Air Canada relaunching nonstop flights to India after a decade

Air Canada has recently announced it will be relaunching its nonstop flights to New Delhi from Toronto in November 2015. The airline will resume the services on the route after an interval of 10 years.

The airline’s decision to relaunch the fights indicates that its confidence in India’s economic prosperity has strengthened and also prominently highlights the important role that Toronto’s Pearson International Airport is currently serving as a major international hub in attracting connecting passengers from the U.S. in large numbers.

Air Canada operated nonstop flights between Toronto and New Delhi until 2005, but had to stop direct flights services because the route was proving to be unprofitable on its international network. The passengers traveling between the two destinations were however offered a connecting service from Zurich. The airline however finally stopped its Zurich-New Delhi service in May 2007.

This had placed the customers traveling between New Delhi and Toronto in a piquant situation since for faster connection they were required a transfer in Europe to a Star Alliance partner.

Air Canada, which was operating a 211-seat Boeing 767 and 284-seat Airbus A340, find it unprofitable to operate these aircrafts on the route. The airline is now acquiring a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which it says will help it make the route sustainable with the relaunch of the Toronto-New Delhi service in November this year.

The airline was in the past finding it quite difficult to attract customers to travel in business class to/from India. Air Canada has now exuded confidence that with improved economy it will be able to attract more executives to business class.