L-R: Amanda Ladd, marketing manager, The Americas, Visit Victoria; Troy Vigushin, air tactician, Flight Centre Travel Group; Marc Roy, manager global accounts, Air Canada.
Tina The Travel Agent mingles with the crowd.
Air Canada flight attendants were on hand to take people on a VR journey aboard the airline’s Dreamliner aircraft.
Hosting industry friends at Flight Centre Canada’s flagship location in downtown Toronto on 17MAY, Air Canada and Visit Victoria were celebrating the newly announced YVR-MEL route, which takes effect 1JUN.
Operating three times weekly, this new direct, year-round flight is the result of a huge amount of demand for the destination, with Canadian arrivals to Victoria up 10% from the prior year to 52,000 – a number that represents a hefty portion of the overall number of Canadians visiting Australia in general, which was also up 10% from 2016 for a total of 167,000.
“We are really excited about Melbourne,” said Marc Roy, manager, global accounts at Air Canada. “Obviously traffic warranted bringing in this flight three times a week,” which, come 1DEC will increase to four flights a week.
The flight will be operated on Air Canada’s 787 Dreamliner, and – as Roy noted when speaking with Open Jaw – though it is out of Vancouver, is easily accessed from the rest of Canada through the airline's extensive domestic network.
Air Canada also operates flights into Sydney and Brisbane.
Kerry Sharpe Columnist
Having worked in travel for the last 16 years, Kerry has experience covering the industry as media, as well as being under its lens when she worked for Thomas Cook, TravelBrands and itravel2000. A new mom, Kerry recently returned to the workforce and when she’s not chasing after her daughter, you’ll see her out and about covering industry events alongside her new BFF Tina the Travel Agent.
