Abu Dhabi: Air Canada expects to see growth in traffic between Canada and the UAE as a large number of people travel between the two countries, a senior executive of the airline told Gulf News.
Air Canada operates three flights a week between Dubai and Toronto, a service that was launched in 2015.
“We are seeing a good number of people travelling from the UAE since we launched the service in November 2015. Overall we carried 45 million passengers in 2016 and Air Canada operates to more than 200 destinations in six continents,” said Deepu Cyriac, Air Canada’s country manager in the UAE.
He did not provide specific information on how many people used Air Canada flights to travel from the UAE but said there has been a 14 per cent growth in traffic between the two counties in the first five months of this year when compared to the same period last year. Emirates and Etihad Airways also fly to Canada.
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“We expect this trend [growth] to continue in the coming months as more people travel to Canada for studies, immigration, and tourism purposes.”
The carrier deploys a Dreamliner 787 aircraft on the Dubai route, with 300 seats, he said.
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On July 1, Air Canada will be launching two new routes from Toronto to Mumbai, which will be a year-round service with five flights a week; and seasonal flights between Montreal to Algiers.
Discussing tourism, Cyriac said there is huge potential for the sector to grow especially in the Western part of Canada including Vancouver, Calgary and the Rocky mountains.
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Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 64 airports in Canada, 57 in the United States and 95 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America.
Since 2010, the airline has embarked on a $10-billion capital expenditure programme to improve its travel experience including expanding its global network, a fleet renewal programme, and enhanced on-board amenities.
