Air Canada is reducing its U.S. flight operations due to elevated jet fuel prices and reduced demand for travel to the United States. The airline’s schedule adjustments involve the suspension or postponement of eight transborder routes commencing this fall.
For the second consecutive winter, three routes linking Toronto and Montreal to cities in the American Midwest will be canceled. Additionally, three seasonal routes from Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City to Florida will commence in December instead of October. Two routes from Montreal and Toronto to New York’s JFK airport, which were previously suspended, will not resume this winter.
Air Canada, WestJet, and Air Transat had already reduced their summer flight capacities to the U.S. earlier this year in response to surging jet fuel prices caused by the conflict in Iran. This led to the unprofitability of certain routes.
Statistics Canada’s preliminary data revealed a 28% decline in the number of Canadians returning by air from the U.S., dropping to under 462,000 between May 2024 and May of this year. Angela Mah, a spokesperson for Air Canada, mentioned that the airline regularly evaluates its schedule to align capacity with customer demand and seasonal travel trends. While the airline intends to resume operations to JFK in the future, it plans to enhance its presence in New York by offering up to five daily flights between Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport and LaGuardia Airport this winter.