Air Canada announced that it plans to introduce non-stop service to Santo Domingo via Toronto beginning 3 November. Duncan Dee, senior vice president responsible for Air Canada?s corporate affairs, made the announcement in the presence of President Leonel Fernandez who was in Montreal last week for the International Economic Forum conference. President Fernandez commented that the new air-only service gives business travelers and freight forwarders direct access to this important market on a year-round basis.
The addition of three weekly flights to the Dominican Republic capital increases Air Canada’s service to as many as 21 weekly non-stop flights to the Caribbean nation from cities across Canada. Air Canada’s new Santo Domingo flights are scheduled to operate three times weekly on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Air Canada flight AC976 will leave Toronto at 13:05, arriving in Santo Domingo at 18:10, and flight AC977 will leave Santo Domingo at 19:00 arriving in Toronto at 22:35.
In addition to the new service to Santo Domingo, Air Canada operates non-stop flights to Puerto Plata and Punta Cana from cities across Canada: Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, London Ontario, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Moncton and Halifax. Canada’s flag carrier is the 14th largest commercial airline in the world and serves more than 29 million customers annually.
Consumers in Canada recently named Air Canada Vacations, the wholesaler affiliate of Air Canada, as the top travel wholesaler in Canada, winner of the 2005 Consumers Choice Award for Business Excellence in the category of travel wholesaler in Montreal and Ottawa-Gatineau. Winners of the CCA are determined by consumers through an objective, independent survey conducted in January 2005 by Leger Marketing-Member Gallup International Association.
The tour operator had already increased its flights to the DR. From four flights a week in 2002, Air Canada increased to 16 flights per week to the tourism airports of Punta Cana, La Romana and Puerto Plata.