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Air Canada announced five new international destinations and seven new routes for summer 2027 on September 3, 2026. Guangzhou, Oslo, Shannon, Basel and Dubrovnik join the network. Five of the seven new routes leave Toronto or Vancouver, and tickets are already on sale.
We have followed Air Canada’s network for more than a decade, and the airline calls this its largest intercontinental expansion ever. If you fly out of Toronto or Vancouver, the number that matters is not how many cities were added, but how many of them you can now reach without a connection.
Air Canada published its news release on September 3, 2026. The airline is adding five new international destinations and seven new routes for the summer 2027 season, with an increase of more than 8 per cent in available seat miles over summer 2026.
Toronto takes the largest share of the expansion with three new routes, Vancouver gains one, and Montréal gains two. That split matters more than the headline count, because a new route only helps if it leaves from your airport.
Air Canada has published schedules for six of the seven new routes, grouped below by hub. Times shown are local departure times for the outbound flight. Two aircraft carry most of this expansion: the Airbus A321XLR on the thinner European markets, and the Boeing 787 on the two longest routes.
The seventh route, Toronto to Guatemala City, is due to start in December 2026 and will operate year-round. Its schedule has not been published yet.
Air Canada becomes the only North American airline flying non-stop to Norway. Oslo joins Stockholm and Copenhagen, bringing its Scandinavian destinations to three. Flight AC 940 leaves Toronto four times a week, from June 2 to October 10, 2027.
The route goes to the Airbus A321XLR, with two cabins including Air Canada Signature and its lie-flat seats. Like Guangzhou, Oslo remains subject to government approvals, and it is the only European route in this announcement in that position.
Shannon becomes Air Canada’s second Irish destination after Dublin. The airline will be the only one linking Canada to Shannon without a stop, the natural entry point to Ireland’s west coast.
Flight AC 968 leaves Toronto three times a week, from June 10 to October 2, 2027, on the Airbus A321XLR. That is the shortest season in the announcement at just under four months, which will make Signature cabin rewards harder to find.
Guangzhou is the only one of the five new destinations that operates year-round rather than seasonally, and the only one outside Europe. Flight AC 77 leaves Vancouver three times a week from May 4, 2027, on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with Air Canada Signature, Premium Economy and Economy cabins.
It is the airline’s third destination in mainland China, after Beijing and Shanghai. Air Canada becomes the only North American carrier serving Guangzhou, and says it will offer up to 24 weekly frequencies across those three Chinese cities.
Choosing Vancouver follows the market. The city is home to one of the largest Cantonese communities in North America, and Guangzhou sits at the heart of the Pearl River Delta, a manufacturing and high-tech region.
Two honest caveats. The route remains subject to government approvals. And Guangzhou is the home base of China Southern, an airline in a different alliance, so Air Canada arrives against an established competitor with no partner feeding it connecting traffic.
With Basel, Air Canada becomes the only North American airline serving all three major Swiss cities. Zurich and Geneva were already on the network. Flight AC 966 leaves Montréal four times a week, from June 16 to October 23, 2027.
Basel is a European oddity. The airport is binational, sits entirely on French soil, and has a Swiss sector and a French sector. It carries three airport codes depending on which side you use: BSL on the Swiss side, MLH on the French side, and EAP as the combined code. Air Canada sells it as BSL.
The A321XLR on this route offers two cabins, including Air Canada Signature with lie-flat seats. The airline notes it is the only Canadian carrier offering a lie-flat business product to Basel, a city driven by banking and pharmaceuticals.
Air Canada has never served Dubrovnik, and its history with Croatia comes down to two failed attempts on Zagreb. Flight AC 950 leaves Montréal three times a week, from May 11 to October 23, 2027.
This time the airline is going for the coast rather than the capital, which changes the nature of the market from visiting friends and relatives to summer leisure. It is also the longest season of the six new routes at five and a half months, and it goes to a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Aeroplan publishes a reward chart by zone and distance band. For Europe, the Atlantic zone starts at 32,500 points in economy and 60,000 points in business on the first band, covering 0 to 4,000 miles.
Those amounts are floors. On Air Canada’s own flights the price then moves with date and demand: the observed median in business reaches 133,800 points on that same band. On partner airlines the rate stays fixed. A longer destination moves into a higher band and costs more.
A brand-new route has one concrete advantage: reward inventory opens at the same time as revenue tickets, and that happened on September 3. You are booking before the season fills up. Consider an Aeroplan stopover too, which adds a city for 5,000 more points.
The announcement goes beyond new cities, and three of the four enhancements are Toronto departures. This is often where the least contested reward seats are found.
Tenerife going year-round deserves a note. We covered that route as a winter 2026-2027 addition: it no longer stops in spring, it stays in place all year from summer 2027.
The first departures are in May and June 2027, so you have roughly eight months to earn. TD raised its Aeroplan offers on September 1, 2026, which lines up well with that goal.
Four cards lead to Aeroplan points. Click a card name to open its full review, or see our page on the best credit cards to compare every option available in Canada.
This is the offer raised on September 1, 2026: up to 50,000 Aeroplan points, with the $139 annual fee rebated in the first year. The spend required reaches $12,000 over twelve months. Estimated first-year value: $1,503.
The card also gives a free first checked bag on Air Canada, which adds up on a transatlantic trip with family. It is the default pick if you are aiming for Oslo, Shannon or Basel in economy.
The offer rises to up to 100,000 Aeroplan points, for a $599 annual fee and $24,000 of spending over twelve months. Estimated first-year value: $2,161.
It adds lounge access and a NEXUS credit. The math only works if you genuinely put $2,000 a month through the card, otherwise the bonus stays out of reach and the fee remains.
The two American Express Aeroplan cards ask for far less spending to unlock their bonus. The American Express Aeroplan Card offers up to 45,000 points for $7,500 over six months, and the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card up to 85,000 points for $7,500 over three months.
Measured against the spending required, the Reserve is the most generous of the four Aeroplan cards: roughly 11 points per dollar you have to spend, against a little over 4 with TD. Its $599 annual fee and three-month window still make it a demanding card.
Flights are already available at aircanada.com, through Air Canada Contact Centres and via travel agents. Aeroplan reward inventory is at its widest today, and it narrows as the season gets closer.
The real question is no longer where Air Canada will fly, but whether you will have the points when the best dates go. On a route with three weekly departures and a four-month season, booking early changes everything.
To follow this month’s Aeroplan offers, see our tracker of current promotions.
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Of the five new destinations, only one flies year-round. The four European routes run between four and five and a half months, which makes their rewards more contested than they look.
Tell us in the comments which of these routes you would actually fly, and from which airport. That is the answer we care about most, because a new route only counts if it leaves from where you live.
Here are the questions we see most often about Air Canada’s new routes.
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