TORONTO – Air Canada rouge invited members of the media and industry partners for after-work drinks on Thursday to celebrate the launch of new seasonal flights to Eastern Europe.

Dubbed ‘Cocktails & Conversation’, the event was designed to highlight the local bar cultures of three new destinations being offered by the airline this summer: Prague, Budapest and Warsaw.

Flights between Toronto and Prague, and Toronto and Budapest will operate three times weekly, while Warsaw will see up to four weekly frequencies during the summer season. Toronto-Prague runs from May 29-Sept. 29, Toronto-Budapest will run from June 10-Oct. 15, while Toronto-Warsaw will operate from June 14-Sept. 30, 2016.

With these new routes, Air Canada will become the airline with the most frequent flights – and the most weekly seats – from Canada to Prague and Budapest. Flights will be operated by Air Canada rouge aboard Boeing 767-300 ER aircraft featuring 24 Premium rouge and 256 rouge Economy seats.

Attendees were invited to participate in a mixology class to create tasty concoctions typically found in each destination. According to Air Canada rouge, Eastern Europe’s cocktail and bar culture is in the midst of a mini revolution, with bartenders in Prague championing craft cocktails and Budapest revelling in its ‘ruin pubs’, chic spaces transformed from derelict buildings in the Jewish Quarter. In Warsaw, ‘Zakaska’ bars have become a hot ticket for their stylized throwback to Poland’s Communist era vodka bars.