Air Canada Expands South Pacific Network: Introduces Direct Service to Melbourne, Australia and Adds Capacity to Hawaii

Air Canada today announced it will expand its South Pacific network by introducing direct service between Toronto and Melbourne and by increasing capacity on the Vancouver-Honolulu-Sydney route effective November 30, 2001.

The airline will operate three times weekly 'same-plane' service Toronto to Melbourne via Honolulu using 212-seat Boeing 767-300 aircraft and, in response to customer demand, will increase capacity on daily Vancouver- Honolulu-Sydney service replacing the current 212-seat Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 284-seat Airbus A340. With the introduction of the Melbourne route, Air Canada will now operate ten weekly flights between Canada and Australia and in addition offers five weekly flights between Canada and Auckland in cooperation with Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand. Air Canada thus becomes the only carrier to provide non-stop service between Hawaii and Melbourne.

"We are delighted to introduce the only direct service between Canada and Melbourne," said Bill Bredt, Vice President, International. "Consistent with the Air Canada Action Plan announced August 1,2001, we are responding to new market growth opportunities in the South Pacific by increasing capacity from Vancouver to Sydney and expanding Honolulu as a strategic connecting hub for Air Canada's network. These new services provide our customers with maximum convenience and enhanced connections to key destinations in the South Pacific via Hawaii and at the same time allow us to redeploy aircraft more profitably by capitalizing on the strong South Pacific market," he said.

To promote the new Toronto-Melbourne service, Air Canada is offering a special introductory fare of $1,999 until August 28 for travel from November 30 to December 16 and December 30 to February 28, 2002. Air Canada is also offering double Aeroplan miles on selected fares when travelling on the new route between November 30 and December 15, 2001. Tickets are now available for sale through travel agents, Air Canada reservations and at www.aircanada.ca.

Air Canada flight AC3127 will leave Toronto at 6:15 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and will arrive in Melbourne at 08:30 a.m. From Melbourne, AC3128 will leave at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and will arrive in Toronto at 02:30 p.m. Air Canada's new service has been scheduled to allow for the best possible connections in Honolulu to and from Vancouver.

Toronto Honolulu Honolulu Melbourne
AC3127 1815 2305 0015 0830 (++)
Melbourne Honolulu Honolulu Toronto
AC3128 1000 2340 0040 1430

The redeployment of capacity on these new services to capitalize on market growth opportunities in the South Pacific is consistent with Air Canada's Action Plan, launched August 1, 2001. The Plan is being implemented to transform Canada's national carrier to meet the new challenges and opportunities of the rapidly changing market conditions in the airline industry. The plan calls for the carrier to reduce capacity for 2002 by approximately two percent from current 2001 levels.

Among the key elements of the Air Canada Action Plan are the reconfiguration of the fleet; the introduction of innovative new products; the e-powering of Air Canada's customers; and various new profitability and cost- reduction initiatives.

Today's announcement is one of a series of profitability initiatives that include the airline's successful on-line seat sale launched August 2.