And in onboard customer surveys in early September, Air Canada rouge asked customers to rate a number of onboard elements, including the rouge crew, resulting in 95% per of customers who responded rating the crew as exceptional.
TORONTO – After starting up service in July with just 4 aircraft and 23 routes, Air Canada rouge has recently grown to over 200 Disney-trained rouge crew members (flight attendants) needed to operate a fleet that grows to 17 aircraft (four 767-300 ERs and thirteen A-319s) by March 2014 and 35 routes by June 2014. And in onboard customer surveys in early September, Air Canada rouge asked customers to rate a number of onboard elements, including the rouge crew, resulting in 95% per of customers who responded rating the crew as exceptional.
“Right from the start we decided to go with the experts in customer service, the Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida, so that our crew can learn from the best how to delight and surprise our customers onboard. We’re pleased that investment is paying off and, as we rapidly grow, we’re determined to continuously enhance the Air Canada rouge experience for travelers of all ages,” said Renee Smith-Valade, Vice President, Customer Experience. “We’re also excited to be significantly growing our Florida service, offering more seats than any Canadian carrier.”
Air Canada rouge started flying in July with 127 Toronto-based crew trained by both Air Canada (safety/regulatory) and the Disney Institute (Customer Service Excellence) and has since trained another 80 rouge crew. By the end of December, the airline will add more rouge crew to its Toronto base and will hire rouge crew from across Canada over the coming two years, including in major centres in Western Canada to serve leisure destinations in the US, the Caribbean and Mexico.
Following six weeks of safety and regulatory training, rouge crew attend Customer Service Excellence training at the Disney Institute in Walt Disney World to ensure every flight on Air Canada rouge offers the airline’s unique brand of warm, engaging customer service designed to make every flight the start and end to a wonderful vacation. Training is focused on making every customer feel special and valued and tailoring the inflight experience. Air Canada rouge crew greet every traveler with a smile and warm welcome and use a variety of onboard products and activities to continue to engage customers, all designed to create an enjoyable, vacation-like onboard atmosphere.
To meet the needs of a quickly growing fleet and route network, Air Canada rouge has stepped up recruitment, including a recently launched new recruitment site for interested candidates to learn more about the airline, rouge crew training and how to submit a resume.
Orlando – home to rouge crew Disney Institute training and a key Air Canada rouge market
Air Canada rouge has made a significant commitment to serving Orlando, home to Walt Disney World and the Disney Institute for rouge crew training. On November 25th Air Canada rouge launched flights between Toronto and Orlando with 3 daily departures, with two more daily departures starting December 14 and 6 daily departures as of March 1, 2014. The year-round Toronto-Orlando route anchor Air Canada rouge’s rapid expansion into the popular Orlando market.
In the coming year, Air Canada rouge, together with Air Canada, will offer more seats to Orlando from Canadian gateways than any other Canadian airline. Air Canada rouge Toronto-Orlando flights combined with Air Canada Montreal-Orlando flights represent a nearly 14% frequency increase for 2014.
Customers have the choice of Premium rouge service in addition to rouge and rouge Plus service on Air Canada rouge’s 319 aircraft on the Toronto-Orlando route and a variety of other routes Air Canada rouge routes, including the new Sarasota, Florida route which launched on November 30th. Air Canada rouge will also assume the Montreal-Orlando route on February15, 2014, with tickets now on sale at aircanada.com and through travel agents.
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
