Air Canada plans to launch three new European routes next summer, expanding its network in the Czech Republic, Italy and Portugal.
The airline will introduce two services from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL), linking the city with Naples, Italy, and Porto, Portugal. Additionally, Air Canada will resume service to Prague from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), reintroducing the Czech capital to its network after an absence of more than five years.
Flights to Naples-Capodichino International Airport (NAP) will begin on May 16, 2025, operating four times per week with Boeing 787-8 aircraft. The service to Porto Airport (OPO) is set to start on June 4, 2025, also running four times weekly, but using 737-8 aircraft.
Air Canada serves three points in Italy at present, flying to Rome and Venice from Montreal and Toronto, as well as serving Montreal-Milan Malpensa. The YUL-NAP route will become the Italian airport’s fourth nonstop summer-season connection to North America once flights begin, adding to American Airlines’ service from Philadelphia, Delta Air Lines’ route from New York John F. Kennedy (JFK) and United Airlines’ flights from Newark.
In the Portuguese market, Air Canada previously served Porto from Toronto until October 2019. However, the airline has only offered flights to Lisbon since then, currently providing daily service from Toronto and six roundtrips per week from Montreal. The Montreal-Porto service will see the carrier go head-to-head with Air Transat, which serves the sector four times per week using Airbus A321neo equipment.
Elsewhere, Air Canada intends to operate seasonal flights from Toronto to Prague from June 6 through late September. Frequencies will be 3X-weekly using 787-8s.
The airline previously served the 4,150-mi. (3,606-nm) route seasonally from May 2016 to the end of the summer 2019 season. However, Prague has remained absent from Air Canada’s network ever since. OAG data shows that Prague currently has just one nonstop connection to North America, with Delta offering daily flights from JFK using 767-300s.
Air Canada’s plans to add new transatlantic service next summer come despite the airline recently reporting softer demand in Europe. During the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Aug. 7, Mark Galardo—Air Canada's executive vice president for revenue and network planning—said the airline had reduced its planned capacity growth for Atlantic routes by 8% and is redirecting those aircraft to Asia.
“Atlantic performance was particularly impacted by a weak point of sale in Europe and the competitive pressures on the Canadian point of sale,” he said. “We are keeping a measured approach to capacity.” However, Galardo added that leisure demand remains buoyant, in particular to Mediterranean markets.
“Overall, we believe that the result of our [second-quarter] performance in Europe is less about consumer weakness and more about competitive supply growth above what the market can sustain in the short term,” he said.
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