Emirates has exciting news for Dubai-Toronto travelers – the airline is increasing its five weekly services to daily starting from April 20th! This follows the agreement between the UAE and Canadian governments to allow airlines to increase flights by 50%.
The daily service will be operated using three-class, 491-seat A380s. Partner Air Canada also operates a daily service, and together they offer travelers a comprehensive schedule.
More routes
With the additional flights available to both UAE-based Etihad and Emirates and Canadian operators, there is speculation about further route expansions. Will Emirates consider adding Vancouver to its list of destinations? Could Etihad increase its Toronto service to daily or more? Perhaps Air Canada will launch flights from Montreal to Dubai? And will WestJet finally launch its Calgary service?
In 2019, Emirates flew five weekly flights to Toronto, with Air Canada operating three weekly flights. That year, Emirates had 254,000 roundtrip seats available for sale between Dubai and Toronto, carrying around 232,000 passengers with a seat load factor of about 91%.
The majority of passengers flew between Toronto and Dubai with a final destination in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Afghanistan, South Africa, Mauritius, and Kuwait. The biggest markets were Toronto-Delhi, Toronto-Karachi, Dhaka, Colombo, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Amritsar, Tehran, and Bengaluru.
Based on 2019 traffic figures, Montreal and Vancouver are potential destinations for Emirates. Montreal had around 445,000 roundtrip passengers to/from the Middle East, Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, South Asia, and Central Asia, while Vancouver had approximately 560,000.
The top origins and destinations for Montreal were Beirut, Tel Aviv, Delhi, Tehran, Dubai, Amman, Mumbai, Jeddah, Colombo, and Dhaka. For Vancouver, the top markets were Delhi, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Johannesburg, Dhaka, Nairobi, Colombo, and Cape Town.
If Vancouver-Dubai flights become available, Tehran is likely to be the biggest transit market rather than Delhi.
