Air Canada expands reach in Middle East

The only four-star international network carrier in North America celebrated one year in Dubai. Air Canada is tapping into new market segments and expanding its reach within the Middle East to Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

TT Bureau

Margaret Skinner, Director Sales EMEAI, Air Canada, shares, “This past year we have worked very hard and received fantastic response from the market in terms of our product and its services. As we celebrate one year we have interesting news to share with our clients. Dreamliner is the game changer for us, now we have upgraded it to a Boeing 777 for the convenience of the passengers travelling from Dubai-Toronto vice versa route. The cabin classes offered are the very same as economy, premium economy and business. Our premium economy is a product of its own, it is not just a segment closed by a curtain, instead it offers different meal services, priority baggage and other important aspects which would make the customer relax throughout the journey.”

Today, many airlines invest on this premium economy class, which is a very convenient and valued service due to the rise of more middle class travellers and the corporate sector which prefers to pay extra for certain privileges. Their current focus is rather diverse in terms of the many different markets. Visiting friends and relatives, student movements, corporate and leisure travellers are among those who would regularly visit Canada or North American region.

“We have tremendous growth from Indian market. This year we launched non-stop seasonal flights between Delhi and Vancouver. Delhi-Toronto is now upgraded to daily and Air Canada announced launching a new, three-times weekly year round service between Toronto and Mumbai starting July 1, 2017. All flights out of India will be operated by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner,” Skinner adds.

Deepu Cyriac, Country Manager for UAE / GCC, Air Canada, says, “We recently opened BSP in Kuwait. We are further expanding our services to have SPA partnerships with Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways, Oman Air and Saudi Arabian Airline to travel via Dubai and London to more destinations in Canada. This flexibility has seen a very good growth from the region. We are currently serving a very good mix of markets around the region.

“Another important aspect which enabled us to grow so fast was the timing factor on Dubai- Toronto route. We offer night departures on both direction which is suitable for flying long hours. From Toronto our flight departs at 20:50 and arrives Dubai 18:55 local time in Dubai. Departure from Dubai is at 23:55 and arrival Toronto next day morning 5Am. Passengers travelling onward to US can clear US immigration & customs at Toronto Pearson International airport. Air Canada is the largest international airline operating to 55 cities in the USA,” he adds.