Flights will stop on June 2. Flights departing from Vancouver will return on September 6 and those departing from Delhi will resume on September 8. Anyone who has already scheduled a flight during these months will be automatically rescheduled to another flight. The airline says weather conditions, especially strong winds, are expected to make the route “unsustainable” during the summer months. Jatinder Dadrao, who owns a travel agency in Surrey, BC, says this route is usually very busy. “It’s almost always a sold out flight because the drive from Delhi to Vancouver is crazy,” he said. He said the flight is the shortest available in about 14 hours, directly, when they can fly through Russian airspace. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, he ran about five times a week. Air Canada will continue to operate up to 11 weekly flights between Canada and India from Toronto and Montreal, which follow different flight routes. But Dadrao says these flights are much longer, up to 24 hours in total, and can be inconvenient for passengers. “This is the shortest flight … and they miss it for a summer vacation,” he said. Air Canada says it will continue to monitor the situation in Ukraine and could resume Vancouver to Delhi earlier if conditions allow.
