Air Canada is undertaking a major expansion of international services to Europe from Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary.

The airline has announced highlights of its summer 2014 Europe schedule, which includes the introduction of year-round non-stop service from Toronto to Milan, Italy with up to five weekly flights, offering the only non-stop service between Canada and Milan.

Flights to this key Italian business destination will feature Air Canada’s award-winning Executive First cabin of service.

In addition, Air Canada will increase its year-round Toronto-Istanbul non-stop service to daily flights from three times weekly.

The airline will expand the availability of its new international Premium Economy cabin with its introduction on Vancouver-London Heathrow flights year-round, as well as Montreal-London Heathrow flights during the peak summer travel season.

Air Canada will also deploy larger aircraft from its international widebody fleet on flights from Calgary to London Heathrow and Frankfurt, as well as from Montreal to Brussels and Geneva in order to meet travel and cargo demand during the peak summer season.

As part of the summer 2014 schedule, Air Canada’s leisure carrier subsidiary, Air Canada rouge, will launch seasonal non-stop flights between Toronto-Lisbon, Toronto-Manchester, Montreal-Barcelona and Montreal-Nice.

The new routes supplement the leisure carrier’s other popular vacation destinations, including previously announced Toronto-Dublin year-round service, as well as holiday and cruise package options offered in conjunction with Air Canada Vacations.

Seats on these new Air Canada and Air Canada rouge flights are now available for purchase at aircanada.com and through travel agents.

“The expansion of Air Canada’s global network to include four new European destinations is a significant turning point in Air Canada’s international growth strategy.

“With the addition of Air Canada mainline service to Milan, a key business centre, and Air Canada rouge service to popular holiday destinations such as Lisbon, Nice and Manchester, we are offering customers great new options when making their travel plans beginning next summer,” said Ben Smith, Air Canada chief commercial officer.

“Since the launch of our Toronto-Istanbul non-stop service in June 2013, customer response has been very positive and we look forward to increasing to daily flights with convenient connections throughout the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.”