With Air Canada's top brass in the city to meet and greet with some of their best clients (Super Elites etc.) the question was posed (again) to Air Canada whether we could see direct service to Asia from Calgary. Back in April we posted about the new Canada-Japan Bilateral agreement that allows for more service between the two countries and according to the press release a Canadian airline was looking to start once weekly service in Summer 2010. This could be the Air Canada link. According to this article in today's Calgary Herald, Air Canada is weighing on the subject and states that flights could start as soon as 2010 between Calgary and somewhere in Asia if the business community pledged their support.
What the article does not cover is that the Asia market is not doing as well as it should be out of Canada, Singapore Airlines has pulled out of Canada, Cathay Pacific has cut back their Vancouver and Toronto flights and Air Canada has made some frequency reductions. The only airline that has added capacity is Korean Air. Could this flight be a reality? Absolutely, Air Canada could give it a shot, like the Japanese press release that mentions one flight per week and see how that works, however to get business community support, you need more frequency then one flight per week (granted Air Canada's saving grace is having Vancouver so close that routing/rerouting people via YVR is not that hard)
Only time will tell if this elusive route is ever launched and if it is, Calgary, you'll have to use it to make sure it sticks around.
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