Air Canada to increase Asian flights
Air Canada said on Tuesday it will increase the number of flights on several Asian routes as it is seeing higher demand now that the SARS epidemic had been contained and the peak summer months have started.
Canada's largest airline, whose traffic on Pacific routes plummeted by two-thirds as travelers stayed away from Asia during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, said it will increase capacity to five Asian destination by the end of the month.
The airline said it will resume daily flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.
It also said it will switch to bigger Airbus A340s from Boeing 767s to fly to Seoul and Osaka, while Boeing 747s will replace the smaller Airbus A340 for Tokyo.
The airline said it will operate 42 nonstop flights each week to six destinations in Asia.
Air Canada, which is trying to restructure under bankruptcy protection, said it has been losing up to C$5 million ($3.6 million) a day in since April as the SARS outbreak hit its Asian routes and its key Canadian hub in Toronto, the only city outside Asia where people have died from the flu-like illness