Resurgent Air Canada unveils growth strategy

Good news for anyone flying with Air Canada with the airline boosting its global connectivity.

The Candian flag carrier is planning its biggest-ever intercontinental expansion for summer 2027, adding five international destinations and seven new routes from its three Canadian hubs, Travel Mole reports.

The carrier will launch a year-round service from Vancouver to Guangzhou, China, while Toronto will gain new flights to Oslo, Shannon in Ireland and Nice. 

Montreal will add new links to Basel, Switzerland, and Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Air Canada will also extend several existing seasonal services to year-round operations, including Tenerife, Lima and Guatemala City.

The expansion will increase international capacity by more than 8% compared with summer 2026. 

The airline - bouncing back after struggling during Covid - plans to operate more than 125 international routes, offering up to 169,000 seats a week from Canada to more than 85 destinations across the Atlantic, Pacific, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America.

Toronto is at the centre of Air Canada expansion. The new Oslo service will operate four times weekly from June 2 through October 10, 2027, using Air Canada’s new Airbus A321XLR aircraft.

Shannon will receive three weekly flights from June 10 through to October 2, giving Air Canada its second destination in Ireland after Dublin. The airline says it will be the only carrier offering non-stop service between Toronto and Shannon.

Nice will receive twice-weekly Toronto service from June 16 through October 23. Combined with Air Canada’s existing Montréal-Nice flights, the new service will provide a daily connection between Canada and the French Riviera during the summer season.

From Montréal, Basel will operate four times weekly from June 16 through October 23, while Dubrovnik will receive three weekly flights from May 11 through October 23.

Vancouver will gain three weekly flights to Guangzhou beginning May 4, 2027. The year-round service will use Boeing 787 Dreamliners and make Guangzhou Air Canada’s third destination in mainland China.

The airline says it will offer up to 24 weekly flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou combined.

Air Canada expects the broader growth strategy to create more than 1,500 direct jobs by 2028. 

Tripadvisor tripped up by culinary prankster

Do you look to Tripadvisor for advice on where to dine?

In Montreal, you might have been tempted by what was until recently the No.1 ranked restaurant in the city: Le Nouveau Duluth.

Le Nouveaux Duluth garnered some amazing reviews and had the highest Tripadvisor rating of the city’s 3,678 listed eateries.

There was only one problem. It did not actually exist.

Le Nouveaux Duluth was created by a hacker/hoaxer and his friends aiming to underline how unreliable online ratings sites can be.

Readers of Tripadvisor were regaled with comments about the restaurant's proximity to a beach (Montreal is lacking in beaches), valet service, private and buffet dining and live music.

Le Nouveau Duluth had 85 published reviews, all of them giving it five stars, Canadian broadcaster CBC reported.

But anyone heading to its alleged location on the corner of Duluth Avenue and St Denis Street, was left baffled and disappointed.

Oh dear.

“On this occasion, a failure in human moderation practices meant the fake listing remained live on the platform longer than it should have,” Tripadvisor said in a statement. “The listings - including the reviews and photos associated with the listing - are now inactive.”

The fake restaurant was all in the imagination of comedian Charles Deschamps, who is not a fan of online reviews. 

He says he finds them "problematic", as, obviously, are Tripadvisor's algorithms.