Air Canada mulls resumption of daily services to India
18 Jun 2011
New Delhi: Air Canada may resume daily services to India by the end of the year, according to company representatives in Delhi. According to these sources, a shortage of planes and fear of a lack of consistent demand through the year have been preventing resumption of full scale services.
Though Canada-based tourism in India has been picking up it still has a very narrow window - the relatively short season from December through March.
Though a lot of traffic is generated by families of Indo-Canadians, it still is not enough to generate sufficient volumes.
Meanwhile, even as Air Canada dithers, Indian carriers are carving out larger market shares for themselves on the route.
Private Indian carrier, Jet Airways, the largest by number of passengers carried, now has a virtual monopoly on the direct service to Toronto and also serves Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.
The other Air Canada competitor, Air India, too provides frequent services.
Fresh competition looming on the horizon is from India's budget carriers, such as GoAir, which has announced orders for 72 new Airbus 320neo aircraft, worth $7.2-billion.
IndiGo, the fastest-growing of the low-cost carriers, has placed an order for 180 of the same aircraft, worth a whopping $15billion.
