Emirates, Air Canada Extend Partnership To 2032

Published on Nov 19, 2025, 8:42 am CST

7 min read

Key points

Emirates and Air Canada have signed an MoU to extend their strategic partnership and reciprocal codeshares through December 31, 2032
Since 2022 the partners have carried more than 550000 customers across 56 codeshare routes and over 225 interline destinations worldwide
The renewed deal targets new Canadian gateways plus deeper cargo cooperation and a potential cargo joint venture between the carriers
Customers gain enhanced loyalty benefits including broader Aeroplan and Skywards redemptions and planned access to each carriers Premium Economy cabins
Daily Toronto Dubai services on Air Canada 787s and Emirates A380s remain the backbone of the partnership alongside Emirates Dubai Montreal 777 flights

Impact

Routing Options: Travelers in Canada and the US gain more one stop choices to India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia via Dubai through at least 2032
Loyalty Redemptions: Aeroplan and Skywards members can earn and redeem across more routes and cabins making mixed carrier itineraries more attractive
Cargo Planning: Shippers moving goods between the Americas, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent gain more uplift and coordinated schedules
Future Airport Changes: After 2032 planners should watch for a gradual shift of some Dubai traffic to Dubai World Central which may change connection patterns
Booking Strategy: For long haul trips via Dubai it becomes easier to combine Air Canada and Emirates segments on a single ticket with through checked bags

Emirates and Air Canada are locking in their partnership for the long haul, signing a memorandum of understanding on November 19, 2025, to extend their codeshare and loyalty agreement through December 31, 2032. The deal builds on a three year collaboration that has already carried more than 550,000 customers across 56 codeshare routes, tying together Canada, the United States, Dubai, and key markets across the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. For travelers, it effectively cements Dubai International Airport (DXB) as a long term mega hub for trips starting in Canada and much of the northern United States.

At the same time, the carriers are positioning their partnership as a trade tool, not just a passenger play. The extended agreement includes a push for deeper cargo collaboration, potential joint venture style coordination on freight, and a shared plan to eventually move operations to Dubai World Central, Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC), once the new hub is ready for large scale passenger traffic after 2032.

Emirates And Air Canada Partnership

The renewed deal keeps the core architecture of the 2022 partnership while widening its scope. Today, Emirates places its code on 37 Air Canada destinations across Canada and the United States, including newer additions like Toronto to Minneapolis, Montréal to Calgary, and Vancouver to Los Angeles. In the opposite direction, Air Canada now codeshares on 19 Emirates routes into the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, which is where the partnership delivers the most value for Canadian travelers with family, cultural, or business ties.

Beyond the pure codeshare network, the two airlines run an interline agreement that opens up more than 225 destinations globally when tickets are issued on a single itinerary. For travelers, that means a typical trip from a secondary Canadian or U.S. city can be ticketed as one booking, with bags checked through and disruption handling sitting on a clearer set of rules.

On the metal side, Air Canada continues to operate daily Boeing 787 Dreamliner service between Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Dubai, while Emirates flies daily A380s on the Dubai to Toronto route and runs seven weekly Boeing 777 flights between Dubai and Montréal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL). Those trunk routes are the backbone of the partnership and, so far, there is no signal that either carrier plans to scale them back while the agreement is in force.

Latest developments

From a customer experience standpoint, the extended agreement is mostly evolution rather than revolution. Air Canada has already shifted its Dubai operations into Emirates' home base in Terminal 3, which means eligible Air Canada passengers can use Emirates Business Class lounges and move between flights without changing terminals. That upgrade is already live, so the new announcement is more about locking in the timeline and expanding the scope than flipping a switch overnight.

The loyalty side is where frequent flyers will notice incremental gains over the next few years. Aeroplan members can already earn and redeem points on Emirates flights to more than 140 destinations, while Emirates Skywards members can do the same across Air Canada's network of more than 220 destinations. The partners now plan to extend redemptions into each other's Premium Economy cabins, which would finally close the gap and make every cabin on both airlines eligible for reciprocal earning and burning.

Cargo is the other major pillar. The two airlines report that Emirates' cargo tonnage out of Canada has grown by double digits year over year since the partnership went live, and they are now explicitly exploring a joint cargo venture to coordinate capacity and schedules across the Americas, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. For shippers, this kind of partnership usually translates into more predictable uplift and clearer service tiers between belly freight on passenger flights and dedicated freighter operations.

On the trade side, Canada's official data underline why both governments are comfortable with more air links. Global Affairs Canada reports that two way merchandise trade with the United Arab Emirates reached about CAD $ 3.4 billion in 2024, with exports of CAD $ 2.6 billion, a 24 percent year over year increase after strong growth the previous year. Aviation capacity is not the only driver, but additional widebody seats and belly cargo space clearly sit inside that trend.

Analysis

For travelers, the practical upshot is straightforward. If you live in a Canadian city already served by Air Canada long haul widebody flights to Toronto or Montréal, it becomes even easier to stitch together a one stop itinerary to Dubai and onward into India, Pakistan, the Gulf, or Southeast Asia using Air Canada on the first leg and Emirates beyond Dubai. For many U.S. travelers in northern states, transborder legs into Toronto or Montréal plus an Emirates or Air Canada long haul segment can now compete with routings via U.S. hubs or European gateways, especially where schedule fit and loyalty economics line up.

Background, this partnership grows out of a broader thaw in Canada-UAE aviation relations that began when the two governments expanded their air services agreement and Emirates moved its Toronto route to daily A380 service in 2023. Before that, capacity constraints and limited bilateral rights kept fares high and connections limited. The current architecture, with two carriers coordinated rather than competing head on, gives both more room to grow premium demand without oversaturating single routes.

From a competitive standpoint, the move is also a clear answer to the growing reach of other Gulf carriers into Canadian markets. Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways both target similar flows between North America and South Asia or Africa, but they do not have the same level of integrated codeshare with Air Canada across the domestic and transborder network. By tightening its partnership with Emirates, Air Canada is making a bet that it can keep more of that high yield traffic inside its own ecosystem, even when travelers spend the long haul segments on another airline's metal.

Looking out past 2032, the reference to Dubai World Central is arguably the most important strategic clue in the announcement. Emirates has long signaled that it expects a gradual migration of some operations from Dubai International to the newer airport once infrastructure and demand justify the move. By naming DWC in the partnership extension, both carriers are telling travelers and shippers that they expect to make that pivot together, with coordinated schedules and minimum-connection standards built into the plan instead of bolted on afterward.

For shippers, coordinated growth across Dubai International and eventually DWC matters more than the branding on the tail. What counts are block times, capacity, and reliability for key lanes like Toronto or Montréal to Dubai, then onward into India or East Africa. A joint cargo framework, even short of a formal joint venture, typically means more transparent products, aligned service guarantees, and fewer surprises when aircraft swaps or schedule changes ripple across the network.

Final thoughts

The extended Emirates Air Canada partnership is less about flashy new routes and more about cementing a stable, long horizon framework across passenger and cargo markets that are already growing. Travelers in Canada and the northern United States should expect a slowly widening menu of one stop options to South Asia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia via Dubai, backed by richer loyalty reciprocity and better lounge access in key hubs. Shippers can treat the announcement as a signal that belly freight capacity between Canada and the UAE will keep growing in step with trade, making the Emirates Air Canada partnership an increasingly central corridor for goods as well as people.