Emirates to operate daily A380 flights to Toronto

For those who want to see the delights of Toronto and its streetcar system, there’s good news, with Emirates planning to scale up to operating a daily service from Dubai.

From 20 April, daily flights will operate on the busy route to serve the pent-up demand for passenger services between the cities.  The move comes as bilateral relations between the United Arab Emirates and Canada have enhanced significantly.

Emirates plans to operate an Airbus A380 aircraft on the Dubai-Toronto route, allowing 491 passengers across Economy Class, Business Class and First Class on each flight.

This is a scale-up from five flights a week to a daily service (seven flights a week), offering just under 1000 extra seats in each direction, or up to 3437 seats a week.

According to the airline, the Dubai-Toronto route is highly popular amongst customers from India, UAE, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka while the same countries represent top destinations for travellers from Toronto.

In Quotes

Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer, said:

Emirates welcomes the expansion of the air services agreement between the UAE and Canada and we would firstly like to thank all stakeholders and authorities who were involved in this pivotal agreement that will provide a boost to the aviation and tourism sectors in both countries. We have been serving customers between Toronto and Dubai since 2007, and although the double-decker A380 aircraft has been operating the route since 2009, demand arising from leisure and corporate travellers, diaspora and students has consistently outstripped the allocated capacity. This enhanced agreement represents a turning point for us in our strategy to serve our customers better, by offering more choice and flexibility, and meet pent up demand across our growing network. 

“Business ties between Canada and the UAE have grown significantly over the years and the expanded air services will help to further nurture business and trade.  The expansion of air services is also an affirmation of the growing importance of the UAE to Canada’s global connectivity, which we can support through our global network of more than 130 destinations. Together with the relevant authorities, our codeshare and loyalty programme partner Air Canada, and our valued industry partners, we look forward to playing a role in facilitating more tourism and trade opportunities between the two nations,” 

Expanding beyond the codeshare

Emirates and Air Canada activated a codeshare last year to provide onward Canadian connectivity, as well as connections beyond Dubai.

It seems that with bilateral relations improving, Emirates is prepared to throw additional capacity on the Dubai-Toronto pair, with both Air Canada and Dubai plying trade on the route.

Both airlines will be seeking to take advantage of the demand that there appears to be – especially with the codeshare in place, which will allow them to ease the passenger experience with a one-ticket ride and baggage checked through.

And for those who aren’t happy travelling, or not used to the experience, that could make a big difference, when they can just do everything in one transaction.

We’ll have to see if more capacity is needed to fill out the latent demand that exists on this route pair. With Air Canada offering 298 seats with its 787-9 it uses, and 491 offered by Emirates, there are 5,523 seats a week between the two cities.

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