Air Canada has added Vancouver to Dubai, with the first flight to the UAE on October 28th. Marking Vancouver's first Middle East service in the last 20 years, it materialized both from the loosening of the Canada-UAE bilateral agreement and Air Canada's partnership with Emirates. Greater traffic rights also resulted in Emirates growing Toronto to daily, while Etihad has increased Abu Dhabi-Toronto to daily.

Dubai to the US and Canada

As of April 17th, some 15 US/Canada airports have Dubai flights this year. However, it is highly likely that Montreal – also enabled by the loosened bilateral – is coming. It will probably start this winter, but nothing has been announced when writing.

The following table summarizes all available flights in the week starting November 1st. They include United Airlines, also an Emirates partner, from Newark. The first flight left the US on March 25th. Operating daily non-stop, it supplements Emirates' daily Dubai-Athens-Newark service.

Click here for Newark-Dubai flights.

The table

Based on the week starting November 1st, all of these are bookable:

Up to 18 daily flights

Depending on the day, there are 17 or 18 daily US/Canada flights from Dubai. They are highly coordinated to maximize two-way connectivity over Dubai. After all, flights are primarily driven by transit passengers.

More than two million US/Canada passengers transited Dubai in 2022. The top 15 markets were India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, Philippines, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Maldives, Nepal, Kuwait, and Kenya.

Click here for Los Angeles-Delhi flights.

02:00-02:59: peak for departures

As the following figure shows, Dubai has two main departure banks to the US/Canada, based on the first week of November: in the very early morning (01:00-03:59) and later in the morning (mainly 08:00-09:59).

The peak period is 02:00-02:59, during which 32 flights leave in the examined week. They are Air Canada to Vancouver (the new route; at 02:00), United to Newark (02:15), and Emirates to Washington Dulles (02:25), JFK (non-stop; 02:35), and Dallas Fort Worth (02:50).

Source of data: Cirium. Figure: James Pearson.

As you can see, the main arrival bank is between 19:00 and 19:59. There are 65 arrivals – more than half of the total – in this period, rising to 75 when the small number in the hours on either side are included.

Notice how arrivals are somewhat more fragmented throughout the day. There is now also Emirates from Toronto (arriving at 11:15/11:40; Air Canada arrives in the peak 19:00-19:59), Emirates from JFK at 22:10/22:45 (via Milan), Emirates from Newark at 23:40 (via Athens), and Air Canada from Vancouver (arrives at 23:50).