Air Canada has announced plans to discontinue its daily flights to India starting in May, citing insufficient demand for the route.

Canada’s leading carrier currently offers one daily flight from Toronto to New Delhi, with a stopover in Zurich, but it has been unable to break even on the route, particularly during the summer.

"Our financial goals were not met because of the seasonal nature of traffic to New Delhi, which did not enable us to maintain profitable occupancy levels throughout the entire year," Air Canada spokesman John Reber told AFP.

"We have tried several times over the past 20 years to make service between Canada and India work, … but unfortunately we haven’t found the right formula yet," he said.

Beginning in May, Air Canada will offer flights to India via a "code-sharing" arrangement with its Star Alliance partners. An estimated 700,000 people of Indian origin live in Canada, according to the 2001 census.