Air Canada has an incredible long haul route network, and I’d say along with United Airlines, it has the most global reach of any North American carrier. The airline has just announced its newest destination in Asia, and it’s one that I find to be particularly awesome!
In this post:
Air Canada adds seasonal Vancouver to Sapporo route
In the winter 2026-2027 season, Air Canada will launch a new 3x weekly flight between Vancouver (YVR) and Sapporo (CTS). This route will run from December 17, 2026, through March 25, 2027, and it will be the only nonstop flight between North America and the Japanese ski destination of Hokkaido. The route will operate with the following schedule:
AC55 Vancouver to Sapporo departing 1:25PM arriving 3:35PM (+1 day)
AC54 Sapporo to Vancouver departing 7:55PM arriving 11:10AM
The service will operate westbound on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and eastbound on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The 4,288-mile flight is blocked at 9hr10min westbound and 8hr15min eastbound. Fun fact — this will be the shortest “true” transpacific route with regularly scheduled passenger service.
Air Canada will use a Boeing 787-8 for this flight, featuring 255 seats. This includes 20 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 214 economy seats.
Here’s how Air Canada’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mark Galardo, describes this new service:
“Air Canada’s global network is further strengthened by the addition of Sapporo, a premier winter leisure destination in Japan’s northern Hokkaido prefecture. With this new service, Air Canada is reinforcing its Vancouver hub as North America’s second largest Pacific gateway, building on strong premium leisure and ongoing travel demand to Japan, while providing yet another sought-after destination for our customers and Aeroplan Members. Whether people are avid snow enthusiasts, cultural or culinary connoisseurs, or global explorers, Air Canada’s new service will make discovering Japan’s vibrant northern regions more convenient than ever.”
“Leveraging Vancouver’s geographic proximity, Air Canada’s new flights provide the fastest way to reach Sapporo, saving more than two hours travel time each way. For our customers in Hokkaido, Air Canada’s new flights provide the only non-stop and the fastest way to reach the North American continent, with connections to over 45 destinations across Canada, the United States and Mexico at our YVR hub.”
My take on Air Canada’s new flight to Sapporo, Japan
This is such a cool new route, if you ask me! As some may remember, last winter we went on a ski trip to Niseko (which is located in Hokkaido), as the region has some fantastic skiing. While Hokkaido has long been popular with skiers from all over Asia and Australia, it seems to also be increasingly popular with visitors from elsewhere, including North America, Europe, etc.
It’s fantastic to see Air Canada making it easier for those from North America to get to Sapporo. Given what a big connecting hub Vancouver is, this should enable all kinds of one-stop service from across North America.
What’s funny is that the flight from Vancouver to Sapporo is only marginally longer than the Singapore to Sapporo route, which is otherwise among the longest intra-Asia routes to the airport.
Air Canada seems perfectly positioned for this, given its lowering operating costs than US carriers, plus the great transpacific geography of Vancouver. It’s one of many new destinations we’ve seen the airline add in Asia in recent years.
In particular, this is such a brilliant use of an aircraft. North American carriers focus heavily on Europe in the northern summer, given the insatiable demand for transatlantic travel. The challenge is always figuring out where to fly planes in winter.
Sure, there’s demand for South America and the South Pacific, and there’s also some demand for Southeast Asia. But I can’t think of any other long haul service that operates exclusively in winter that’s focused on skiing, quite like this route.
Bottom line
Air Canada will be launching a new 3x weekly winter seasonal flight between Vancouver and Sapporo as of December 2026. This will be the only nonstop flight between North America and Sapporo, and it’ll also be the shortest regularly scheduled “full” transpacific flight. I’m very impressed by Air Canada’s continued growth of its long haul network, and in particular, the unique destinations being added.
What do you make of Air Canada’s new Sapporo service?
Instead of connecting two snowy places, I would've loved to seen a flight to FUK.
I will certainly be taking this flight on a ZED fair ticket in order to ski in Japan
"the Japanese ski destination of Hokkaido"
For the geographically ignorant (including the author): "Hokkaido" is a large island, it's not a "ski destination". While Hokkaido does get it's share of snow in the winter, and you can ski there, that's not really a major thing. Winter sports of all kinds, including just enjoying being somewhere cold and snowy (with ice sculptures) is a big thing.
I'm actually surprised that this "seasonal" route runs counter to...
"the Japanese ski destination of Hokkaido"
For the geographically ignorant (including the author): "Hokkaido" is a large island, it's not a "ski destination". While Hokkaido does get it's share of snow in the winter, and you can ski there, that's not really a major thing. Winter sports of all kinds, including just enjoying being somewhere cold and snowy (with ice sculptures) is a big thing.
I'm actually surprised that this "seasonal" route runs counter to Hokkaido's actual major tourism season - which is the summer.
North Americans primarily know Sapporo for the skiing. Their summer season is not as popular with westerners, and is heavily bolstered by more local tourism from countries in the region
Sapporois a dream Japanese destination.Congratulations AC,hopefully we could find reasonable fares and enjoy AC world famous service .
So, is AC betting that there're enough people who want to ski in Whistler one week and in Niseko the next?
AC is betting there are enough people who want to ski Japan from North America that would rather connect at YVR (or are from there) to get to Sapporo
cool route- but has anyone book J on Air Canada lately? Either at low prices via their own miles, or via a partner?
I flew J 4 years ago (booked via United), but I haven't seen them release J seats to partners in a long time (i also havent looked super hard)
japow babyyyy
Maybe this is an idea for Hawaiian Airlines, SEA-CTS?
This Ikonic route is going to be Epic.
LOL though mixed feelings about that being expanded into Japan
Not a huge fan of AC, but this is very interesting for a future ski trip.
Exciting route. But No mention of Westjets latest route announcement of YYCGRU or even their huge transatlantic expansion they announced last year with 4 new routes from YHZ including a brand new daytime transatlantic route.