MUMBAI- Despite a rise in political tension post-COVID-19 pandemic between India and Canada, Air India (AI) and Air Canada (AC) see strong unprecedented growth in travel demand.
Both flag carriers are enhancing, adjusting, and adding more flights to their network between Canada and India.
India Canada Flights
Effective September 1, Air India will increase its Delhi (DEL)-Toronto (YYZ) services from daily to 10 weekly nonstop flights using a Boeing 777-300ER. The additional three flights will depart Delhi at 16:05 and arrive in Toronto at 21:05. Return flights from Toronto will depart at 01:15 and land back in Delhi at 00:35 the next day.
These extra flights will facilitate more feeder traffic from Bangkok (BKK), Colombo (CMB), Dhaka (DAC), and Kathmandu (KTM), as well as increased domestic connections within India to Toronto via Delhi.
Air Canada has announced an aggressive commercial strategy with several winter seasonal upgrades:
- Launching the first direct flight from Calgary to Delhi via London Heathrow daily using a Boeing 787-9, effective October 28. This flight will connect with their Vancouver-London service in both directions and will replace the daily Toronto-London-Mumbai route of Winter 2023.
- Increasing Montreal-Delhi flights from five weekly to daily nonstop.
- Relaunching nonstop Toronto-Mumbai flights with a four-weekly service using a Boeing 777-200LR.
Behramjee Ghadially, the route analyst shared these insights on LinkedIn and shared the market comparison between 2019 and 2023.
Demand from Delhi and Mumbai
India-Canada demand in 2023 for Delhi (DEL) and Mumbai (BOM) was as follows:
Round trip passengers:
- Toronto: 763K vs 179K (YYZ-DEL in 2019 was 480K, YYZ-BOM was 128K)
- Vancouver: 352K vs 28K (YVR-DEL in 2019 was 298K)
- Calgary: 138K vs 22K (YYC-DEL in 2019 was 62K)
- Montreal: 50K vs 18K
- Edmonton: 72K vs 10K (YEG-DEL in 2019 was 49K)
- Winnipeg: 70K vs 4K (YWG-DEL in 2019 was 33K)
- Ottawa: 7K vs 3K
- Halifax: 8K vs 3K
While Montreal-Delhi (YUL-DEL) may not have enough direct traffic to justify daily flights, the route benefits from extensive domestic Canadian and cross-border U.S. connections, enhancing transfer traffic volume.
For Edmonton, Vancouver, and Winnipeg, Air Canada will meet the increased demand through the new Calgary (YYC) service and increased frequencies via Montreal (YUL), as the Toronto-Delhi (YYZ-DEL) route already sufficiently serves the point-to-point market segment.
While writing about competition, Ghadially added,
Personally speaking, despite some messages I have been receiving on this development, I do not foresee AC nor AI losing market share to each other but rather airlines from the Gulf and those in One World and Sky Team will see their DEL and BOM market share get reduced during IATA Winter 2024 season. However due to their vast network, the Gulf carriers will not feel the impact that much at all, as what ever market share they may lose out on from YYZ/YUL-DEL/BOM, they will make up for it with demand bound to IKA, CMB, DAC, PAK, NBO, BKK, SIN, KUL and Southern India.
Overall, the Air India and Air Canada duopoly and monopoly on some routes will generate profits for carriers. However, competition from Gulf carriers can help travelers opt for better service, quality, and reduced fares.
Furthermore, Air India will unlock new destinations, and add more flights to North America with Airbus A350. Want to know where it will fly A350, check out this post: Where Could Air India Fly its Airbus A350s? | Exclusive – Aviation A2Z
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The post Air India and Air Canada Adding New and More Flights Amid Travel Surge | Exclusive appeared first on Aviation A2Z.