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Air Canada Rouge will today (Thursday) make its inaugural flight to the Argyle International Airport.

Prime Minister Ralph E. Gonsalves, Minister of Tourism, Cecil McKie, and chief executive officer of the Tourism Authority, Glen Beache, will meet the Air Canada Rouge flight, on arrival.

The flight is the first scheduled international non-stop flight to Argyle International Airport since it began operating on Feb. 14, 2017.

The Air Canada Rouge Service from Toronto will operate once weekly during the winter season until April 12, 2018, using an A319 aircraft, with a capacity of 136 seats.

On May 3, 2017, Air Canada announced St. Vincent and the Grenadines as one of six new routes for the airline’s winter season.

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The SVD route was launched on Oct. 25, at an event hosted in Ontario by Air Canada.

That event was attended by SVG’s Consul General in Canada, Fitz Huggins and Shelley John, the Tourism Authority’s Director of Sales in Canada.

According to the airline, its first long-haul international scheduled service to SVG “offers new choices for travellers looking to escape Canadian winters”.

A “call to action” by the SVG Tourism Authority was launched in September. This included a taxi wrap promotion with 60 taxis in Toronto. Flight promotion with Canada Traffic Network was also undertaken featuring television ads during traffic reports on Global TV Toronto, as well as radio ads on stations in St. Catherine’s and Hamilton, Ontario.

Additionally, the SVG Tourism Authority and Air Canada Vacations have commenced cooperative marketing with local hotels.

The latest visitor arrival report shows an increase of 10.4 per cent in stay-over visitor arrivals from Canada for the period January to September 2017, accounting for 5,997 visitors, up from 5,433 in 2016, the Tourism Authority said in a press release.

“Tourism has been the main foreign exchange earner and accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the gross domestic product for St. Vincent and the Grenadines; it is expected that the international airport will increase earnings in this sector. The Argyle International Airport is also expected to increase accessibility to this multi island destination from its major source markets, Canada, the USA and Europe,” the release said.

11 replies on “Air Canada Rouge to make inaugural flight to SVG today”

  1. Watch the following YouTube video (https://youtu.be/YirV0zKyDBo ) showing that only about 10 passengers, at most, on this Air Canada flight were the genuine foreign (white) tourists the airport was built to attract, people who were turned off visiting the mainland of SVG (according to the ULP government, especially the Prime Minister) because of the ”inconvenience“ of having to transit through Barbados. Nearly all the rest were our people coming home on holiday or for some other purpose, all all of whom would have still come home if they had to take a LIAT flight from Barbados.

    This trend will continue, thereby rendering AIA a tragic and deceitful waste of $EC 700 million.

    1. C.ben-David you are the biggest hipprocrite and pessimist that I ever known. It is time for you to look on the bright side, whether or not there were ten genuine tourists on the flight is not the issue. Once the flight full it will contribute to the bottom line and makes the effort worthwhile. I am not a Ralph supporter but I call it as I see it. It is time you stop crying over spilled milk and support the airport in anyway you can. Just taking a pen and write all kinds of crap doesn’t make you great. Look at what we had at ET Joshua, a real hell hole. An old adage goes like this , you can take the pig out of the gutter but not necessarily the gutter out of the pig.Some people need their mind to be disinfected in order to think straight. Ben are you under a spell or suffering from some kind of psychosis?

      1. Tell me, how does a full Air Canada flight add value to our economy if nearly all the people on the flight would have come here anway on LIAT via Barbados, which I suggest is true.

      2. Rafael Stefania says:

        ET Joshua airport should be fixed and used for domestic flights to the grenadines. It should not be demolished. It is a part of our history.

  2. I never know we have such idiot like this person name C. ben David still alive, I thought that kind a people dead out

    1. I dare you to post that somebody should kill me, the implict threat in your message, so I can action you in the courts of any country where you live. (Don’t forget, whenever you post here, there a trail to your true identity and residence).

  3. How is it that someone with a stolen identity is threatening law suite against others. How would that hold up in court. If anything you the one the action should be against for stealing people name. Its like the path piece of your ass on your mouth because its endless sh*t coming from it. THE TRUTH really hurts.

  4. C ben David, you are an idiot and I am saddened that you were born. How could you be such a hypocrite and an idiot? You’re a disgrace. It took Barbados 60 freaking yrs to hone their skills on tourism and getting their international airport to be what it is now. It wasn’t immediate! So are a lot of the islands, not of it was instantly successful. It’s such a shame that you are a Vincentian. If you’re that intelligent why don’t you contribute to how we can be an instant success? Hard truth is it will never be because you’re a complete natural born idiot!!!

  5. Coleen , backward C, ben is not a Vincentian, that is why he continues to knock the airport. he once said , development is not for every country , and SVG is on of them. For a person who claims he is /was a professor , is a disgrace to the universities he attended, and lectures, they should put out a disclaimer on him. He is half of an idiot, an embarrassment to a
    whole idiot.

  6. Rafael Stefania says:

    The government of SVG should start thinking about improving air/sea connections to the grenadine islands.

  7. Barbadian C’ben david will never stop bad talking SVg and the airport because he is concern about the $ 50 000 000 per year loss to B’dos when AIA is in full swing. That figure is what his opposition leader Mottley said some years ago .hence his negativity .She did not bad talk the airport , she was only putting them on alert.
    Note which country we must intransit ,not T’dad, G’da or St. lucia, that is his problem , the loss of revenue according to opposition leader.

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