Air Canada Rouge, rouge meaning "red" in French, is a low-cost airline and subsidiary of Air Canada. It is fully integrated into the Air Canada mainline and Air Canada Express networks; flights are sold with AC flight numbers but are listed as "operated by Air Canada Rouge".
History
The airline was launched in December 2012 and began services on July 1, 2013. The first destination was Athens, Greece, from Toronto and Montreal, as part of the Air Canada Leisure Group to compete more efficiently with Air Transat, Sunwing, and WestJet in the leisure and vacation travel market, largely operating routes to Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. At the time of the launch, it had a fleet of four aircraft, two Airbus A319s and two Boeing 767s, transferred from the parent company. Its fleet expanded to 28 aircraft within 18 months and was expected to reach 16 Boeing 767s, 20 Airbus A319s and five Airbus A321s by mid-2016. By early September 2016, the airline had expanded its Boeing 767 fleet to 19 aircraft. On March 24, 2014, Air Canada announced plans for Air Canada Rouge to expand into Western Canada beginning in Spring 2014, to serve predominantly leisure markets from Vancouver and Calgary to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Honolulu, Maui and Anchorage. A seasonal service from Vancouver to Osaka/Kansai started in May 2015. In December 2015 new routes were announced including Toronto to Miami, Fort Myers, Charlottetown, and Deer Lake. Year-round routes include Toronto and Montreal to Fort Lauderdale; Montreal to Miami; Vancouver to San Diego and Mexico City; and Calgary to Phoenix. In May of 2020, amidst the Covid 19 pandemic, Air Canada announced the retirements of 79 aircraft among its mainline and Rouge fleets. This includes Boeing 767, Embraer 190, and Airbus A319 aircraft. Air Canada Rouge was significantly affected, as the airline will lose all 25 767s, and all 22 A319s, leaving it with only 19 A320/A321 as their fleet.
The Air Canada Rouge fleet consists of the following registered aircraft.
Service concept
Seating
The Air Canada Rouge Airbus A319 has 16 more seats than a regular Air Canada Airbus A319 with 136 seats, the first four rows being for Rouge Plus and Premium Rouge passengers. The Air Canada Rouge Boeing 767-300ER carries 71 more passengers than most regular Air Canada Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, with 282 seats. Of these 223 are economy, 35 Rouge Plus and 24 Premium Rouge. The 29-inch seat pitch on their A320 series aircraft is one of the smallest in North America, resulting in less leg room than on most other comparable aircraft.
Entertainment
Air Canada Rouge is equipped with a wireless streaming entertainment system, called Player, that passengers can use directly on their personal devices, such as Apple iOS and Android devices, as well as laptops. The streaming system works on Apple devices only if the Air Canada application is downloaded prior to the flight; Android users can now download the app prior to departure or while in flight from the on-board server. Laptop use requires the Flash plug-in. iPads are available for rental to Economy Class passengers for a cost of $10 and are complimentary for Premium Rouge customers. The rental iPads are loaded with additional premium content on the Player Plus app.
On-board services
The baggage policy is the same as Air Canada's. Flights to and from Europe have complimentary food and drink service with for-purchase alcoholic drinks. A buy-on-board food offering in line with the mainline service exists for all other flights.
