Air Canada Unveils New Summer Routes, Including A321XLR Additions

It’s Air Canada’s turn to unveil its line up of new summer 2027 routes. On September 1, Air Canada dropped its own teaser video (similar to the likes of American and United), asking viewers to guess where they’d be flying to.

They have now lifted the veil, announcing both new routes and additional capacity on current routes to Asia, Europe and Latin America. As part of the announcement, we also see where they plan to deploy more of their long-range Airbus A321XLRs.

The summer schedule brings the addition of five new international destinations and seven new routes, along with increased schedules on key markets.

From Vancouver, Air Canada will be launching year-round services to Guangzhou, China. From its Toronto global hub, the carrier will begin service to Oslo, Norway; Shannon, Ireland; and Nice, France, while resuming the London Heathrow Daytripper, boosting its Shanghai flights to daily, and its new Guatemala City flights that begin this December will be year-round.

As for its Montreal hub, the carrier will launch services to Basel, Switzerland; and Dubrovnik, Croatia, while its Tenerife, Lima and Guatemala City flights will be upgraded to year-round.

“Summer 2027 marks the most extensive intercontinental expansion in Air Canada’s history, cementing our position as the second largest North American carrier by global destinations served. As Canada’s flag carrier, we are further investing to better connect and position our country as an important intersection of major international demand flows under our New Frontiers strategy. From the expansive trade hub in the Pearl River Delta to the relaxing Adriatic coastline, each of our five new destinations and many schedule enhancements support commerce and tourism and create exciting new opportunities for people to explore the world,” said Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer, and President, Cargo at Air Canada.

New Routes

Route	Starts	Frequency	Aircraft	Season
Vancouver (YVR) – Guangzhou (CAN)	May 4, 2027	3x weekly	Boeing 787 Dreamliner	Year-round
Montréal (YUL) – Dubrovnik (DBV)	May 11, 2027	3x weekly	Boeing 787 Dreamliner	Seasonal through Oct. 23
Toronto (YYZ) – Oslo (OSL)	June 2, 2027	4x weekly	Airbus A321XLR	Seasonal through Oct. 10
Toronto (YYZ) – Shannon (SNN)	June 10, 2027	3x weekly	Airbus A321XLR	Seasonal through Oct. 2
Toronto (YYZ) – Nice (NCE)	June 16, 2027	2x weekly	Airbus A330-300	Seasonal through Oct. 23
Montréal (YUL) – Basel (BSL)	June 16, 2027	4x weekly	Airbus A321XLR	Seasonal through Oct. 23

Currently, China Southern services the Vancouver – Guangzhou route, and will do so twice weekly in May when Air Canada’s service launches. As for Montréal to Dubrovnik, this will be an Air Canada exclusive. Currently, United is the only carrier that flies between DBV and a city in the western hemisphere, and that’s further south to Newark.

All other European connections are also exclusive to Air Canada for the moment, and would require a connection otherwise to connect between the above planned pairs. Even though the Toronto – Nice route can easily be covered by the A321XLR, it looks like Air Canada expects a lot more demand here, opting to go with a larger Airbus A330-300 instead.

I am surprised though that Air Canada chose to start the Nice route on June 16, as the 2027 Monaco F1 Grand Prix, which is just a short train ride away, is taking place on the weekend of June 3rd through 6th.

Increased capacity on existing routes

Route	Change for summer 2027
Toronto (YYZ) – London Heathrow (LHR)	Daytime “Day-tripper” returns as the fifth daily flight; operated by the A321XLR
Toronto (YYZ) – Shanghai (PVG)	Increases from four weekly flights to daily
Toronto (YYZ) – Guatemala City (GUA)	Winter route launching in December 2026 becomes year-round
Montréal (YUL) – Tenerife (TFS)	Extended from seasonal winter service to year-round
Montréal (YUL) – Lima (LIM)	Extended from seasonal service to year-round
Montréal (YUL) – Guatemala City (GUA)	Extended from seasonal service to year-round

Regarding existing routes, Air Canada is bumping up Tenerife and a number of its routes in Latin America to year-round service, while adding more frequency on flights to Shanghai and London. As the name implies, the Daytripper flight to London leaves Toronto in the day, and arrives in London in the evening. This gives passengers the ability to go to bed at a reasonable hour, allowing them to wake up refreshed the next morning and potentially avoid jetlag side effects.

It’s good to see more carriers offering new and increased connectivity, especially with the A321XLR being better at penetrating thinner routes where widebodies may not be economical.

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