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