India and Canada may be locked in a not so happy diplomatic tussle, but that isn’t stopping its airlines to add flights between the two countries. The airline seems to be withdrawing its Toronto – London – Mumbai service and instead opting to serve Mumbai, non-stop from Toronto four times a week. The flights between Montreal and Delhi will be operated Daily and the airline will offer flights between Calgary to Delhi via London Heathrow, which will also mean an additional flight between London Heathrow and Delhi. The flights to Mumbai will be operated by B777-200LR while those to Delhi from Calgary via London will see the Dreamliner being deployed.
Highlights of the carrier’s new services include the only non-stop flights from Canada to India’s financial capital, Mumbai, improved service from Western Canada to Delhi with the introduction of new seasonal daily flights over London Heathrow and daily flights from Montreal to Delhi. In total, Air Canada will operate 25 weekly flights to India, the most comprehensive offering of any carrier between Canada and India.
The newly announced flights are not yet available for sale and the London Heathrow – Mumbai flight is still selling on booking engines, though it wont operate this winter.
This comes within days of Aeroroutes informing about the addition of frequency by Air India to Toronto from Delhi. Starting September 01, 2024; Air India will offer 10x weekly flights between Delhi and Toronto compared to a daily service until then.
The India – Canada Bilateral Air Services Agreement allows unlimited flights between the two countries but are restricted to points of call. The agreement gives Canadian air carriers access to Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, and Indian air carriers access to Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, and two additional points to be selected by India.
The share of trade between the two countries is not very high, with both Exports and Imports being less than 1% of India’s trade. However, there is a lot of travel between the two countries – especially during winter when Indian Origin people who have migrated to Canada come back to India to spend time in better weather, only to go back towards the end of winter.
The market split
Starting September, Air India will have 17 frequencies between India and Canada, with 10 to Toronto from Delhi and seven to Vancouver from Delhi. At the same time, Air Canada will have seven flights a week between Toronto and Delhi, while two flights a week between Montreal and Delhi.
Come winter, this will change – with current schedule of Air India showing 17 frequencies while Air Canada will operate 18 frequencies as below
- Toronto to Mumbai: four times a week
- Toronto to Delhi: seven times a week
- Montreal to Delhi: seven times a week
Coupled with the one-stop from Calgary, Air Canada will offer 25 services on its own aircraft between Canada and India.
Will Air India react to this capacity addition by Air Canada? Air India is yet to announce the full deployment of its six A350s which are in service, largely serving domestic routes barring the one flight to Dubai from Mumbai and Delhi.
Once the full deployment of these A350s is planned, the airline could potentially free up a few aircraft and use them to deploy on the India – Canada route. However, Air India had plans of sending aircraft for reconfiguration and refurbishment. It is unclear if this work is on track.
Network Thoughts
Air Canada and Air India are both part of Star Alliance and have a long standing partnership. It seems like Air Canada, like many other carriers, is considering the Ukraine Russia war as the new normal and going ahead with expansion to capitalise on the market.
The supply chain constraints are also part of the new normal and as travel patterns return to pre COVID times, the seasonal scheduling starts playing an important role and the India – Canada market is one of the best examples.
You can now order Network Thoughts baggage tags and/or book marks!
Follow NetworkThoughts on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.