RE:RE:RE:AC and Emirates announce strategic partnershipThis sector is getting more interesting.
LHR max passenger restrictions: There are 14-15 daily flights between LHR-India. A big chunk of these are connecting passenger onwards to Canada/US. With flight cancellations, these passengers will try to reroute with following preference.
1. Direct flights: DEL/BOM - Canada and DEL/BOM-US
2. Connecting fligts: DEL - FRA/IST/DXB/MUC/CDG..... - Canada/US
3. 6th freedom: DEL - Canada/US - US - Canada
I did a quick check on flights. DEL-YYZ economy is sold out till Aug end. Standard economy fares are not available till Sept. Sept return fare is $32XX.
Expect every single seat to be sold at a premium on this sector for next few months. Vancouver - Del flight will restart in few weeks and Toronto-BOM will start in few months. There is a chance of restarting second daily flight (YYZ-DEL) soon.
There will be some level of permanent shift of preference to direct flights. Air Canada fleet is ready for this. Many airlines are still waiting for sufficient and appropriate fleet to freely deploy direct non stop flights all over the world.
Charter Direct flight YYZ-IXC (Chandigarh): A new fly by seasonal charter service will start end of Sept between Toronto and first ever Chandigarh (North India-Tier I city). This sector has lot of traffic. And this speaks volumes of the potential. In the past, many have attempted charter service between Canada-India and didn't survive for long. Air Canada and others in market will take care of them.
All in all, this sector is bound to grow more.