Emirates has launched its new service between Dubai and Montreal, making it the third Middle East airline to serve the Canadian city, following Qatar Airways and Royal Air Maroc. The new route was made possible by the loosening of the Canada-UAE bilateral air service agreement, which controls market access. As a result, Emirates has also increased its Toronto route to daily. Meanwhile, Air Canada will begin a new Vancouver-Dubai service, effectively on partner Emirates’ behalf.

Emirates’ New Route

Emirates’ new route between Dubai and Montreal covers a distance of 6,611 miles (10,640 km). The route is operated using three-class 354-seat Boeing 777-300ERs and runs daily. The first aircraft used on this route was A6-EGI, which is 11.7 years old and was delivered to Emirates in November 2011. Interestingly, the route was announced just two months before its launch, leaving little lead time to fill up a large aircraft. However, the high season in both directions of travel has helped to boost demand.

Growing the P2P Market

In 2019, the Montreal-Dubai point-to-point (P2P) market consisted of only 22,000 roundtrip passengers, according to booking data. This was less than half the volume of Wrocław to Seoul. Therefore, Emirates needs to grow this market quickly. It will also benefit from passengers connecting over Montreal to certain Canadian and US cities with Air Canada, which will be particularly important in the low season. However, most Montreal passengers will transit over Emirates’ hub.

Top 25 Target Markets

Emirates’ new route will undoubtedly benefit from passengers connecting through Dubai. Beirut was the largest market in 2019, with 75,000 roundtrip passengers. However, it requires much backtracking versus connecting in Europe. Delhi, with 42,000 passengers, is the largest market not requiring backtracking. The following map shows the top 25 target markets by the number of passengers in 2019.

Canada-UAE Air Service Agreement

The Canada-UAE bilateral air service agreement has been a barrier to market access for many years, but now the agreement has been loosened, it has opened up opportunities for both Emirates and Air Canada. Air Canada will begin its new Vancouver-Dubai service on October 28th, giving the pair a total of 25 weekly flights from Canada. WestJet also secured Dubai slots to launch Calgary, but this has not yet materialized.

Emirates’ new route between Dubai and Montreal has been highly anticipated. Although the route was announced just two months before its launch, the high season in both directions of travel has helped to boost demand. Emirates will need to grow the point-to-point market quickly, but it will also benefit from passengers connecting over Montreal to certain Canadian and US cities with Air Canada. The loosening of the Canada-UAE bilateral air service agreement has opened up opportunities for both Emirates and Air Canada, and the addition of new routes will undoubtedly benefit both airlines.

What do you think are the benefits of the loosening of the Canada-UAE bilateral air service agreement?

Also, you might be interested in reading: Qantas and Emirates Partnership Renewed: What it Means for Customers and Competition