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Mr Ratindra Jang, GM, Air Canada, addressing a press conference in the Capital on Tuesday . -- Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Oct. 7

THE Canadian airlines, Air Canada, which has advanced the launch of its non-stop daily flight on the Toronto-Delhi-Toronto sector by a week, is also looking at working with Air India to have a code-share flight on the Honking-Vancouver route.

In an informal chat with presspersons here, the airlines General Manager, Mr Ratindra Jang, said that the re-launch of the flight would provide Indian passengers better connectivity to destinations in North America, including Mexico.

The airline, which withdrew from the Indian market in 1999, is to re-launch the flight from October 18. Air Canada officials claimed that despite what might have happened in the past, the airline is going to have "around-the-year" operations from India.

The re-launch of the flight, which is to be initially operated with an Airbus A-340-300 aircraft, is to see Air Canada offer close to 230 seats on each flight between Delhi and Toronto. Airline officials said that payload restrictions limited the number of seats that could be offered on the flight from Delhi.

The re-launched flight is not only aimed at passengers from the Indian market but also from neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Airline officials indicated that the re-launched flight, which is seeing heavy bookings already, has received a booking from a passenger in Karachi. Apart from doing promotional activities to popularise the flight, the airline will conduct road shows in Punjab.

Questioned on the airlines' future plans in India, Mr Jang said that Air Canada would focus on the re-launched flight first. "We are going step-by-step. When the Delhi flight is firmly established, the next step will be to have operations to Mumbai," he said.

While Air Canada does not have a code-share agreement with AI for the re-launched flight, Mr Jang said that the airline might do something with the Maharaja in the long-term.

However, the airline works in close co-operation with AI and has awarded its ground handling work here to the Indian carrier.

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