Air India Launches New 17-Hour Ultra-Long Nonstop Route To North America [Map]

Published Aug 5, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT James lives and breathes route development. Educated in Air Transport Management at Loughborough University and Cranfield University, James has a PhD in airline strategy. James was Market Opportunity Analyst at London Luton Airport and Chief Analyst at anna.aero. He taught airline strategy and economics to undergraduate and postgraduate students for five years and has worked closely with multiple carriers on route and market intelligence projects. He is based near London, UK. For obvious reasons, Air India is by far the largest operator between India and North America. In 2026, Cirium Diio data shows that the Star Alliance member has just over half of the nonstop and stopping services. This is despite the ongoing airspace closures and restrictions which make the carrier's proposition longer, more expensive, and less competitive. Travel between India and North America is characterized by high passenger volume, relatively low yields, and most of the traffic flying indirectly via European and Gulf hubs. In the 12 months to May 2026, booking data suggests that 8.7 million round-trip passengers flew, of which over 85% did so indirectly. Air India Reveals New Route From Mumbai To Toronto The market between India and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) is large, with more than 1.2 million round-trip passengers between June 2025 and May 2026. Around 3,300 people traveled daily. Air India and fellow Star Alliance member Air Canada currently operate between Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport and YYZ, with another route materializing soon. Earlier this week, Air India confirmed that it will fly between Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) and YYZ. Flights will begin on October 25, when Northern Hemisphere carriers switch to winter schedules based on IATA slot seasons. It'll operate until March 26, 2027, just before the winter season ends. Announcing the route less than three months before the start date is not ideal, but Air India is used to short timeframes. The carrier will fly three times a week using the 328-seat Boeing 777-300ER. The press release heavily emphasizes that aircraft with 'upgraded' cabins will be deployed. This will have eight first class suites (with privacy doors; 1-2-1), 40 flat beds in business (1-2-1), and 280 seats in economy (mainly 3-4-3; 31" pitch). Wi-Fi will be available, although it remains to be seen if it is reliable. Better food and IFE is also meant to be available. Air India repeatedly says that flights will be nonstop. However, given its existing flights from BOM to New York JFK and Newark stop en route in Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) to refuel and change crew, this is likely to be optimistic. This undesirable stopover is because of avoiding Iranian, Pakistani, and Russian airspace. It is likely that BOM-YYZ flights will stop in FCO too. Note that most of Air India's other services to North America also stop, albeit not always in FCO. Days BOM To YYZ; Local Times YYZ To BOM; Local Times Wednesdays, Fridays, Sundays 4:00 AM-10:00 AM (16 hours and 30 minutes) 12:30 PM-2:10 PM+1 (15 hours and 10 minutes) Loading map… Drag to explore Air India Replaces Air Canada On This Airport Pair Credit: Shutterstock Air India codeshare partner Air Canada has a reasonable history of operating between YYZ and BOM. It last did so between October 2025 and March 2026, when flights operated on a fifth freedom basis via London Heathrow Airport (LHR). The carrier flew four times a week using the 787-9. Of course, Air Canada would have preferred to operate nonstop to BOM, like it did between 2017 and 2020. However, not being able to fly over Russian airspace made this unviable. This is why it flew via LHR in winter 2022/2023, winter 2023/2024, and winter 2025/2026. Winter 2024/2025 was different, as Air Canada flew from Calgary International Airport (YYZ) to DEL via LHR. This was when Canada's flag carrier attempted to make YYZ-BOM nonstop services work. However, the airline quickly realized that services back to Canada, with the detour and headwinds, had to stop en route to refuel and presumably change crew. They stopped in Star Alliance's Frankfurt Airport (FRA). Air India Is Entering A Ready-Made Market It is imperative that airlines keep full abreast of what other airlines are doing, not least because it usually results in new opportunities. Launching so-called ready-made markets after another operator pulls out is commonplace, and it happens regardless of the type of carrier. Air India is no exception. India's flag carrier will particularly target the local BOM-YYZ market, which had 128,000 round-trip passengers in the 12 months to May 2026. Canada's busiest airport is the third-largest market between BOM and North America, after JFK (225,000) and San Francisco (143,000). It will, of course, also capture a proportion of the passengers between other Indian cities and YYZ. This will particularly be the case for cities in western and southern India, for which BOM is especially well-placed. A competitive wait of two to four hours is required, but it'll be in the middle of the night while en route to Canada. Unsurprisingly, big markets to/from YYZ include Ahmedabad (81,000 passengers), Bengaluru (49,000), Hyderabad (47,000), and Chennai (41,000).