TORONTO — It was a winning day for Emirates at Rogers Cup in Toronto on Friday, where the airline took in men’s quarterfinals action while at the same time celebrated the news of additional flights out of Toronto.
Dubai-based Emirates has been a global sponsor of the ATP tour, of which Rogers Cup is part of, since 2003, long before it launched its first flights out of Toronto in 2007. Since then, it has spent each year effectively increasing its brand awareness in the Canadian market, but this year’s tournament held extra special meaning as it came on the heels of Canada’s newly expanded air transport agreements with Egypt and the UAE.
Announced on July 27 by Marc Garneau, Canada’s Minister of Transport, the Canada-United Arab Emirates agreement paved the way for Emirates to launch two additional flights to its YYZ service – on Saturday and Sunday – for a total of five flights per week (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun). All flights are on an Airbus A380.
According to Matt Schmid, Senior Vice President, Emirates North America, the additional flights, which launch Aug. 18, will result in a capacity increase of approximately 65%, the maximum increase under the expanded air agreement.
Matt Schmid, Senior Vice President, Emirates North America
“Our Toronto route has one of our highest seat load factors that we see year-round in our network, so we’re very happy that we now have the opportunity to increase the frequencies to five times per week,” Schmid told Travelweek. “We’ve always said that there’s significantly more demand that we could pick up and create with additional frequencies, which would ultimately be good for people in Canada and the Canadian economy since more air connectivity fuels economic growth.
Schmid also noted that the additional flights will better position Emirates as a major carrier for corporate customers. “Three times per week is not a very strong corporate offer, but now with 5x weekly service, we’ve become much more attractive to corporate travellers.”
This, he said, should be the biggest takeaway message for travel agents, who he acknowledged as Emirates’ “key partners”. But Schmid also wants to remind agents of Emirates’ extensive partnership with fellow Dubai-based airline flydubai, which was first announced in 2017. The partnership goes beyond code-sharing; it includes integrated network collaboration with coordinated scheduling, giving flydubai customers seamless connectivity to Emirates’ worldwide destinations, and giving Emirates 52 destinations to add its 155-destination strong network.
Rogers Cup, Centre Court
On how this partnership benefits Canadians specifically, Schmid said: “This very close commercial corporation allows us to connect passengers from Toronto via Dubai to flydubai destinations, some of which are very attractive to those living in the Greater Toronto Area, including the entire Somali community as flydubai operates to Hargeisa, and the Eritrean community, as it also flies to Asmara.”
flydubai operates a “pure Boeing 737 fleet”, added Schmid, to destinations within a radius of around five hours from Dubai. And coupled with Emirates’ two additional flights out of Toronto, connectivity for Canadians easily reaches to the Middle East and beyond.
For more information go to emirates.com.
