Air Canada Inaugurates Melbourne Service

Air Canada today inaugurates direct service between Toronto and Melbourne when flight AC3127 leaves Lester B. Pearson International Airport at 1725 en route to Australia via Honolulu. To promote the new service, Air Canada is offering double Aeroplan miles on selected fares when travelling on the new route until December 15, 2001.

"Today marks the inaugural of the only direct service between Canada and Melbourne featuring same-plane service from Toronto and convenient connections in Honolulu to and from Vancouver," said Mary Jordan, Senior Vice President, International and British Columbia, en route to the Victorian capital. "Our new Melbourne service is an integral part of Air Canada's expanding South Pacific network, allowing us to redeploy aircraft profitably while capitalizing on new market opportunities."

Air Canada's new tri-weekly Toronto-Melbourne service complements the carrier's daily Vancouver-Sydney flights, for a total of ten weekly flights between Canada and Australia and the only non-stop service between Hawaii and Melbourne.

Flights on the new route are operated with spacious 212-seat Boeing 767-300 aircraft featuring the airline's award-winning Executive First and Hospitality service.

Air Canada flight AC3127 leaves Toronto at 5:25 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and arrives in Melbourne at 8:30 a.m. From Melbourne, AC3128 leaves at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and arrives in Toronto at 3:35 p.m. For customers originating in Western Canada, the new Melbourne service has been scheduled to allow for convenient connections in Honolulu to and from Vancouver.