MONTREAL – Air Canada will be ramping up its summer 2023 flight program thanks to an enhanced transborder joint business agreement with United Airlines. 

Through the agreement, the two airlines will be able to offer industry-leading capacity and new routes between Canada and the U.S. for summer 2023, including a new United-operated flight between Washington-Dulles and Calgary, and a new Air Canada-operated flight between Washington-Dulles and Vancouver.

The airlines have collaborated on optimizing their schedules (subject to applicable government and regulatory conditions), and added more flights to provide customers greater connectivity and more flexible flight times, with over 80 transborder codeshare routes and more than 260 daily flights.

“Through our longstanding partnership with United Airlines, Air Canada has been able to offer customers ever-increasing and significant benefits. This summer, customers will have even greater choice and convenience with our joint summer schedule made possible by our airlines’ new enhanced transborder agreement,” said Mark Galardo, Senior Vice President Network Planning and Revenue Management at Air Canada.

“Our coordinated schedules will provide business travellers with the convenience of hourly service and the additional comfort of a business cabin on all flights between Toronto and New York and Chicago, as well as Vancouver and San Francisco,” he added. 

Air Canada and United first announced a joint business agreement in July 2022 for the Canada-U.S. transborder market. The two airlines are also founding members of Star Alliance and a transatlantic joint business agreement with the Lufthansa Group.

Air Canada and United will offer business class seats on every flight between their respective hubs. 

NEW NONSTOP FLIGHTS TO WASHINGTON

New nonstop service between Vancouver and Washington-Dulles will begin June 1 and will be operated with an Air Canada Boeing 737 Max 8. United will also introduce a new nonstop flight between Calgary and Washington-Dulles on June 2 on an Airbus 319.

Air Canada and United will codeshare on these flights, allowing Aeroplan and MileagePlus members to accumulate and redeem miles. Eligible customers and loyalty plan members will also be able to enjoy benefits like priority check-in, lounge access, priority boarding and more, where available. 

TRANSBORDER SCHEDULE

The two carriers will operate more than 260 daily transborder departures in summer 2023, about a 20 percent increase in schedule capacity compared to summer 2022. The schedule will include up to 120 daily departures between the airlines’ hub markets, an increase from 101 in summer 2021. Flights will be timed to offer optimized connections at both Air Canada and United’s hubs and line stations.

SHUTTLE-STYLE SCHEDULE

The coordinated schedule will enable both carriers to offer shuttle-style hourly service throughout the day between key Air Canada and United hubs. The airlines will offer 29 daily flights with complementary timings between Toronto and New York/Newark and Chicago, and 11 daily flights between Vancouver and San Francisco.

WESTERN CANADA NETWORK TO THE U.S.

The airlines’ summer schedule also provides increased transborder service between the U.S. and Western Canada. There will be nine daily flights between Vancouver and New York/Newark, Houston and Chicago, and seven flights daily between Los Angeles and Vancouver. A second daily flight will be added between Calgary and both Chicago and Houston, and a second daily flight will also be added from Edmonton to Denver.