Company Watch - Air Canada.

Edited by Aram Gesar, [e-mail] For more global news, data, analysis and features, please go to: http://www.AirGuideOnline.com/professional.htm Sep 18, 2006

Air Canada is coming on strong with major hikes in its services this winter heading south to southern California and Las Vegas. It has upped frequencies on the LAX-Calgary run to three daily nonstops, compared with two last winter; Calgary-Palm Springs will get its own daily nonstop run starting December 15. That flight will be operated with the 75-seat CRJ-705 and Montreal-LAX will see 13 roundtrips a week this winter compared with seven last year. Las Vegas will get 11 more nonstops this year over the schedule last year. Vancouver International-LAS will add two to the previous daily schedule. That run uses the 120-seat A319. Starting September 7, Edmonton-LAS will have two weekly nonstops, also using the A319, compared with just one last year. Also on September 7, Winnipeg-LAS will operate twice a week using the CRJ-705 and Montreal-LAS will operate twice daily, compared with nine a week last winterLook for Frontier Airlines to expand its Mexico services this week. LW has received the DOT's OK to operate four times a week between Denver International and Guadalajara, Mexico. If all goes according to plan, Frontier will operate starting December 22 on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The airline considers Guadalajara a major business destination for it, as opposed to its other services to resort communities. But it's not the only carrier looking south of the border for new business. Starting in mid-December, Delta Airlines mounts a campaign to become a major player in the Mexican and Central American markets from Los Angeles. It plans to add 16 new routes over a period of some two months. Mexican cities to be served nonstop under this new program will be La Paz, Acapulco (three times a week), Loreto, Mazatlan, Culiacan, Manzanillo, Zacatecas, Hermosillo and Torreon. A weekly run each to Liberia in Costa Rica and Guatemala City, Guatemala are also on the start-up schedule. Sep 16, 2006

Air Canada launched twice-weekly flights to Las Vegas from Edmonton aboard an A319 and from Winnipeg aboard a CRJ705 operated by Jazz. Sep 15, 2006

Air Canada signed a deal with ITA Software to develop a new reservation management system for deployment late next year. Sep 15, 2006

Air Canada mainline and Jazz flew a combined 5.04 billion RPMs in August, up 2.5% from the year-ago month. Capacity rose 3.5% to 6.02 billion ASMs, dropping load factor 0.8 point to 83.7%. Domestic traffic grew 3.5% to 1.67 billion RPMs against a 4.9% lift in ASMs to 2 billion. Load factor fell 1.1 points to 83.4%. International RPMs dropped 2.6% to 2.59 billion, capacity fell 2.2% to 3.04 billion ASMs and load factor was down 0.3 point to 85.2%. Sep 15, 2006

Air Canada is adding capacity to Eastern Canada following the demise of Halifax-based CanJet Airlines' scheduled service. From October, AC and Air Canada Jazz will add weekday flights from Halifax to Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Deer Lake. "For November and beyond, Air Canada will analyze market conditions and look for opportunities to increase Air Canada and Jazz service to meet customer demand," the company said. Sep 11, 2006