Emirates celebrates 10 years in Toronto

November 1, 2017: The Middle Eastern carrier, Emirates, is celebrating 10 years in Canada. Since the inaugural flight in October 2007, Emirates has carried over 1.2 million passengers through its Toronto – Dubai route.

In Canada, Emirates’ established codeshare partnerships with WestJet and Alaska Airlines enable it to connect travellers from across its global network to more Canadian cities, and vice versa. Hitting the 10-year milestone in Canada shows Emirates’ continued commitment to its operations in the country.

“We’re proud to be celebrating 10 years of operations in Canada. We started with a Boeing 777 aircraft flying three times a week. By June 2009, we had started operating with the Airbus A380 and increased our passenger capacity by 40 percent across Canada, which illustrates the strong demand from customers and the market,” says Hubert Frach, Divisional senior vice president, Commercial Operations West at Emirates.

Emirates operate three flights per week between Toronto and Dubai is the maximum permitted frequency in the Air Transport Agreement negotiated between Canada and the United Arab Emirates in 1999. To date, Emirates’ entitlement and frequency of service remain unchanged, while trade between the two countries has increased significantly. Since 2009 and the upgrade to the A380, passenger occupancy on Emirates’ Toronto service has been consistently full, averaging 90 percent, with demand outstripping supply.

The majority of Canadian passengers are travelling to Dubai, the Middle East and the South Asia subcontinent, with leisure traffic to the Maldives and Mauritius. Emirates is currently the only airline operating the A380 out of Toronto.

Frach added, “Over the past decade we’ve witnessed an increasing interest in Dubai. In the latest seat sale results, Dubai was the top destination sold in Canada. Dubai offers many attractions to cater to visitors with different interests, and has a growing selection of cruise, family and luxury providers.”

Passengers on flights to and from Canada enjoy the hospitality of Emirates’ multi-national Cabin Crew, of which more than 360 are Canadian, in addition to more than 188 Canadian pilots. Emirates in total has over 728 Canadian nationals working in various positions in its global operations.

Emirates is the world’s largest A380 operator with 98 in its fleet, and over 80 million passengers have flown on the double-decked aircraft since 2008. The three-class A380 on the Toronto route offers a total of 515 seats, with 14 private suites in First Class, 76 lie-flat seats in Business Class and 425 seats in spacious Economy Class cabin.

According to the latest trade statistics, the UAE continues to be Canada’s largest export market in the Middle East and North Africa since the last 12 years and is the 16th largest globally. In 2016 alone, bilateral trade between Canada and the UAE exceeded $1.9 billion, having grown by 64 percent since the two countries were first connected by direct air services by Emirates in 2007.

Emirates SkyCargo has also played an important role in connecting Canada to the world. In 2016, Emirates flights to and from Canada carried over 4,000 tonnes of cargo. Currently, major cargo imports include fruit, vegetables and fish. Major exports pharmaceuticals, electronics, and mining/drilling equipment, livestock and courier services.