With its larger population and greater range of airports and airlines, the US is often placed front and center when it comes to coverage of the commercial aviation industry in North America. However, across the border to the north, Canada is also home to a diverse airline industry of its own, with several intercontinental hubs spread across the country that help keep it connected to all corners of the globe.
The Middle East market in a nutshell
One key market that Canada has strong connections to is the Middle East. This region has several airports that are not only gateways to cities that are worthy travel destinations in their own right, but also serve as handy hubs for onward travel to destinations elsewhere in Asia on connecting flights. This December, six different airlines have scheduled passenger flights between Canada and the Middle East.
According to present scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, these six carriers are operating a total of 410 sectors between the Middle East and Canada this month. These flights will offer collective totals of 142,716 seats and 961,304,432 available seat miles (ASMs), compared to 141,042 seats and 954,185,150 available seat miles on 386 flights in December 2023.
Emirates has the most flights
Of the 410 passenger flights scheduled between Canada and the Middle East this month, 124 (30%) will be operated by UAE flag carrier Emirates. Flying out of its huge intercontinental mega hub at Dubai International Airport (DXB), the esteemed airline is operating flights to two Canadian destinations in December 2024, with the 124 evenly split between them as each has a daily round trip penciled in.
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Of these two routes, the corridor to Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) is scheduled to be served by more seats, with a monthly figure of 15,159 in each direction, offering 104,581,941 available seat miles each way. The reason for these considerable figures is Emirates’ use of the Airbus
A380-800 on the route, with these high-capacity quadjets being configured to seat 489 passengers.
According to current fleet data from aeroLOPA, this particular seating configuration is one of eight used on the A380 by Emirates. The 489 seats are spread across three classes of travel, with the quadjet’s upper deck being home to 14 luxurious first class suites in a 1-2-1 configuration, and 76 business class flatbeds in the same four-abreast setup. Meanwhile, the lower deck houses 399 economy seats.
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Emirates’ other Canadian route this month connects the UAE flag carrier’s Dubai hub with Montréal Trudeau International Airport (YUL) in the province of Quebec. The daily flights offer a total of 9,362 seats and 61,901,544 available seat miles in each direction, with Emirates’ aircraft of choice being the 
Boeing
777-200LR. This 302-seat twinjet has 38 business class and 264 economy class seats onboard.
Air Canada also flies to the UAE
While the bulk of the airlines being covered in this analysis are carriers based in the Middle East, there is also a slice of Canadian representation in the form of national flag carrier Air Canada. The 
Star Alliance
founding member has scheduled 88 flights between its homeland and the Middle East this December, with these services offering 26,224 seats and 184,072,812 available seat miles.
Photo: Minh K Tran | Shutterstock
Of these 44 round trips, 31 are served by Air Canada’s daily rotations on the route between Toronto and Dubai, a corridor on which the airline faces direct competition from the aforementioned UAE flag carrier Emirates. The Canadian national airline is offering 9,238 seats and 63,732,962 available seat miles each way on the route this month, with its aircraft of choice being the Boeing 787-9. These jets have:
- 30 ‘Signature’ business class flatbeds in a four-abreast 1-2-1 configuration.
- 21 premium economy recliners in a seven-abreast 2-3-2 configuration.
- 247 economy class seats in a nine-abreast 3-3-3 configuration (which narrows to 2-3-2 in the last full row).
Photo: Ronen Fefer | Shutterstock
The 298-seat mid-sized Dreamliner is also Air Canada’s chosen aircraft on its other Middle Eastern route this year, which connects Dubai with Vancouver International Airport (YVR) in British Columbia on the west coast of the country. This is a relatively new corridor for Air Canada, having only commenced operations in October of 2023, and the airline is serving it 13 times in each direction this month.
Qatar Airways recently upped its Canadian coverage
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Qatar Airways isn’t too far behind the Canadian carrier in terms of frequencies on routes between the region and Canada, with 80 flights scheduled this month. As it happens, the 
oneworld
member’s use of larger aircraft means that, despite having lower frequencies, the numbers of seats (28,320) and available seat miles (185,352,276) are actually higher than Air Canada.
