A sharp drop in Canadian travel to the U.S. is prompting airlines to cut back on cross-border flights and redirect capacity to domestic and European destinations. Carriers like WestJet, Air Canada, and Porter Airlines are adjusting summer schedules in response to dwindling demand for U.S. vacations, with factors such as political tensions and unfavourable exchange rates playing a role.
WestJet and Air Canada have scaled back U.S. services, using smaller aircraft and reducing flight frequencies, while boosting service to Europe and sunny destinations. Porter has also shifted some U.S. capacity to Canadian routes.
According to data from Cirium, summer bookings between Canada and major U.S. cities are down nearly 20% year-over-year, while domestic bookings for July are up 11%. This pivot could lead to a competitive domestic fare war, experts say.
Airlines are seizing the opportunity to expand European offerings: Air Canada has added flights to Edinburgh, Paris, Rome, and Athens, while WestJet has launched new routes from Halifax to Barcelona and Amsterdam. Meanwhile, Lufthansa’s Discover Airlines is banking on increased travel between Europe and Canada with its new Munich–Calgary route.
However, airlines are somewhat limited in their ability to redeploy U.S.-destined flights to overseas routes. North American flights usually use narrow-bodied planes that can’t make it from west of Quebec to continental Europe.
