OK, so here’s my long-shot guess about the rationale behind Vancouver to Dubai.

I have been wondering if AC is going to stop flying to New Delhi. What was once a 14.5-hour 787-9 route has been a 17-hour 777-200 route. They’ve got to be taking a beating on that route since the economics of those two aircraft are so different. And it’s obvious that it will be a long time before AC can fly over Russian territory again. I’ll begin believing they can fly over Russia again when Canada returns that Russian jet still sitting on the tarmac at YYZ. Until then, we can only assume that an AC jet forced to land due to an emergency would never be returned (and then there are the passengers…). My guess is AC is planning 5-10 years before being able to go back to normal.

So what if they choose to stop flying to New Delhi and instead increase flights to Dubai and funnel passengers to India from there, presumably on partner airlines?

This is pure speculation, but it kind of makes sense.