Today, Vancouver International Airport / Aéroport international de Vancouver (YVR) welcomed the inaugural flight of Air Canada’s new route between YVR and Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport (TPE). The non-stop year-round service will arrive at YVR daily and is timed strategically to connect travellers to major destinations within Canada and North America.
“Air Canada continues to build their preferred transpacific hub at YVR and we are pleased they decided to launch this Taipei route as a daily, year-round service on the exceptional Dreamliner aircraft,” said Craig Richmond, President and CEO, Vancouver Airport Authority. “This new Air Canada route will provide passengers with added access to both business and tourism opportunities in Taipei as well as convenient connections to multiple destinations throughout Asia.”
This route uses the Air Canada’s 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, offering 30 International Business Class lie-flat pod suites, 21 Premium Economy and 247 Economy Class seats with upgraded in-flight entertainment. This new service benefits the local economy by creating 260 jobs at the airport and at hotels, restaurants, shops and tourist attractions. In addition, the service contributes $9.4 million in wages, $5.3 million in taxes and $15 million to B.C.’s GDP.
“Air Canada is very pleased to return to Taipei, an important and significant economic centre, as part of our ongoing global expansion,” said Benjamin Smith, President, Passenger Airlines at Air Canada. “Our Taipei flights are operated with our state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliners featuring our industry-leading international services. The strategic addition of these daily year-round flights strengthens our YVR trans-Pacific hub which combined with our extensive North American network, provides convenient options and a competitive elapsed travel time between North America and Taiwan.”
Taipei is considered to be a global city and is part of a major high-tech industrial area. Located approximately 40 km west of Taipei, this airport served more than 42 million passengers in 2016. TPE was recognized with a third place win in this passenger category in the World’s Best Airport with the Skytrax World Airport Awards in 2016.
Air Canada has also introduced service to Dallas in February, Denver in May and increased service to Los Angeles and San Jose to six and three times daily respectively, both on May 1, 2017. They will also be launching service to Boston on June 23, 2017. In addition, Air Canada launched the following international routes out of YVR this month: Nagoya, Frankfurt, London Gatwick and will be launching service to Melbourne in December. New services such as these are made possible thanks to YVR’s new five-year rates and charges program, ConnectYVR. The program provides a highly competitive rate structure and includes rates lower than any other major airport in Canada and competing US airports.