Air Canada will double its capacity to India this month as it temporarily adjusts its long-haul network in response to the ongoing airspace restrictions and safety issues in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The airline posted an update<\/a> to its X account Tuesday (March 3).<\/p>\n \u201cWith the ongoing Middle East situation, from March 7 to 21 we\u2019re adding a frequency for double-daily Toronto-Delhi service and using larger aircraft on select Toronto-London-Mumbai flights to provide routing options,\u201d the airline wrote.<\/p>\n It comes amid a wave of airline cancellations triggered by airspace closures<\/a> across the Middle East, where tensions have escalated since Feb. 28, when strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran \u2014 followed by Iranian retaliation \u2014 ignited a sharp rise in regional violence.<\/p>\n A hole in the sky<\/p>\n This week\u2019s airspace closures have left a \u201chole in the sky,\u201d as CNN\u2019s travel beat called it.<\/a><\/p>\n Because most airlines have been unable to use Russian and Ukrainian airspace during the prolonged war, the Middle East has become an even more critical corridor for flights connecting Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0Minister Anand seeks potential access to Oman\u2019s airspace, no gov\u2019t evacuation planned<\/a><\/p>\n The region hosts some of the world\u2019s most influential aviation megahubs \u2014 Dubai International Airport, Hamad International Airport and\u00a0Zayed International Airport\u00a0\u2014 as well as global carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways\u00a0and Etihad Airways, whose business models are designed around linking East and West through tightly-coordinated long-haul networks.<\/p>\n When that airspace shuts down, the ripple effects are swift and far-reaching.<\/p>\n Flights are forced onto longer routings, increasing journey times and fuel burn while triggering disruptions to aircraft rotations and crew schedules \u2014 all of which drive up costs.<\/p>\n Aircraft can end up out of position, crews may be stranded, and operational uncertainty intensifies.<\/p>\n The knock-on effects also extend to insurance exposure, fare pricing (reports<\/a> are already emerging of sharply rising prices) and the broader financial sustainability of airline operations.<\/p>\n Ernest Arvai, an aviation analyst at U.S.\u2011based AirInsight, told The National\u00a0<\/a>that detours of two to three hours on wide\u2011body aircraft could add about $6,000 to $7,500 per flight hour in operating costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLosses will be dependent on the type of aircraft and its cost structure,\u201d he told the outlet, adding that financial losses for airlines come from two sources: \u201cthe loss of revenue from flight cancellations or delays, and from higher operating costs for additional time, fuel, crews and lower load factors, if passengers prefer to avoid the region during a conflict.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Canada requests access to Oman\u2019s airspace<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Canada is exploring options for getting stranded travellers home.\u00a0<\/p>\n As reported<\/a>, Canada\u2019s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has requested access to Oman\u2019s airspace, \u201cif necessary,\u201d to help evacuate Canadian citizens from the Middle East.<\/p>\n Speaking to the\u00a0Toronto Board of Trade, Anand made her remarks as the U.S. State Department\u00a0announced it is arranging military and charter flights for Americans wishing to leave the Middle East, following similar steps by other countries.<\/p>\n She emphasized that Canada\u2019s primary concern amid the ongoing conflict involving Iran is the safety of its citizens in the region, noting that Oman still had \u201cviable\u201d airspace as of this morning. Ottawa, however, is not currently organizing government-led evacuations.<\/p>\n According to Global Affairs Canada, more than 97,000 Canadians have registered their presence in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n Airports resume limited operations<\/p>\n Airspace in the Middle East is restarting, but due to the volatile nature of military situations, it\u2019s a slow and gradual one.<\/p>\n Following more than 48 hours of a complete shutdown, Dubai Airports, which is served by Emirates, says it is now operating flights, but it\u2019s limited.<\/p>\n Shortly after 6 p.m. on Monday (March 2), the authority overseeing both Dubai International Airport\u00a0(DXB) and Al Maktoum International Airport\u00a0(DWC) confirmed that a \u201csmall number of flights\u201d would be allowed to operate.<\/p>\n Flight at both airports were first suspended on Feb. 28, after the United Arab Emirates closed its airspace in response to attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n The strikes triggered retaliatory action across the Gulf region, including in the UAE.<\/p>\n The shutdowns have left thousands of travellers stuck in Dubai and elsewhere, with officials scrambling to secure temporary accommodation for transit passengers and those scheduled to depart.<\/p>\n As services gradually restart, passengers are being urged not to head to either DXB or DWC unless their airline has contacted them directly with a confirmed departure time.<\/p>\n Abu Dhabi Airports,\u00a0home to Etihad Airways, has also announced a resumption of partial operations at AUH as of Monday.<\/p>\n Israel is considering a gradual reopening of its airspace earlier than the start of next week, depending on security developments, local reports say.<\/a><\/p>\n Doha-based Qatar Airways, meanwhile, said Wednesday (March 4) that its flight operations remain temporarily suspended<\/a> due to the closure of Qatari airspace.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated<\/a> the conflict with Iran could last weeks and said wars can be fought \u201cforever\u201d with America’s stock of ammunition, reports NBC News.<\/p>\n The death toll in Iran is now nearly 800, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.<\/p>\n Don’t\u00a0miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX\u00a0<\/a>today! \u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0to follow PAX on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air Canada will double its capacity to India this month as it temporarily adjusts its long-haul network in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-513444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}