VANCOUVER — Air Canada’s leisure carrier subsidiary, Air Canada rouge, is expanding to Western Canada to serve a number of predominantly leisure markets from Vancouver and Calgary to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Anchorage.

Flights on these routes, currently operated by Air Canada, will be converted to Air Canada rouge service beginning this spring, as will flights to San Diego from Toronto.

In addition, the airline announced that it will introduce new seasonal nonstop service operated by Air Canada rouge between Vancouver and Phoenix beginning Dec. 17, 2014. Existing service from Calgary and Toronto to Phoenix will also be converted to Air Canada rouge. Flights and optional Air Canada Vacations packages are available for purchase at aircanada.com and through travel agents.

“We are very excited to bring Air Canada rouge to Western Canada and launch new seasonal service between Vancouver and Phoenix. The expansion of our leisure carrier to Vancouver and Calgary, in tandem with Air Canada’s mainline fleet renewal, is a key element of our strategy for sustainable, profitable growth at both airlines,” said Ben Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. “California and the U.S. Southwest are favourite vacation destinations for our Western Canada customers and Anchorage is an important port of call offered with Air Canada Vacations cruise packages. Air Canada rouge is best suited to compete more cost effectively in these markets where there is both a high leisure travel demand and low-cost competition.

“We will continue to evaluate future market opportunities as new aircraft are introduced into the mainline fleet and existing aircraft are released for operation by Air Canada rouge as market demand warrants.”

Air Canada flights on the following routes will be converted to Air Canada rouge Airbus A319 service beginning this spring:

• from Vancouver to Las Vegas, daily flights effective April 28; Los Angeles, four times daily effective May 1; Anchorage, daily effective May 16; San Francisco, four times daily effective July 1; Phoenix, daily effective Dec. 17.
• from Calgary to Las Vegas, daily effective April 28; Los Angeles, twice daily effective May 1; Phoenix, daily effective Dec. 17.
• from Toronto to San Diego, daily effective March 29; Phoenix, daily effective May 4; up to three times daily during the winter season.

With the addition of these routes, together with its previously announced summer 2014 schedule to Europe, the Caribbean and the United States, Air Canada rouge plans to operate a total of 54 routes, including new service this summer to Barcelona, Dublin, Lisbon, Manchester, Nice and Rome.