Emirates and Air Canada are building on a three-year-old partnership by extending their codeshare and reciprocal loyalty agreements through 2032.
The new memorandum of understanding, signed 19 November, also calls for increased cooperation between the cargo arms of Emirates and Air Canada, which could lead to the establishment of a cargo-based joint venture.
The global carriers launched their codeshare in 2022, and have since flown about 550,000 passengers on 56 codeshare routes in Canada, the USA, the UAE and other countries.
Emirates flies daily to Toronto from Dubai using its Airbus A380s, while Air Canada flies daily between the cities using Boeing 787s.
“Air Canada’s partnership with Emirates has been highly successful, and we are proud to renew it early, expanding its scope and extending its duration through 2032,” says Mark Galardo, Air Canada’s chief commercial officer.
Currently, Emirates passengers can connect to 37 cities in Air Canada’s network through the codeshare agreement, while Air Canada places its code on 19 routes operated by Emirates.
Three new Air Canada routes were added to the list of codeshare cities during North America’s summer air travel season – Toronto to Minneapolis, Montreal to Calgary and Vancouver to Los Angeles.
“This agreement strengthens our international strategy by supporting our daily, year-round service between Toronto and Dubai and providing customers and shippers seamless connections to destinations across the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Southeast Asia,” Galardo says.
The agreement will see the carriers “facilitate bi-directional cargo flow” between those regions, and could be the basis for a “potential joint venture focused on cargo operations”, the airlines say.
Emirates recently made waves at the Dubai air show with a massive follow-on order for a further 65 Boeing 777-9s, in addition to a more modest top-up order of eight additional Airbus A350-900s.
Air Canada, meanwhile, overcame a punishing flight attendants’ strike during peak summer travel to post a profitable third quarter, while it awaits its first deliveries of the Airbus A321XLR next year.
The renewed vows come as another Canadian carrier, Air Transat, recently announced that its new codeshare and interline agreements with Turkish Airlines are now in effect.
