March 15, 2007: Cost-cutting needs have forced Air Canada to drop its India service. The Montreal-based airline has said that will end its regularly scheduled service to India on May 1. Air Canada currently operates a Toronto-New Delhi flight and is the only nonstop flight between Canada and India. Air Canada currently flies the route every day.

Air Canada had been facing troubled times as the company has had problems filling seats during the summer months. In a related exercise which may come as a bolt to Indian passangers, the airline has announced that it would add a second daily flight to Beijing from Vancouver in early summer and increase the regularity of its Toronto-Shanghai route, for a total of five daily flights between the two countries. It might divert the Boeing 767 jetliners currently servicing India to China. According to sources, the airline considers China to be a very lucrative market and foresees more business in China than in India.

Meanwhile, the Indo-Canadian business community has reacted to the aounceent terming it as lousy. According to them, India's economy is growing at an annual rate of 9 percent and the airline should look a the future. The airline should be adding flights to the subcontinent instead of killing them, they added. Air Canada , the world's 11th-largest air carrier, has 337 planes that serve 240 destinations internationally.

The consolation on this front will be that Air Canada will continue to service India through its Star Alliance partners, Deutsch Lufthansa AG and Swiss International Air Lines. However, passengers will need to switch planes in Zurich or Frankfurt before flying on to New Delhi or Mumbai. Other carriers such as Air France, British Airways and Air India also offer alternatives, though none of them are non-stop.