The bulk of Qatar Airways’ Canadian traffic serves the route between its Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH) hub and Montréal Trudeau International. The airline operates a daily round trip on this corridor, amounting to 31 flights, 10,974 seats, and 71,100,546 ASMs in each direction. It uses the Boeing 777-300ER for these services, with 354 seats (42 business class and 312 economy class) onboard.
Photo: Mochammad Ray Kahn Ariga | Shutterstock
The Boeing 777-300ER is also Qatar Airways’ plane of choice on its second Canadian route, which connects Doha with Toronto Pearson International Airport. This corridor is a very new one for the airline, as it only began operating flights between these two hub airports on December 11th this year. The inaugural flight was extra special in terms of connectivity, as the 777 used had Starlink WiFi onboard.
Etihad Airways is present on a daily basis
While not serving Canada as frequently as its fellow UAE flag carrier Dubai-based Emirates, Abu Dhabi-headquartered Etihad Airways is the last of the four airlines that operates at least a daily round trip between the country and the Middle East. This December, it will connect Toronto Pearson with its hub at Abu Dhabi International (AUH) on a daily basis, with 31 rotations offering 11,501 seats each way.
Etihad’s Toronto flights, which collectively offer 79,621,423 available seat miles in each direction, are all scheduled to be operated by the carrier’s beautiful Airbus A350-1000 widebody twinjets. The airline favors a two-class configuration onboard these modern airliners, with 44 four-abreast business class flatbeds occupying the space between the first and second doors. Behind these are 327 economy seats.
Photo: Carlos Yudica | Shutterstock
Passengers traveling from Abu Dhabi to Toronto with Etihad are faced with a late night, as the flight (EY21) departs at 02:35 local time. With a block time of 14 hours and 40 minutes, arrival in Toronto is scheduled for 08:15. As for the return leg, EY22 is scheduled to depart Toronto at 14:30, and, after a planned duration of 12 hours and 50 minutes, its landing in Abu Dhabi is timed for 12:20 local time the next day.
Saudia solely serves Toronto
Now moving into the territory occupied by carriers that connect Canada with the Middle East on a less-than-daily basis, Saudia has scheduled 36 flights between these two markets this December. Collectively offering 10,728 seats and 69,742,728 available seat miles, all of these flights serve the same route, which comes in the form of 18 round trips between Toronto and Jeddah International (JED).
As is the case with Air Canada, Saudia favors Boeing’s mid-sized 787-9 aircraft from its ‘Dreamliner’ family of twin-engine widebody aircraft for its flights between Canada and the Middle East. The Saudi Arabian flag carrier uses a two-class configuration on these twinjets, with space for 298 passengers onboard. This figure is split between 24 business class flatbeds and 274 standard economy class seats.
Photo: Komenton | Shutterstock
Flying out to Toronto, Saudia flight SV61 is scheduled to leave Jeddah at 08:35 local time. With a planned block time of 13 hours and 50 minutes, the flight’s arrival into Toronto is timed for 14:25 on the same day. Meanwhile, the return leg (numbered as SV62) is scheduled to leave Toronto at 18:00, and, with a planned duration of 11 hours and 45 minutes, touches down in Jeddah at 13:45 the next day.
Royal Jordanian completes the set
Royal Jordanian Airlines, whose stunning black, red, and gold livery is about as stunning as they come in the modern-day commercial aviation industry, has scheduled 20 flights between the Middle East and Canada this month. Flying out of the Jordanian flag carrier’s main hub at Queen Alia International Airport (AMM) in Amman, these 10 round trips offer 2,700 seats and 14,963,400 ASMs each way.
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The destination for these flights is Quebec’s Montréal Trudeau International Airport, with Royal Jordanian’s aircraft of choice on the route being the short-fuselage Boeing 787-8 ‘Dreamliner.’ The oneworld member configures its examples of this particular widebody design in a two-class setup that has the capacity to accommodate 24 ‘Crown’ business class passengers and 246 in economy class.
Flying out to Canada, Royal Jordanian flight RJ271 is scheduled to take 12 hours, leaving Amman at 10:25 in the morning and touching down on the afternoon of the same day at 14:25 local time. As for the return flight, this overnight transatlantic jaunt (numbered as RJ272) is scheduled to leave Montréal at 22:00, with its arrival into Amman timed for 10 hours and 30 minutes later, at 16:30 local time.