Delhi-Vancouver on Air Canada
Air Canada’s inaugural flight from Vancouver arrived in Delhi on October 22, 2016 with a huge delegation of government officials and corporate executives.
Speaking after the landing of this flight, Kevin Howett, Senior Vice President, Regional Markets and Government Relations, Air Canada, said that they are very excited about the service as well as about the Indian market. “There is a lot of excitement around the new flight, with respect to the opportunities associated with the new route between Canada and India. There are a lot of opportunities for investment between both countries. This flight is step two in our threepronged strategy that we have with respect to the Indian market for Air Canada. Last year, we introduced our services between Toronto and Delhi and now we are moving it to a daily service from November 6, 2016. On July 1, 2017, we will start our service from Toronto to Mumbai. Needless to say, we are quite optimistic about the Indian market,” he added.
A lot of VFR traffic travels between India and Canada for a long time, but Air Canada started with direct flights to India only recently. Margaret Skinner, Director, Sales – EMEAI, Air Canada, said that they have been planning to come to India for a long time. “India has been on Air Canada’s plan for quite some time. With the economy opening between both the countries, and also with our new Dreamliner 787 aircraft, it makes sense to start the connections. It’s the right aircraft on the right route and hence one can see us expanding to this market. We are very pleased with the results so far, and we are hoping for some more success here. We’ve had fantastic support from the travel trade as well and they seem to love our service.”
Howlett added, “The Dreamliner 787-900 has been designed for long haul missions like that. It has an incredible set of economics. Also, our airplane offers 3-cabin configuration — Business, Premium Economy and Economy, which covers the requirements of all kinds of travellers.”