IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Starting this fall, Palm Springs International Airport will offer non-stop flights to Toronto.
The flights, which are scheduled to begin Dec. 14, will operate three times a week, according to a statement posted on the city’s website.
Air Canada Rouge, a subsidiary of Air Canada, will operate the flights on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. After four months, the airline – which already operates flights out of Palm Springs International to Vancouver, British Columbia – will decide whether to continue them.
Palm Springs officials are confident the desert region attracts enough visitors from Canada every year to keep them operating, said Amy Blaisdell, city spokeswoman.
“The Vancouver flights began last year and they’ve been very popular,” Blaisdell said. “We don’t have an exact number but we do know that we get a lot of people from Canada every year. We know the demand is there.”
Palm Springs International, which is owned by Palm Springs, will give some money to Air Canada Rouge to help market the flights but otherwise will take no part in advertising or promotion, said Tom Nolan, the airport’s executive director.
“We prefer that the airlines do their own marketing,” Nolan said. “We know we have a lot of people come down here from Canada every year. They like to play golf, and I think they prefer us to Florida because our weather is more predictable.”
The flights, which will seat 136 people, will be timed to allow for easy connections to other flights throughout Canada as well as several international destinations, according to the statement.
