Air Transat extends operations to Faro, offering more flights to Canada

Faro Airport is set to add more flights to its intercontinental flight portfolio next year, as Canadian Airline Air Transat will link Faro to Toronto from January to the end of October 2020.

This announcement comes as an extension of an existing route (which, until now, only operated from January to April) and is the result of the promotional efforts that Turismo do Algarve and Turismo de Portugal have forged between the Canadian airline and Faro Airport.

Since 2013, aware of the potential which the Algarve market has to offer, the Algarve Tourism Association (ATA) has participated in numerous destination promotion campaigns in Canada, and has developed several marketing campaigns, in partnership with Air Transat and the French-Canadian operator Transat Vacances, to promote the Southern Portuguese region.

Canada is one of the growing markets in the Algarve. Last year there was a 25.7% increase in guest numbers and a 20.3% increase in overnight stays (reaching a total of 254,000 overnight stays).

This year, the numbers are still showing growth, with an increase of 12.3% in the number of guests and 12.5% ??in the number of overnight stays (up to approximately 214 thousand overnight stays).

Here’s an interesting titbit of information, during their visits to the Algarve, Canadian tourists often stay for longer stays.  This means that even though the Canadian market isn’t as large as the Irish or British, it is becoming more relevant as it contributes significantly to alleviating the seasonality of tourism in the region.