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In the coming months, Canadian flyers are set to be treated to a considerable European expansion, with 
Air Canada and Air Transat launching a combined five new transatlantic routes. These corridors are primarily leisure-focused and aimed at those seeking some much-needed winter sun. They also largely serve secondary destinations on long, thin routes, with narrowbodies dominating these operations.
But where will they serve, when will they start, and what sorts of frequencies can prospective passengers expect when flying on them? Using current scheduling data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, we will answer all of those questions and more in this article. Either way, these developments offer a fascinating insight into the current direction of long-haul flying.
Air Canada’s Tenerife Expansion
Canadian flag carrier and 
Star Alliance founding member Air Canada is responsible for two of the five routes, with the destination in both cases being Tenerife South Reina Sofía Airport (TFS) in Spain’s Canary Islands. The airline plans to fly there with the Airbus A321XLR from two of its most important hubs in eastern Canada: Montréal Trudeau International Airport (YUL) and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ).
Air Canada’s Airbus A321XLR Layout | |
|---|---|
Class | Seats |
Business | 14 |
Economy | 168 |
Flying out of Montréal, Air Canada notes that passengers can expect weekly flights (every Saturday) from October 31 to April 24, 2027. The Toronto-Tenerife route, meanwhile, will run for slightly longer and at a higher frequency, with two flights a week (Thursdays and Sundays) running from October 25 to April 29, 2027. Mark Galardo, the EVP, CCO, and President of Cargo at Air Canada, commented the service.
“The addition of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, reflects our continued ambition to offer our customers and Aeroplan members an exceptional, diversified array of unique Air Canada destinations.”
Three New Routes For Air Transat
Air Canada’s expansion into Tenerife will not be the only instance of a Canadian carrier adding the Canary Islands to its route network this winter. Indeed, Air Transat has similar plans, as it is set to launch flights from Montréal and Toronto to Gran Canaria using the Airbus A321LR. These twinjets are more densely configured than Air Canada’s A321XLRs, with 12 business and 187 economy seats.
On both of its new routes to Gran Canaria, passengers can expect weekly flights from mid-December to early April. Those flying from Montréal will take to the skies on Saturdays, while departures from Toronto will be on Sundays. Air Transat announced these routes in May as part of a wider network expansion, which also included plans to link Québec City with Río Hato in Panama.
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An earlier winter addition will come to Air Transat’s burgeoning European network in the form of its new corridor from Montréal to Istanbul Airport (IST) in Turkey. Operated by its A330s, these flights will commence on October 29 and run twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
An Overview Of The Canada-Europe Market
Europe as a whole is a very important long-haul market for Canadian aviation. Looking at August 2026 alone, data from Cirium shows that 4,651 Europe-bound departures have been scheduled from airports in Canada. Air Canada and Air Transat are, of course, the largest operators on this front, respectively operating 1,647 and 860 flights. Fellow Canadian airline WestJet sits third on the list, with 498.
Among European airlines, Air France is the top operator in this market, with 266 departures in August offering a total of 95,457 seats. Three more European flag carriers have three-figure flight totals: British Airways with 186, Lufthansa with 181, and KLM with 177. At the other end of the spectrum, Air Serbia has the lowest presence, with just nine departures (two a week) from Toronto to Belgrade.
