MONTREAL — Air Canada has embarked on a major expansion of its network overseas, announcing seven new routes in Europe and Asia for next summer. Chief commercial officer Mark Galardo says the move signals a push to become a fully international carrier as the country’s largest airline aims to draw more on higher-margin globetrotters and less on purely domestic customers. “We talked about an Air Canada that would be further transforming itself into a global airline — not just a Canadian airline, a true global airline — and be focusing on further building its long-haul network,” Galardo said in a phone interview. The build-out also comes as Air Canada and its competitors struggle to navigate fuel costs as the Iran war drags on, a prolonged plunge in Canadian demand for U.S. travel and the years-long closure of Russian airspace to Western airlines — a serious hurdle to travel between North America and Asia, given the polar routes through Siberian skies. To help offset those challenges, the airline plans to launch new service to five foreign cities including Guangzhou, China — the trip from Vancouver steers clear of Russia — Oslo, Norway, and Dubrovnik, Croatia, cementing its status as the second-largest North American airline by overseas destinations served. Galardo stressed Canada’s location as ideal for layovers on trips between the Americas and Europe, which make up a key source of revenue. “What’s really critical for us is to position Canada as a global transit point for traffic to and from the Americas at large,” he said, pointing to Air Canada’s biggest hubs in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. “We’re 42 million Canadians, but when you look at our geographic placement, we can effectively serve a market that’s a billion people wide and deep.” Driving the expansion are new long-range Airbus A321 single-aisle jets as well as Boeing 787 wide-bodies, though major delivery delays have hampered their rollout. The first of an expected 30 A321XLRs arrived at Air Canada in April, with a “big batch” en route in 2027 and the final delivery slated for 2029, Galardo said. The Montreal-based company scaled back an initial order of 18 787-10s to 14 of the Boeing jets last fall amid production delays, but the first is set to touch down later this year and enter service in 2027. “Better late than never,” Galardo said. By next summer, Air Canada aims to operate more than 125 international routes to 85-plus destinations, excluding the U.S. The expansion will mark an eight per cent jump in overseas flight volumes compared to the summer of 2026. --- Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2026.
