MONTREAL — Air Canada this week launched its California expansion with the inaugural flight of a new service between Toronto and Orange County.

The new route is part of a major increase in capacity this summer between Toronto and California that also includes a new route to San Diego, more service to San Francisco and the introduction of a wide-body aircraft, featuring Air Canada’s Executive First service with lie flat suites, on select flights to Los Angeles.

This comes at a time when Virgin America plans to launch service to Toronto from both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“Air Canada is solidifying its position as the airline offering the most frequencies and capacity between Toronto and California. As a tourist, business and entertainment hotspot, Toronto has a natural affinity with California and that is why we are increasing capacity 51% over last year and operating 77 weekly flights between Toronto and California this summer. The launch of service to Orange County, plus additional service to Los Angeles and San Francisco and our new flight to San Diego mean Air Canada will offer customers the widest choice of flights of any carrier between Toronto and California,” said Ben Smith, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer at Air Canada.

The new flight to John Wayne International Airport in Santa Ana, Orange County from Toronto will be a daily, year-round service using a 120-seat Airbus A319.

Beginning June 1, Air Canada will increase service to Los Angeles by introducing a Boeing 767-300ER aircraft with Executive First, lie flat suites. With four flights a day in the morning, afternoon and evening, Air Canada offers customers the widest range of choice of flight times of any carrier serving Toronto-Los Angeles.

Also on June 1, Air Canada will add a fifth daily frequency between Toronto and San Francisco using an Airbus A319. With five flights a day in the morning, afternoon and evening, Air Canada offers customers the widest range of choice of flight times of any carrier serving Toronto-San Francisco.

Air Canada will commence service between Toronto and San Diego beginning June 17. Service will be provided using an Airbus A319.

Air Canada, along with Air Canada Jazz and its Tier III partners, will offer up to 144 scheduled flights each day to 51 U.S. destinations from its hub in Toronto, including 22 flights daily to and from California. In total, this summer Air Canada will operate up to 233 flights per day between six points in Canada and 55 destinations in the U.S. Between Canada and California alone, Air Canada will offer this summer 193 flights a week. In addition, this summer Air Canada will also serve 29 domestic and 41 international destinations from Toronto.