Air Canada’s nonstop service from Toronto to Dubai International Airport (DXB) is once again up in the air, with the airline planning to delay the January resumption of its only service to the United Arab Emirates until March. The airline had previously operated the service daily until geopolitical tensions from the 2026 Iran Crisis saw the airline, alongside many others, scale back operations to the region.

Emirates remains the only regular operator currently with flights between Canada and Dubai, which it operates on a daily basis with the Airbus A380. Toronto is one of its two Canadian gateways, the other being Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL).

Air Canada Pushes Back Its Dubai Service Resumption Until March

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For the Star Alliance airline, it had initially planned to resume nonstop 14-hour flights from Toronto to Dubai this January. As the Iran Crisis drags on, this has led to many airlines reconsidering their options on travel to the region, and Air Canada joins many others withdrawing operations due to subdued demand and safety concerns for aircraft and crew.

Air Canada fully withdrew its Middle East operations earlier this year. The airline plans to resume services from Toronto to Tel Aviv this coming November, and Montreal to Tel Aviv is set to resume in January. Once fully operational, Air Canada will operate the daily schedule detailed in the table below to Dubai.

Deploying The Dreamliner To Dubai

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Air Canada will utilize one of its 32 Boeing 787-9s to operate the Dubai rotation, an aircraft that can seat up to a total of 298 passengers in a three-class configuration (30 Business class, 21 Premium Economy, and 247 Economy). While the airline would see strong point-to-point demand for services from Toronto to Dubai, Air Canada also relies heavily on connecting traffic from across the airline’s domestic network.

This competes directly with Emirates and its superjumbo on the Toronto to Dubai city pair, where the Middle Eastern carrier has operated consistently on the route (despite the pandemic) since 2007. The A380 typically can seat a total of 489 passengers across its various classes of service. Emirates also lures in high-fare-paying travelers by offering its coveted chauffeur-driven service in Toronto.

Emirates also has a joint codeshare agreement with Air Canada, allowing single-ticket connections across the airlines’ networks. Etihad is the latest Middle Eastern carrier to announce plans to start flying to Canada, with the Abu Dhabi-based airline set to begin nonstop services to Calgary International Airport (YYC) from November 3.

Air Canada To Return To Tel Aviv In November

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Air Canada will resume services to Tel Aviv from Toronto on November 30, as the airline moved up its previous return date in January. Montreal services will remain offline until the early New Year, with planned resumption on January 18. The country’s flag carrier is the only operator with nonstop flights between Canada and Israel, after Israeli carrier EL AL withdrew operations to Toronto in 2022.

The only other operator from Canada to the Middle East is Royal Jordanian, which connects Amman (AMM) and Montreal with up to four weekly flights during peak time, also with the 787. Evidently, ongoing geopolitical tension in and around the Middle East continues to wreak havoc on travel plans and airline operations. As such, it is possible that these plans could change again as the situation evolves.