Canada will re-launch the direct non-stop Delhi–Toronto air link on November 1, which should increase the number of Indians travelling to that country.
Duncan Bureau, Air Canada’s vice-president, Global Sales, said it would deploy a new Boeing 787-900s on the route, four times a week.
The airline had stopped the service in 2007 saying it was uneconomical. He said, later, it would increase the flight frequency, expand to Mumbai and beyond and improve the traffic numbers, which grew 20 per cent between 2013 and 2014.
Air Canada is acquiring 50 787-900 aircraft and “India is the first market where the airline will operate the newly delivered aircraft”, he told a news conference here on Thursday. At present, travellers between the two countries fly on Asian or European carriers. The shorter direct flight lasting around 13 hours, he said, would also weigh in its favour. “It is an expensive aircraft and we are making enormous investment [in the Indian market]. We expect it to outgrow other markets and increase 25 per cent in the next two or three years,” Mr. Bureau said.
The direct link is part of Canada’s plan to bring more Indian tourists to its destinations this year, in particular from Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. Canada’s Consul General in Bengaluru, Sidney Frank, said 1.75 lakh Indians travelled to Canada in 2014. This year, they are expected to surpass that figure.
“We are looking at attracting more tourists, students and immigrants to Canada,” he said, and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Canadian visit in mid-April should spur travel and contacts between the two countries. The consulate was set up in June 2014 and started issuing visas for the south in September.
Non-stop Delhi–Toronto air link to be
re-launched on November 1
