The two cities are connected for the first time in 27 years.
A traditional water greeting welcomed the new Air Canada Rouge flight from Toronto-Zagreb-Toronto at Franjo Tuđman Airport on Sunday for the first time in 27 years. Air Canada last flew to Croatia in the summer of 1991, reports Index.hr on June 3, 2018.
The commemorative ceremony on the Air Canada Rouge inaugural flight took place in the international departure area of Franjo Tuđman Airport, with travelers waiting for the return flight to Toronto. On behalf of the International Airport in Zagreb, Ivana Akmadžić, the Executive Commercial Director of MZLZ Services, welcomed Air Canada Rouge and said that the new airline would further influence the positive traffic results and increase the number of passengers Franjo Tuđman Airport continuously records.
Air Canada Rouge representative Carolyn Hadrović, who arrived by plane from Toronto, expressed her satisfaction with the ceremony in Zagreb and the cooperation with the Zagreb Airport team, underlining that this flight would contribute to the further connecting Croatia and Canada and strengthen the economic and tourism ties between the two countries.
On behalf of the Canadian Embassy, Daniel Zaharychuk, Head of the Program for Foreign Policy and Diplomacy at the Embassy of Canada, pointed out that this year marks the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and Croatia, and the arrival of the Air Canada direct flight to Toronto will, among other things, be a powerful generator of economic and tourist arrivals, which last year saw more than 150,000.
Air Canada Rouge is the largest Canadian airline with a fleet of over 400 aircraft that travel to more than 350 destinations in Canada and the world. The headquarters of the airline is in Toronto, an airport with nearly 50 million passengers and the largest hub of international passengers in North America. Air Canada Rouge will fly a Boeing 767-300 aircraft, and the flight will last 9 hours and 25 minutes between Toronto and Zagreb.