The good news is that the new Air Canada lounge at the Toronto Island Airport is a beauty. The really good news is that Canada’s largest airlines plans “top to bottom” changes to some of its other lounges, including domestic lounges at Toronto Pearson, Montreal Trudeau and Vancouver International.
Minutes after the doors opened to the newest Air Canada lounge, and the only one at YTZ/Billy Bishop Airport, airline officials were talking about major improvements to existing lounges at a variety of airports.
“Over the next five years you can expect us to go into all of our largest club locations and bring them up to this new design standard,” Air Canada’s Scott O’Leary told me in a one-on-one interview in the new Air Canada Aspire Lounge at the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. “It doesn’t happen overnight, but that is our focus, and over the course of the next five years these locations will be transformed into flagship lounge locations; Toronto Pearson domestic, Montreal domestic, Vancouver domestic. We’re to open an Air Canada Cafe in Vancouver at the end of next year.”
The new Air Canada Cafe at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“You’re going to see a combination of going to our largest lounge properties and actually giving them a full, top-to-bottom renovation to our newest flagship lounge standard. In addition to that you can expect to see us open new, net lounges in those locations.”
The idea is to keep larger lounges, but also to add smaller locations that are more convenient for departing passengers, said O’Leary, Vice President, Loyalty and Product for Air Canada.
The new Aspire lounge is a stunning facility with an entrance off the main waiting area used by Air Canada and Porter. (I hadn’t been to Billy Bishop in some time, but they’ve done a great job in the terminal, adding a Balzac’s coffee spot, a Mediterranean restaurant called Obispo, and more.)
There’s tons of seating (the 4,50o-square-foot lounge has room for 140 guests), a gorgeous bar, lots of natural light and a colourful mural on the north wall. There’s also a quiet room for working and even a mini-boardroom with a large-screen TV. There’s also lots of natural wood tones for a warm look.
Bitters on display at the bar at the new Air Canada Cafe at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I didn’t try the food but it looked excellent: scrambled eggs, bacon, turkey sausage, baked beans, tomatoes, lots of fresh fruit, muffins, croissants, two types of smoothies, yogurt, cereal and a lot more. The coffee dispenser serves up nice lattes and other hot drinks, and you program the machine via a cool iPad.
The aforementioned bar has a number of local products, including Toronto-made IPA’s and other beers and Ontario-made gin. Many drinks are free, but higher-end products often carry a price tag. Still, the costs are quite reasonable. I spotted a Maple Old-Fashioned cocktail on the menu for $12 and a glass of Trius Cabernet Sauvignon for just $6.
O’Leary said the lounge is aimed at frequent customers in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal market.
“This airport represents the largest concentration of premium customers that didn’t already have a lounge,” he told me. “Our premium customers, the more they travel in and out of a particular airport, the more their expectations or at least their hopes are for a consistent experience. This was a very natural expansion of our already existing lounge network in Canada.”
The new Air Canada Cafe at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The main waiting area for Air Canada and Porter customers at YTZ is a very nice space, O’Leary said, “but it’s not a lounge. Whether you’re here for a minute or you’re here for an hour, we want to make sure you can carve out an elevated and exclusive experience for yourself.
The cost of the lounge isn’t public information, O’Leary said.
“It isn’t cheap, but in terms of investing in the premium experience, the lounge is a very smart dollar spend. Our customers sometimes spend as much time in a lounge as they do on a flight.”
O’Leary said the Aspire Lounge is not aimed at Porter Airlines, which offers free beer and wine on board and other amenities.
Asked if it gives Air Canada an advantage over its YTZ rival, O’Leary smiled.
“I consider that a collateral benefit.”
The new Air Canada Cafe at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“From a Canadian context, this puts us by a country mile ahead of any other lounge provider in the country in terms of airport presence,” O’Leary said.
YTZ Café is Air Canada’s 27th lounge and second Café. All told, Air Canada has lounges at 17 airports, including Canada, the U.S., London, Frankfurt and Paris, which is being renovated right now. A new Air Canada lounge in San Francisco International Airport will open later this month.
“We know how much Air Canada customers, who travel frequently within the busy Toronto–Ottawa–Montreal corridor, really value the convenience of flying out of Billy Bishop,” said Jacqueline Harkness, Managing Director, Product & Services, Air Canada. “Our new Aspire | Air Canada Café at Billy Bishop builds upon the success of our first Air Canada Café at Toronto-Pearson, and is just one more way Air Canada continues to invest in the best lounge network in Canada.”
The new Air Canada Cafe at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The YTZ Cafe was designed and built by Swissport.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Air Canada on our first joint lounge concept,” said Charles Roberge, CEO of Swissport Canada. “With this new addition, we continue to expand our lounge network in Canada and reinforce our commitment to providing exceptional services to our customers worldwide. Our newest lounge is Toronto’s first Aspire Lounge and aims to be the first LEED-certified lounge in Swissport’s international network of 63 Aspire lounges.”
