Air Canada Adds Five New Destinations and Seven Routes for Summer 2027

Air Canada has revealed the Summer 2027 additions it teased earlier this week, and it’s a bigger batch than the five-destination hint suggested. The airline is adding five new international destinations and seven new routes across all three hubs, plus a round of frequency and season extensions, in what it calls the most extensive intercontinental expansion in its history.

The headliners are Vancouver (YVR) to Guangzhou (CAN), Toronto (YYZ) to Oslo (OSL), Shannon (SNN), and Nice (NCE), and Montréal (YUL) to Basel (BSL) and Dubrovnik (DBV). Toronto also gets the London Heathrow (LHR) Daytripper back and daily Shanghai (PVG) flights, while Montréal’s Tenerife (TFS), Lima (LIM), and Guatemala City (GUA) services go year-round. All of the new flights are on sale now.

Four of the seven new routes fly on the Airbus A321XLR narrowbody, which says a lot about how Air Canada plans to keep growing across the Atlantic. Let’s go hub by hub, then look at where Aeroplan members should be paying attention.

Vancouver (YVR) to Guangzhou (CAN), Three Times Weekly

Guangzhou becomes Air Canada’s third mainland China destination after Beijing (PEK) and Shanghai (PVG), and Air Canada will be the only North American carrier flying there. The route starts May 4, 2027, year-round, on the Boeing 787-9 with Signature Class, Premium Economy, and Economy. The release only says Dreamliner, but the booking engine shows AC77 as a 787-9. It’s still subject to government approval.

With Guangzhou in the mix, Air Canada will run up to 24 weekly flights to mainland China, and the Pearl River Delta opens up a lot of one-stop options into southern China and Southeast Asia on Star Alliance partners. For Aeroplan members out west, a Boeing 787-9 Signature Class seat to a new Asian gateway is the kind of route worth watching for award space early.

Aeroplan award space is already loaded, and a sample launch-season date showed economy starting at 56,500 points and Premium Economy at 98,300, plus about $61 (CAD), for a 13-hour non-stop on the Boeing 787-9. With Premium Economy and a large Signature Class cabin on board, this is also the route with the most premium seats to release over time.

Toronto (YYZ) to Oslo (OSL), Four Times Weekly

Norway joins the map on June 2, 2027, as Air Canada’s third Scandinavian destination after Stockholm (ARN) and Copenhagen (CPH), and the only non-stop to Norway from anywhere in North America. The flight leaves Toronto late in the evening and lands in Oslo just before lunch, which lines up well for connections from across Canada and the eastern US.

The route is on the Airbus A321XLR with Signature Class lie-flat seats up front and economy behind, and it’s subject to government approval. For anyone eyeing the fjords or using Oslo as a jumping-off point for the rest of Scandinavia, this beats connecting through Frankfurt (FRA) or Copenhagen.

On the Aeroplan side, a sample June date showed Toronto to Oslo starting at 27,000 points one-way in economy plus about $80 (CAD) in taxes and fees, which is a fair price for a non-stop across the Atlantic on a brand new route.

Toronto (YYZ) to Shannon (SNN), Three Times Weekly

Shannon becomes Air Canada’s second Irish destination alongside Dublin (DUB), starting June 10, 2027. It’s the gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way, the Cliffs of Moher, and the west of Ireland generally, and until now the only way there from Canada was through Dublin or a US hub.

This one is also on the Airbus A321XLR with Signature Class and economy. Shannon has US pre-clearance, which doesn’t matter for the Toronto flight itself but is handy if you’re building a trip that continues to the US on the way home.

Toronto (YYZ) to Nice (NCE), Twice Weekly

Nice is the one Toronto route in this batch on a widebody. The Airbus A330-300 brings Signature Class, Premium Economy, and Economy to a Wednesday and Saturday schedule from June 16 to October 23, 2027. Paired with the long-running Montréal (YUL) to Nice service, Air Canada will have a flight to the Riviera every day of the week from one hub or the other.

For Aeroplan members, a three-cabin aircraft matters. Premium Economy on the Airbus A330-300 is a comfortable middle option for an eight-hour flight, and it’s often where the best-value award space sits when Signature Class is priced out.

Montréal (YUL) to Basel (BSL), Four Times Weekly

Basel is the surprise of the announcement. From June 16, 2027, Air Canada will fly from Montréal to Basel-Mulhouse (BSL) on the Airbus A321XLR, making it the only North American airline serving all three major Swiss cities, Zurich (ZRH), Geneva (GVA), and Basel, and the only Canadian carrier with a lie-flat business cabin on the route. The airport straddles the Swiss, French, and German borders, so it’s as much a door to Alsace and the Black Forest as it is to Switzerland.

Basel also puts Air Canada within an hour of Zurich by train and a short hop from Strasbourg and Freiburg, which makes it a flexible entry point for a Rhine or Alps trip without the crowds at the bigger gateways.

