Air Canada has resumed its seasonal route between London Heathrow and the Indian business hub of Mumbai.
The North American carrier operates the route as part of its Toronto-Mumbai service via London, which was first launched in November 2022 using “fifth freedom” flying rights.
The winter service will run until 29 March 2024 using Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft fitted with economy, premium economy and Signature Class cabins.
Air Canada is also planning to expand transatlantic capacity in summer 2024 with four daily services from London Heathrow to Toronto, six weekly flights from Manchester to Toronto and an earlier start for the Edinburgh-Toronto summer route on 1 March 2024.
Meanwhile Air Canada said that its managed corporate demand has been remaining steady at about 25 per cent to 30 per cent below 2019 levels, during the company’s third quarter earnings call on Monday (30 October).
Mark Galardo, Air Canada’s EVP of network planning and revenue management, said the airline continued to see "sustained recovery in the SME side, and that gives us some interesting yield prospects going forward".
The best third-quarter regional markets for Air Canada were the transatlantic and Pacific routes, with year-on-year yield increases of about 13 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
“Most of the new international routes met or exceeded expectations,” said Galardo who added that premium revenue continued to perform strongly and was up 21 per cent from last year with demand from both leisure and business markets.