Athens : Air Canada is extending its Direct Montreal and Toronto services further into the Winter season

Last week Air Canada announced the extension of its Direct Montreal and Toronto services up to early January 2027, re-instating services in the beginning of March.

In recent years, Air Canada continued operations inτο the first Month of the Winter Season, operating to the end of November, returning in April the following year.

Air Canada noted the strong demand for travel between Athens and Canada and took the decision to start its Summer 2026 operations earlier - on the 6th of March, almost one month earlier than in 2025.

The very successful earlier start in 2026, as well as the ongoing strong demand for travel between Athens and Canada on a year-round basis , are a very sound basis for the extension of Air Canada services to/from Athens  beyond November.

 

Why Air Canada is extending its operations, way into the Winter season !

Canada is a market of spectacular growth for Athens International Airport; as per IATA AirportIS data, Canada surpassed 400 thousand PAX in 2025, recording an increase of 155% to pre-Pandemic levels (2019).

For the 5 months of 2026 (Jan-May), O&D traffic is increasing further by 15% to the same period last year, when compared to the record year of 2025 !

Demand for travel is increasing further in the Winter season, with Winter 25/26 season double ! scoring a 96% growth when compared to the Winter season of 2018/2019 prior to the pandemic.

Furthermore, based on our own Passenger Survey, it is noted that foreign residents’ arrivals from Canada to Athens increased by 12%, in the first 5 months of 2026vs.2025.

The Canadian market is recording very strong load factors in the Athens market, up to 90%!

The addition of March in 2026, resulted in load factor of 93%, followed by 96% in April and 88% in May this year. Last November (2025), the average load factor between Canada and Athens reached 91%.

For the period March to May 2026vs.2025, the addition of 29 thousand seats, resulted in the addition of 27 thousand PAX, a perfect match of airline capacity with passenger demand !

Not only will the spectacular extension into the Winter season serve as the optimum traveling option for Canadians traveling to Athens, as well as for  the vibrant Greek diaspora in Canada, but it will also significantly enhance the connecting flows via Athens.

Especially for the Winter months, Athens is becoming an import HUB for traffic between Canada and the Eastern Mediterranean, the Balkans, North Africa and beyond, all the way to India!!

Athens International Airport has been discussing about the extension of Air Canada's winter operations to/from Athens for quite some time and we could not be more excited with this decision of the airline to extend their winter operations ! A 4x weekly - 2xYYZ (Toronto ) + 2xYUL (Montreal ) extension until early January, with an early start in March 2027. We remain firmly committed to working closely together with the airline for the spectacular success of the route!

A big THANK YOU to all Air Canada colleagues and to everyone that supported this goal and worked for its attainment!