Montréal (YUL) to Dubrovnik (DBV), Three Times Weekly

Dubrovnik is the leisure play. Starting May 11, 2027, Air Canada will fly the Boeing 787-8 from Montréal to the Croatian coast three times a week, with Signature Class, Premium Economy, and Economy on board. The release only says Dreamliner, but AC950 is loaded as the smaller 787-8. The airline is pitching it squarely at premium leisure demand, and it’s the only Canadian carrier with a lie-flat cabin to Croatia.

A Boeing 787-8 on a seasonal leisure route is unusual for Air Canada, which tends to send narrowbodies or the Airbus A330-300 to this kind of market. It suggests the airline expects the Adriatic to fill a big aircraft in Signature Class, and it makes Dubrovnik one of the more interesting Aeroplan redemptions in this announcement if award space opens up.

Aeroplan award space is loaded too. A sample date showed Montréal to Dubrovnik starting at 37,200 points in economy and 57,500 in Premium Economy, each plus about $81 (CAD). Premium Economy is the one to watch here, since extra room on an eight-hour overnight for 57,500 points is a reasonable way to arrive on the Adriatic rested.

More Flying on Routes You Already Know

The Heathrow Daytripper is back from May 1, 2027, as Air Canada’s fifth daily Toronto (YYZ) to London Heathrow (LHR) flight. It leaves Toronto at 8:30 in the morning and lands at Heathrow at 9:00 in the evening, so you cross the Atlantic awake and go to sleep in London rather than arriving at dawn on no rest. It runs year-round on the Airbus A321XLR with Signature Class and economy.

Toronto to Shanghai (PVG), which only returned to the schedule for Summer 2026, is being bumped up to daily. Toronto to Guatemala City (GUA), launching this December as a winter route, will keep flying through the summer on a weekly Thursday Airbus A330-300 from May 6, 2027. And in Montréal, the Tenerife (TFS), Lima (LIM), and Guatemala City routes all move from seasonal to year-round.

Add it up and Air Canada says it will fly more than 125 international routes next summer, up to 169,000 weekly seats out of Canada, and about eight percent more capacity in these regions than in Summer 2026.

What Air Canada Is Building

Read the whole announcement together and it’s less about any single city than about the aircraft. Oslo, Shannon, Basel, and the Daytripper are all Airbus A321XLR flights, and Air Canada says its Toronto A321XLR base opens later this year, with the first Toronto-based Boeing 787-10 arriving around the same time.

The Airbus A321XLR is what makes markets like Oslo and Basel work. These are cities that couldn’t fill a Boeing 787 four times a week but can support a 180-seat narrowbody with a proper lie-flat cabin, and Air Canada has already used the same playbook on Montréal to Edinburgh (EDI), Toulouse (TLS), and Palma de Mallorca (PMI), and on the Toronto routes to Manchester (MAN) and Copenhagen that go year-round this winter. The airline now claims to be the second-largest North American carrier by global destinations, and the A321XLR is how it keeps adding thin routes without betting a widebody on each one.

Guangzhou and Dubrovnik are the exceptions, and they’re telling in their own way. Both get Boeing 787s, the 787-9 to Guangzhou and the 787-8 to Dubrovnik, which means Air Canada sees enough premium demand on a new China gateway and a summer Adriatic route to justify a full three-cabin widebody from day one.

For Aeroplan members, the practical upshot is more Signature Class seats on flights that price in the lower transatlantic bands, and more non-stops that skip a connection through a European hub. The A321XLR’s Signature cabin is small, so award space will be tight on the popular days, but the flip side of thin routes is that shoulder-season availability tends to be better than on the trunk routes to London or Paris (CDG). The launch-day prices above aren’t fixed either. Aeroplan prices Air Canada flights dynamically, and numbers on brand new routes tend to move in the months before the first departure, so economy is worth booking now if the dates work and the premium cabins are worth a calendar check every few weeks.

Air Canada also says more network announcements and details of its 787-10 plans are coming in the months ahead. Between this batch, the winter additions of Quito (UIO) and Tenerife, and last summer’s Europe expansion, the New Frontiers strategy is starting to look like a map rather than a slogan.

Conclusion

Air Canada’s Summer 2027 update adds Guangzhou (CAN) from Vancouver (YVR), Oslo (OSL), Shannon (SNN), and Nice (NCE) from Toronto (YYZ), and Basel (BSL) and Dubrovnik (DBV) from Montréal (YUL), brings back the Heathrow Daytripper, takes Shanghai to daily, and turns several seasonal routes year-round. Oslo and Shannon are firsts for Canada, Guangzhou is a first for North America, and every new destination comes with a lie-flat cabin.

If any of these are on your list for next summer, the flights are bookable now, and it’s worth checking Aeroplan award space early. New routes tend to release their best availability well before the season starts, and the shoulder weeks in May and October, on either side of the summer peak, are usually the sweet spot.