MONTREAL — The first of Air Canada’s new summer 2018 flights have taken off with more new domestic, transborder and international routes on the way, as the season shifts into high gear.

The first new route, Toronto-Omaha nonstop, is the first of 25 new year-round and seasonal routes the carrier is launching this summer. Both the Toronto-Omaha route and a new Edmonton-San Francisco nonstop route launched May 1. A third new route, Toronto-Buenos Aires, takes off today.

The new nonstop routes are consistent with company growth plans and will extend Air Canada’s network with new destinations and city pairings in Canada, the U.S. and internationally, says Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines at Air Canada.

“Air Canada is well established as a leading global carrier now serving 222 destinations on six continents,” said Smith. “These route additions broaden and deepen our already expansive network by adding new destinations and city pairings. In recent years, Air Canada has been profitably adding capacity and building its network so that today we now operate 430 routes, providing customers more choice and travel options aboard the Best Airline in North America, as rated by the respected Skytrax global survey.”

The 25 new routes will launch between May 1 and July 2, 2018 and include international services such as Vancouver to Paris and Zurich, Toronto to Buenos Aries and Shannon, and Montreal to Tokyo-Narita and Bucharest.

The routes include a combination of Air Canada mainline, Air Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express services.

* indicates seasonal route for summer 2018