The Co Clare airport will see a non-stop route to Toronto take off next June
Shannon Airport has announced a new, direct service to Toronto for next summer.
The route, operated by Air Canada, will run three times weekly between the west of Ireland and Toronto Pearson International from June 10, and come to an end on October 3 of next year.
It will be served by a single-aisle Airbus A321XLR with economy and business classes – the latter featuring Air Canada’s lie-flat seats.
FlightAC968 will depart Shannon at 9.;30pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving into Toronto shortly after 9AM local time the next day.
From Toronto, AC969 departures will be at 10.20am, scheduled to arrive into Shannon at 12.35pm.
Air Canada, Aer Lingus and WestJet offer various services between Dublin Airport and Canada, but this will be the only such transatlantic route from Shannon.
The service follows years of groundwork by the Co Clare airport’s aviation development team, and comes as demand for travel between Ireland and Canada continues to grow grow.
“When an airline the scale of Air Canada chooses Shannon, it sends a powerful signal about the strength of the West of Ireland market and its international potential,” said the airport’s chief executive, Ray O’Driscoll.
The new service is on sale from today on the airline’s website, aircanada.com.
Shannon has been steadily growing post-pandemic, and this year is operating 40 routes – the highest number in 17 years. They include newly added services to Madrid, Rome, Frankfurt, Warsaw and Poznan.
1.17 million passengers travelled through the airport in the first half of 2026 – a 12pc increase on the same period last year.
Transatlantic expansions have included Aer Lingus’ Boston route, which increased from seven to ten flights per week for several weeks this summer.
Transport minister Darragh O’Brien said the news “builds on that performance, strengthens long-haul connectivity from the west of Ireland, and will bolster Shannon Airport’s significant contribution to the local, regional and national economies.”
Bláithín O’Donnell of Air Canada said: “Demand for travel to Canada from Irish holidaymakers has been growing consistently over the past number of years, and this new Shannon-Toronto service opens a whole new world of transatlantic travel possibilities for travellers in the west and south of Ireland.”