Air Canada to fly non-stop Delhi-Toronto route again

Will fly four times a week on the route till Sept next year when it will start daily services

Making a comeback after eight years, Air Canada on Tuesday announced the launch of the first non-stop flight between India and Canada after its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner arrived at the Delhi airport from Toronto on Monday.

The airline would fly four times a week on the route till September, when it would start daily services. It would take the ‘polar route’, flying over northern Europe and Russia to reach Canada from India.

“The fact that it’s a non-stop flight makes us attractive. Another important factor is we are serving North America and not just Canada. There is a very limited non-stop service between India and North America,” vice-president (sales) Duncan Bureau told Business Standard.

Air Canada had halted operating direct flights on the route in 2005 as it was found to be economically unviable. In 2007, it stopped the operation of its services via Zurich, too.

So, what brought it back? “The Indian market has matured in terms of Canadian business and investment here.

Then, we had Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit Canada, which was a significant one, putting the attention back on India.

And the key difference this time is the aircraft type. The economics of this aircraft is better than what we were flying before,” Bureau said.

Air Canada was earlier flying Boeing 767 on the route. It has introduced a ‘premium economy’ configuration and has 21 premium economy, 29 business and 237 economy class seats.

The launch comes at a time when Air India has reportedly shelved its plans to start such a flight from Delhi to Toronto.

AI used to operate non-stop flights on the route till 2012 when it suspended operations due to losses. However, it is starting a non-stop direct flight to San Francisco from December 2.