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Air Canada plans an average of 57 daily long-haul departures between October and next July. Analysis of the 
Star Alliance member’s schedule submission to OAG shows that the number of flights has risen by a considerable 12% year-over-year.
11 new and returning routes have contributed to this expansion. So has the airline’s considerable increase in narrowbody operations, which have grown twelvefold in the examined period. This is, of course, mainly because of the Airbus A321XLR, but Boeing 737 MAX 8 deployment has doubled too.
Air Canada Will Begin These 11 Long-Haul Routes
From October until July 2027, Canada’s flag carrier and largest operator intends to introduce the following routes. As all of them have already been announced, this article simply summarizes what is happening.
As this reflects what is known as of September 21, it is possible that other links will be announced for next summer. If so, they’ll be covered separately. The list excludes routes that have existed since 2025 and are currently suspended but which are due to return soon.
The following markets are all from Air Canada’s hubs of Montréal–Trudeau International Airport (YUL), 
Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Some kick off at the end of October, which is when northern carriers, including Air Canada, switch to winter schedules.
Launch Or Resumption Date | Long-Haul Route | Air Canada’s Operations* | Has Air Canada Had Flights On The Route Before?*** |
|---|---|---|---|
October 25, 2026 | YYZ to Tenerife South | Two weekly A321XLR (winter only) | No |
October 31, 2026 | YUL to Tenerife South | Initially weekly, rising to three weekly A321XLR (the original plan was for this route to run in the winter, but it’ll now be year round) | No |
December 4, 2026 | YUL to Quito | Three weekly 787-8 (winter only)** | No |
December 5, 2026 | YYZ to Quito | Weekly 787-9 (winter only)** | Yes (2019-2020 by Rouge) |
December 17, 2026 | YVR to Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport (CTS) | Three weekly 787-8 and 787-9 (winter only) | No |
May 4, 2027 | YVR to Guangzhou | Three weekly 787-9 (year round) | No |
May 11, 2027 | YUL to Dubrovnik | Three weekly 787-8 (summer only) | No |
June 2, 2027 | YYZ to Oslo | Four weekly A321XLR (summer only) | No |
June 10, 2027 | YYZ to Shannon | Three weekly A321XLR (summer only) | Yes (in 2018) |
June 16, 2027 | YUL to Basel | Four weekly A321XLR (summer only) | No |
June 16, 2027 | YYZ to Nice-Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE) | Two weekly A330-300 (summer only) | No |
* Known as of September 21, but subject to change ** Some may say these aren’t long-haul | *** Since 2004 |
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Sapporo Will Become Air Canada’s New Shortest Service To Asia
In January this year, Air Canada revealed that it’d take off for CTS, which is the gateway for winter activities, including skiing and other snow-based things. When the brand-new link was announced, the carrier was going to be the only operator flying nonstop from North America to CTS. That has now changed, as fellow Star Alliance member United Airlines will introduce service from its San Francisco hub.
Covering 3,726 nautical miles (6,901 km) each way, it’ll become Air Canada’s new shortest route to Asia, but the number of local passengers is tiny. It will be 8% shorter than what was number one for many years: YVR to 
Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT). Given the lack of alternatives, it is highly likely that YVR-CTS will be the airline’s shortest link to the continent ever.
Air Canada will now serve four airports in Japan. In addition to CTS (flown from YVR) and NRT (from YUL, YYZ, and YVR), there’s also Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (KIX; from YVR and YYZ) along with 
Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND; from YYZ). The introduction of service to CTS means that YVR will have more departures to Japan in January 2027 than in any other January for 20 years.
That’s Nice: Air Canada Doubles Routes To The Côte d’Azur
Air Canada has flown to NCE since May 2014, when the lower-cost unit, Rouge, launched service from YUL on the Boeing 767-300ER. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no flights were available in 2020 or 2021. When they returned in 2022, mainline operations used the A330-300 (shown above). Between 2024 and 2026, the 787-8 or 787-9 also appeared.
On June 16, 2027, Air Canada will lift off from YYZ to NCE for the first time, thus doubling its offering to the ever-popular destination in the South of France. It appears that no other airline has served the market before.
Booking data via OAG Traffic Analyzer shows that 28,000 round-trip local passengers flew in 2025, which meant it had around half the traffic of YUL-NCE. However, the average fare to/from YYZ was 71% higher than for YUL, which was largely due to having more premium traffic.
