Shorter, quicker flights to Canada

CHANDIGARH, Dec 4 — In October next year when Canada 3000 introduces flights to New Delhi and Mumbai from Toronto and Vancouver, these will be routed through the North Pole and take three to five hours less than the conventional flights.

Two senior officials of the Canada 3000 airline — Mr Angus Kinnear and Mr David Hardouin — were in India last month and will came again in January next year to finalise all modalities and formalities to start these flights from October 1.

According to Mr Peter Sutherland, High Commissioner of Canada to India, the Ministry of Transport of the Government of Canada had awarded a schedule service licence to Canada 3000 to provide airline services between Canada and India within one year from October 17 this year.

Mr Kinnear and Mr Hardouin under took a preliminary visit to India, said Mr Sutherland, maintaining that the new service would be a direct non-stop flight, both from Vancouver and Toronto. “The flight will not only cut the travel time but also save the travellers from changing aircraft midway, in either Europe or Asia”.

The airline expects a minimum of three lakh persons to travel on the India-Canada route annually. At present, there are 7,00,000 Indo-Canadians in Canada, a majority of them Punjabis and Sikhs.

In July this year, both Russia and Canada agreed to allow travel over the North Pole thus enabling North American airlines to fly direct from Canada and USA to Asia.

“A trip from Toronto to New Delhi through the North Pole will take about 12 hours while from Vancouver to New Delhi, it will take about 14 hours of direct flying,” said Mr Sutherland.

In March this year, an American Airlines Boeing 777 flew over the North Pole on a flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. It was for the first time that a commercial airline had flown a twin-engined aircraft via a polar route. The flight had taken 15 hours and 13 minutes.

Two Russian Government officials were aboard the first-ever commercial polar flight, which was under Russian air traffic control for about five hours.

Diplomatic complications, obsolete equipment and procedures had prevented the use of the polar route. Both Russia and Canada are charging heavy fees for the use of their air space. The airlines, too, expect big savings as fuel costs will drop and so will the landing fees as stopovers will be no longer necessary.

It is, however, not clear whether the savings will translate into lower fares.

It was more than three years ago that Air Canada packed up its operations to India via London. Even India’s national carrier, Air-India, too, had suspended both its Toronto and Vancouver operations some years ago. Before Air Canada arrived the Canadian airline used to run flights to India.

At present, there are is neither any Canadian nor Indian carrier operating on the Delhi-Toronto or Delhi-Vancouver sector.

The visiting Canada 3000 top executives met senior officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airport Authority of India, the Director-General of Civil Aviation and others concerned.

“When they come next time, they will be finalising other modalities, including their marketing agents and ground handling and other operations connected with their to and fro flights, “ Mr Sutherland said.
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