More flights added to these U.K. and European cities from Pearson Airport in Mississauga

As more and more people return to travel, airline companies look to add flights.

The busy summer travel season this year has Air Canada looking ahead to next year.

Today (Sept. 5), Air Canada announced it is increasing flights to many European and United Kingdom destinations from Pearson Airport in Mississauga next spring and summer.

There will be additional flights from Pearson to Athens, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Lisbon, London, Manchester, Rome and Venice in 2024, Air Canada announced.

And Air Canada seasonal flights from Pearson to Brussels and Edinburgh will start earlier in 2024. May 1, 2024 for Brussels, and March 1 for Edinburgh.

Air Canada is also adding a new, year-round route between Montreal and Madrid beginning next May, as part of its expanded international summer 2024 flying schedule.

With these flight schedule increases, Air Canada plans to operate 100 per cent of its peak summer 2019 trans-Atlantic capacity next year, taking full advantage of the robust recovery in its largest international market.

“Air Canada saw a tremendous rebound in international flying this past summer, particularly on the trans-Atlantic, and we expect Europe will remain popular next year,” said Mark Galardo, executive vice president of revenue and network planning at Air Canada. “In anticipation of this, we are expanding our flying schedule to offer customers more choice and flexibility as they begin to plan their 2024 holidays.”

Air Canada flight changes from Pearson Airport:

Galardo noted a “significant” expansion of flights to Italy, with a combined three daily flights from Toronto and Montreal to Rome, as well as daily services to Milan and Venice.

“This underpins the importance of Italy in Air Canada’s global network, as we are the largest carrier between Canada and Italy, and the only one connecting the two countries on a year-round basis,” said Galardo.

Air Canada isn’t alone in seeing an increase in travel demand.

Canadian Air Transport Security Authority’s count of passengers passing through the country’s largest airports shows numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels.

For example, on Aug. 26, 2023, 172,029 passengers were screened compared to 162,872 on the same day in 2019. Those numbers had dropped to 21,261 in 2020, and increased to 74,682 in 2021, and 139,808 in 2022.