airlines, Virgin Australia plans to place its code on Air Canada’s direct flights between Australia and Vancouver in a subsequent stage of the agreement. Air Canada currently operates daily non-stop flights from Vancouver to Sydney and Brisbane and plans to offer seasonal non-stop flights between Vancouver and Melbourne from December 2017.
In addition, from today, travelers flying on Air Canada’s daily services from Vancouver to Brisbane and Sydney will be able to book travel on connecting Virgin Australia flights to Adelaide, Canberra, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth, Christchurch and Auckland for travel from 1 June 2017. They can also book travel on Virgin Australia services from Sydney to Brisbane, Sydney to the Gold Coast and Brisbane to Wellington.
John Thomas, Group Executive Virgin Australia Airlines, said:
“We are proud to enhance our services from Australia to Los Angeles by offering seamless codeshare connections to three major Canadian cities. This codeshare agreement will make it easier for Australians to visit Canada and for Canadians to explore more of Australia and we are thrilled to be working with a world-class airline in Air Canada.
“Canada is an important inbound tourism market for Australia, with visitors spending AUD800 million in 2016 and visitor arrivals increasing by seven per cent on the previous year.”