Air Canada is ending scheduled flights to Qatar in early February after two years of operation.
The airline began passenger service between its Toronto Pearson (YYZ) hub and Doha’s Hamad International Airport (DOH) in December 2020, initially operating three times per week using Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
It also signed a codeshare agreement with oneworld member Qatar Airways in November 2020 ahead of the launch.
Frequencies increased to 4X-weekly in July 2021 and remained at that level until this week when the 10,898-km (5,884-nm) route was scaled back to three round trips per week.
However, flights will now be suspended indefinitely from early February 2023. In a short statement, the Star Alliance member said: “Air Canada has taken the decision to indefinitely suspend its Toronto to Doha service effective February 1, 2023, for commercial reasons.”
The suspension of the route will leave Dubai (DXB) and Tel Aviv (TLV) as the only two points in the Middle East to be served nonstop by Air Canada. OAG data shows that the carrier flies to both destinations six times per week at the present time.
A total of 49,422 passengers flew from Toronto to Doha during the 2021 calendar year, Sabre Market Intelligence figures reveal. Looking at the traffic mix, about 59% of passengers traveled to destinations beyond Doha, 33% was bridge traffic, 5.5% was point-to-point, and 2.5% of passengers flew to Doha from destinations behind Toronto.
The largest airport market beyond Doha was Iran’s capital Tehran, followed by Colombo in Sri Lanka and Dhaka in Bangladesh.
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