Air Canada Adds Non-Stop Flights Between Montréal And San Diego, Resumes Service To Toronto

By Debbie L. Sklar, Times of San Diego

February 22, 2022

This service will be the first-ever nonstop service between Montréal and San Diego. Flights will operate three times weekly during the peak summer travel season with arrivals into San Diego on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays and departures from San Diego on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

“The new service on Air Canada to Montréal provides our region with a much-needed nonstop connection to this metropolitan Canadian city and beyond,” said Kimberly Becker, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority president and CEO. “Until today, Montréal was our largest and most requested unserved market in Canada, so we are thrilled with today’s announcement. Our thanks to Air Canada for expanding both business and tourism between our two regions.”

“People are ready to travel, and we’re excited to add our services between San Diego and Montréal beginning May 20 with three weekly flights which will complement our current services from San Diego to Vancouver, and Toronto. With overall travel demand accelerating, we are offering additional convenient options to connect people from across Canada as well as from Air Canada’s extensive global network to and from California’s Beach City for tourism and leisure activities. Additionally, our Montréal flights offer people in the San Diego area an additional travel option to transit easily and conveniently through to Europe and beyond,” said Mark Galardo, senior vice president, Network Planning & Revenue Management at Air Canada.

Montréal is the most populous city in Québec and the second-most populous city in Canada. Both the French and English languages are spoken in the city and 120 ethnocultural communities are represented.

The city has more than 50 museums, more than 800 public artworks, a dedicated entertainment district, Quartier des spectacles, featuring more than 80 cultural venues, and is home to the Montréal Canadiens which holds the most Stanley Cups in National Hockey League history.

Beginning March 3, the airline will resume service between Toronto, Ontario, Canada via Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and SAN. The resumption comes after Air Canada suspended the flights in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Flights will operate five times weekly with arrivals into San Diego on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and departures from San Diego on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. During the peak, summer travel season flights will increase to once daily.

As of February 28, the Canadian government will ease on-arrival testing for fully-vaccinated travelers. All travelers must use ArriveCAN (app or web portal), to submit travel information. Fully-vaccinated travelers into Canada will have the option of using a COVID-19 rapid antigen test result taken one day before departure or a molecular test result, taken no more than 72 hours before departure, to meet pre-entry requirements. Rapid antigen tests must be authorized by the country it was purchased and administered by a laboratory, healthcare entity, or telehealth service. Foreign nationals who don’t qualify as fully-vaccinated will only be allowed to enter in specific circumstances.

For more information on Canadian travel requirements please visit, travel.gc.ca/travel-covid.

Air Canada resumed service between San Diego and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Aug. 1. For schedule and tickets, please visit aircanada.com.

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