Air Canada has its eyes firmly set on India, looking to make inroads into the country through strategic partnerships. The airline intends to make the most of its collaboration with the Middle East giant Emirates to reach secondary cities in India where EK already serves. With an ever-increasing number of Indians living in Canada, the carrier wants to attract as many passengers as possible on the popular Indian-Canadian network.
Air Canada intends to increase its footprint in India by planning to use its partnership with Emirates. The carrier's CEO Michael Rousseau spoke at the Future Travel Experience conference in Las Vegas on September 7th and said that the collaboration with Emirates is very interesting.
In particular, he emphasized Air Canada's advantage by using Emirates' significant presence in the Indian subcontinent. Rousseau added,
"India is a key market for us to access. Emirates allows us to access that market that will enhance our ability to bring people to Canada and Emirates will get a little more access to Canada. We will develop a codeshare in due course that will make the travel journey for our customers much more seamless."
Rousseau also reflected on the changing landscape of global aviation, how Emirates was an adversary ten years ago and how they have developed a different kind of thinking as time passed.
In July, Emirates and Air Canada announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement that will create more options for customers when traveling on the carriers' networks while also enhancing the customer experience throughout the journey.
Under the agreement, travelers can book destinations throughout Emirates and Air Canada's networks on a single ticket, facilitating a smoother customer experience throughout the journey. The exact routes included in the agreement have not yet been announced other than that it will "offer enhanced consumer travel choices for Air Canada customers to travel to the United Arab Emirates and to destinations beyond Dubai."
While Emirates is not part of any airline alliance, it does have partnerships with several other carriers, including the US airline JetBlue Airways.
Given the popularity of the India-Canada sector, it's not surprising to see Air Canada trying to get as much of a market share as possible. The airline returned to India in 2017 and currently flies between Delhi and Toronto, and Delhi and Montreal. It had to suspend its Delhi-Vancouver flight as the Russian airspace closure left the service unviable.
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The Canadian flag carrier faces competition from Air India for direct flights to the country. AI itself has been looking to increase capacity to North America and plans to lease more widebodies to serve the routes.
For the thousands of passengers flying between the two countries, they could look forward to better connectivity in the months to come.
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