Air Canada Rouge, Flying to Cuba and Beyond in 2013

New Airline Alert: Air Canada Rouge, Flying to Cuba and Beyond in 2013
Where: Canada
December 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM | by JetSetCD

Hey look! There's fun new airline stuff happening up in the Canada, too!
Today, Air Canada makes the announcement that they're proceeding with
the launch of a low-cost carrier little brother airline, to be called
Air Canada rouge, a name decided through a Facebook contest. Yes, that
"R" is lowercase, but we're going to uppercase it from here on out to
save our sanity.

Beginning July 1, 2013, Air Canada Rouge will jet from Toronto to a
variety of international destinations, some never before serviced by Air
Canada itself. We're talking Venice, Edinburgh and Athens from $949
roundtrip, Cuba from $538 (roundtrip) and Jamaica, Costa Rica and the
Dominican Republic from $269 (one-way). These are the introductory,
yay-we-will-fly-soon fares to get you all hot and bothered, and they're
good for booking on aircanada.com and aircanadavacations.com until
December 25, 2011.

Rouge will only be nabbing four planes from Air Canada's mainline fleet
to begin with, two Boeing 767-300ERs and two Airbus A319s. Five years
from now, they'd like to have a whopping 50 planes tarted up in the
Rouge livery for leisure routes, not to mention that Air Canada's
package vacation business will be funneled into Rouge flights.

Luckily they've got the jumpstart on another Canadian low-cost carrier
due to launch; we're talking about WestJet Encore, which will focus on
undermining Air Canada's domestic routes, though it isn't due to start
doing its thing until later in 2013. Rouge will mainly compete with
WestJet's Vacations sector, as well as Sunwing and Air Transat on their
leisure routes.


Let's see that new livery again!

Launch destinations, from Toronto unless otherwise specified:
Venice, Italy (brand new!)
Edinburgh, Scotland (brand new!)
Athens, Greece (from Montreal & Toronto)
Varadero, Cuba
Cayo Coco, Cuba
Holguin, Cuba
Santa Clara, Cuba
San Jose, Costa Rice
Liberia, Costa Rica
Kingston, Jamaica
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
Samana, Dominican Republic

Will Air Canada Rouge seamlessly link up with other Star Alliance
flights at Toronto-Pearson? YES, with through ticketing and checked
baggage, even.

Will you earn miles with Aeroplan or Star Alliance for Air Canada Rouge
flights? YES.

Will there be a business class? YES, if you're flying on their 767s.
Here's the cabin make-up, straight from the official press release:

The Air Canada rouge fleet will initially be comprised of two
Boeing 767-300ER aircraft to operate transatlantic flights in a
two-cabin configuration offering a selection of rouge Plus™ seats with
additional legroom and Premium rouge™ seats featuring additional seating
comfort, space and enhanced meal and beverage service; and two Airbus
A319 aircraft to operate North American flights in an all-economy
configuration offering a selection of rouge Plus seats with additional
legroom.

Still curious? Rouge has its own site with all the info you could ever want.

http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/12/18/11587/834/travel/New+Airline+Alert%3A+Air+Canada+Rouge,+Flying+to+Cuba+and+Beyond+in+2013