Air Canada launched its direct flights between Vancouver and Manila on Thursday, with plans to increase the service to four times weekly by next month.
The North American airline now serves the most destinations in Southeast Asia non-stop, Air Canada said.
In a press briefing yesterday, April 3, Rocky Lo, Air Canada’s managing director for international sales, said the airline is initially operating three flights per week and plans to increase the frequency as demand grows.
“For April, we are operating three flights per week. However, starting in May, we’ll be increasing our frequency to four flights per week. So, hopefully, if we see demand growing, then we’ll review our schedule and see what we can do to increase the frequency into this city,” Lo said.
The inaugural flight landed in Manila at 6:04 am local time on Thursday, April 3.
“I can tell you that on our flight coming in today, it was fully booked and on our flight departure from Manila to Vancouver, it’s also fully booked,” Lo said.
The airline is optimistic about its expansion in the Philippines, given the presence of 1 million Filipinos in Canada.
“We have the confidence that this region is a growing market, and demand is also increasing. So that is the reason why we have this Vancouver-Manila launch starting today. And we do look forward to further growth here within the South East,” Lo added.
Air Canada’s Manila flights represent the airline’s 12th route in its transpacific network from Vancouver, which includes destinations in Japan, South Korea, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, leveraging Vancouver’s geographic position as the closest major North American city to Asia.
