A celebration was held at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) to mark Air Canada's inaugural flight AC65, which departed Friday night bound for Bangkok.

The seasonal 4X-weekly flights depart YVR on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays through March 24.

"We are thrilled to launch Air Canada's first non-stop service to Southeast Asia and the only non-stop flights between North America and Thailand,” said Mark Galardo, AC’s SVP Network Planning and Revenue Management.

“Bangkok is also one of the most visited destinations globally, and we have optimized connections to and from our trans-pacific hub at YVR to give customers convenient travel options to explore this exciting city renowned for its history, cuisine and culture, or to conduct international business trade.”

Galardo added that the new service from YVR is “another step in our ambition to develop this hub into one of the most important trans-pacific gateways in North America.”