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SALT LAKE CITY — Air Canada is coming back to Utah.
Canada's largest airline announced Tuesday it is restoring nonstop service between Toronto and Salt Lake City beginning on June 2, with flights between the two cities every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday after that. Previous flights in and out of Salt Lake City were halted in October 2017, according to airport officials.
The new Salt Lake City service is one of seven new flights Air Canada announced Tuesday. It's among the 41 routes across 11 cities within North America with service set to begin between May 1 and July 1; many of the other new flights were previously announced. It plans to have operations at 51 Canadian and 46 U.S airports this summer.
The new flights correspond with Air Canada anticipating that it will return to 90% of its pre-COVID-19 pandemic travel capacity within North America by the summer.
"These changes will also grow and cement our position as the leading carrier of choice in the transborder market, with the most nonstop flying between Canada and the U.S.," said Mark Galardo, a senior vice president for Air Canada, in a statement. "Moreover, our revitalized North American network ... gives customers by far the widest choice of routes and destinations of any Canadian carrier this summer."
So Utahns wishing to brave the EdgeWalk at the CN Tower, visit the Hockey Hall of Fame, or — with a short drive — check out the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, among many options, now have a faster option to get there.
With Tuesday's announcement, Air Canada will now join Spirit Airlines and Eurowings as airlines to either begin new service or return service to Salt Lake City International Airport this year. Spirit is set to begin service to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Orlando beginning May 26; Eurowings is scheduled to begin service to Frankfurt, Germany, also in May.
After announcing its deal with Spirit last month, Bill Wyatt, executive director of the Salt Lake City Department of Airports, said the airport's travel volumes are already close to where they were in 2019 before the pandemic. He anticipates it will soon exceed those levels as more people feel comfortable flying and there are more travel options available.
"We're anticipating a very busy spring and summer," he said last month. "We're just going to see record passenger volumes here."
