Air Canada Officially Announces Guangzhou, Adding Another Vancouver Route to China

【September 3, 2026 update】 Air Canada has officially revealed the destinations, and they match the answers in this post. Good luck to everyone who entered!

The headline is Vancouver–Guangzhou. Toronto–Shanghai will also move to daily.

Air Canada has formally announced year-round nonstop service between Vancouver (YVR) and Guangzhou (CAN). That makes it the only North American airline with a nonstop to Guangzhou:

• First flight: 4 May 2027 (westbound from Vancouver) / 5 May 2027 (eastbound from Guangzhou)
• Frequency: three times weekly, year-round
• Aircraft: Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Signature Class, Premium Economy, and Economy)
• Schedule:
  • AC 77 (Vancouver → Guangzhou): Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, depart YVR 00:35, arrive CAN 05:00 the next day
  • AC 76 (Guangzhou → Vancouver): Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, depart CAN 09:45, arrive YVR 06:30 the same day

The other newly announced routes:

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Air Canada has launched a Where to Next Destination contest. Enter and you could win two round-trip tickets to anywhere Air Canada flies. The airline is also using the promo to unveil five new or returning international routes.

The answers are further down if you would rather not decode the video yourself. The five routes are hidden in the official promo:

🎁 The prizes

There are five grand prizes. Each prize includes:

• Two Air Canada economy round-trip tickets (including flights operated by Air Canada Express and Air Canada Rouge).
• Origin is the main Air Canada airport closest to the winner’s Canadian residence. The destination can be anywhere on Air Canada’s network.
• Each prize is worth about $8,800 CAD, for a total prize pool of $44,000 CAD.

📅 Contest and travel dates

• Entry period: 1 September 2026, 00:01 ET – 4 September 2026, 23:59 ET
• Draw: 8 September 2026, 11:00 AM ET
• Travel by: travel must be completed by 1 August 2027 (watch the blackout dates, including Christmas/New Year and spring-break periods).

📝 How to enter

The contest is open to Canadian residents who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory. The main ways to enter:

1. Submit answers on the contest site
   • Contest page 🔗
2. Enter on Instagram:
   • Sign in to Instagram and follow Air Canada’s official account @aircanada.
   • Comment on the designated contest post as required.
3. Enter in person:
   • Go to Air Canada’s pop-up in Toronto (Union Station) or Montreal (Eaton Centre) and submit a paper / on-site entry form.

💡 Fine print: each person may submit only one valid entry for the whole contest, regardless of channel. Winners must answer a simple math skill-testing question before the prize is confirmed.

The answers!

Thanks to photos from the pop-up that people posted on social media, the puzzle is easier to decode:

Flight number	Planned departure	Emoji clues	Decoded / predicted destination
AC 77	00:35	🥟 steamer dumplings + 🗼 Canton Tower + 🌸 Flower City + 🏯 Chen Clan Academy + 🥟 dim sum	Guangzhou, China (CAN)
AC 950	18:15	🏰 old city walls + 🏖️ Adriatic + 🏛️ ruins + 🛶 kayaking + 👑 King’s Landing	Dubrovnik, Croatia (DBV)
AC 966	20:30	⌚ Swiss watches + 🏰 castle + ⛪ Basel Minster + 🏢 pharma hub	Basel, Switzerland (BSL)
AC 940	21:30	🏛️ Oslo Opera House + 🌲 fjord forest + ⛷️ skiing + ⛵ Viking ship	Oslo, Norway (OSL)
AC 968	21:30	🎻 Irish folk music + 🪨 Cliffs of Moher + ☘️ shamrock + 🍺 Guinness	Shannon, Ireland (SNN)

You can also match them to the hints in the video:

The pop-up played an X-ray baggage-scan animation. It showed a Norwegian licence plate (DA 20027 → Oslo), a water bottle with a Swiss flag (Basel), a green ribbon with a Claire name tag (County Clare / Shannon), and Morse code that spells CAN (Guangzhou).