Air Canada Express first carrier to operate into re-opened airport
MONTREAL, June 10, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - With the arrival of
Air Canada Express flight AC8371, the carrier's customers were the first to arrive at Fort
McMurray International Airport today following the airport's re-opening to limited commercial scheduled flights.
"We extend a warm welcome to our Fort McMurray customers and in particular, to people
who are returning home. We also want to thank the employees of our Air Canada Express partner Jazz, the team at
Fort McMurray International Airport, the first responders and the countless men and women who are
working around the clock for their extraordinary efforts in assisting Fort McMurray, and for their
tireless work in making the return to commercial air service possible today," said Kevin Howlett,
Senior Vice President, Regional Markets & Government Relations at Air Canada.
"It's been our privilege to transport members of Team Rubicon, many other first responders and to transport medical supplies for
Global Medic in our support for Fort McMurray. We are working closely with all partners involved
to help get Fort McMurray residents back home as quickly, conveniently and comfortably as
possible.
"To accommodate returning residents, we are actively adding capacity from cities across Canada
to Alberta, and scheduling larger aircraft including our 400-seat Boeing 777 aircraft to
Alberta. We expect to ramp up to our full schedule in the coming weeks, once the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
operational restrictions for commercial airlines are lifted," concluded Kevin.
As our flight schedule to Fort McMurray is subject to change due to the Alberta government's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's commercial operating restrictions in place to
ensure the safety of both active firefighting and commercial carriers using the airspace, we strongly recommend customers check the
status of their flights prior to departing for the airport.
Additional customer information about tickets including a 25% discount off fares from across Canada to Edmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray, travel information, as well as Air Canada's initiatives supporting Fort McMurray can be found at: https://www.aircanada.com/en/news/160504.html.
Air Canada normally operates up to two daily flights between Fort
McMurray and Toronto, and up to 10 daily Air Canada Express flights between Fort McMurray and Edmonton, Calgary and
Vancouver.
About Air Canada
Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international
airline serving more than 200 airports on six continents. Canada's flag carrier is among the
20 largest airlines in the world and in 2015 served more than 41 million customers. Air Canada provides scheduled passenger
service directly to 64 airports in Canada, 55 in the United
States and 87 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and
South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,321 airports in 193
countries. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive
a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax. For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.
SOURCE Air Canada