*** Update April 24, 2023: It’s confirmed! Emirates announced today that flights will indeed begin on July 5, 2023 and that booking is now available.
In early April, we published an article informing that there would be an increase in flights between Canada and the United Arab Emirates. Emirates and Etihad Airways have since decided to increase their frequencies to Toronto.
In mid-April, Air Canada announced a new direct flight between Vancouver and Dubai (4 flights per week).
Then, we learned from various sources that Emirates was preparing to launch a new daily direct flight between Montreal and Dubai.
So now we have more details as of April 24, 2023. Here is the schedule as of July 05, 2023:
As of November 05, 2023:
As of March 10, 2024 (return to original schedule):
This flight will be operated with a Boeing 777-300ER. Then it’s time to experience the luxurious 8 suites in First Class, the 42 lie-flat seats in Business Class and the 304 seats in Economy Class.
Here is our experience on the B777 First Class between Dubai and Toronto, which will be the same class as the flight to Montreal.
This is excellent news for Montreal: in addition to facilitating access to the Middle East, the entire range of destinations offered by Emirates would finally become accessible from Quebec (including Asia, Africa and Oceania).
Especially since, for the past few months, it has been possible to redeem Aeroplan points to travel on Emirates – even in First Class, provided you have many points! This is in addition to the strengthened partnership between Air Canada and Emirates.
*** Update April 24th 2023 : As of early in the morning, booking in Aeroplan points is not currently available for this flight.
With the announcement of this new flight, the UAE airlines will have reached their quota of 21 weekly flights according to the agreement with the Canadian authorities:
As for Air Canada, the airline has a significant reserve of flights to the UAE. For the time being, Air Canada will “only” operate:
This leaves Air Canada – or possibly WestJet – with a quota of 10 weekly flights. This could lead to other flights from Montreal or a daily flight from Vancouver if the latter proves to be a success in terms of demand!
This flight lasts between 12 and 13 hours.
To enjoy this direct round-trip flight in Economy class, it costs approximately $1,700 and $3,000 depending on the dates.
Depending on the time of year, a business class ticket costs between $8,000 and $10,500.
Finally, to enjoy an out-of-this-world experience and have an Emirates pajama in your collection, a First Class ticket costs approximately $20,000.
While we are pleased with this news, we are curious to see how full this new 354 seat daily flight will be. Especially with 10 weeks notice! But it must be said that at the moment, the demand is very high for travel around the world.
So the chances are good.
This direct flight could attract people from the province of Quebec, Ottawa and Eastern Canada. And also for the rest of the country, for people who want to avoid going through Toronto YYZ!
We expect Emirates and Air Canada to offer flights to YUL for travelers from these regions to make this direct flight to Dubai more attractive.
Do you want to earn Aeroplan points for travel on Emirates? Here are several Aeroplan credit card options:
Savings are here:
