Air Canada Rouge, the recently-launched “leisure airline”, will arrive in Asia for the first time next year.

The carrier currently operates low-cost services to a range of leisure destinations in Europe and the Caribbean, but on 1 May 2015 it will launch its first trans-Pacific flights connecting Vancouver with Osaka.

Air Canada Rouge will operate the new Asian route using a B767-300ER aircraft, which has been transferred from the regular Air Canada fleet. The Osaka launch follows the introduction of Air Canada’s first Asian B787 Dreamliner flights in July this year, when the airline’s new long-haul jet started flying to Tokyo Haneda Airport. The progressive arrival of more new aircraft into Air Canada’s mainline fleet will allow it to transfer its older B767s to Air Canada Rouge, thus allowing the subsidiary to expand its own operations.