Canadian airlines keep scrapping flights to U.S. as demand plummets

The tariff troubles between Canada and the U.S. have forced residents on both sides of the border to reconsider their travel plans, so much so that airlines are now adjusting flight schedules to match the sudden dip in demand for trips between the two nations.

Given the current politics, nearly one million fewer Canucks crossed into the States this March compared to the same month last year, many of them feeling "betrayed" by President Donald Trump and our neighbours to the south.

Hubs in popular sun destinations, like Palm Beach International Airport and Orlando International Airport in Florida, have been hit particularly hard, seeing double-digit decreases in incoming seat capacity.

As homegrown carriers look to match their offerings to the current landscape ahead of what is usually the busiest season for U.S. travel, some are reducing the frequency of certain routes, or even axing them completely, with new summer schedule cutbacks being announced as recently as this past week.

Suspending some routes and scaling back others

WestJet, after cancelling seasonal Calgary-New York City and Edmonton-Orlando routes back in March, just scrapped a three-times-weekly Vancouver-Austin flight that was due to launch this month, citing "a downward shift in demand for U.S. travel" in an email to us.

It also suspended a daily year-round Kelowna-Seattle route that just started at the beginning of the year, ended Kelowna-Las Vegas service earlier than planned, and most recently cut Calgary-Chicago and Calgary-Los-Angeles flights "for various periods between June and August."

Calgary-Fort Lauderdale, St. John's-Orlando, and Winnipeg-Orlando routes have also been dropped in June, while Edmonton-Atlanta and Winnpeg-Las Vegas flights won't operate in July or August.

People from Ontario cancelling U.S. travel plans over political tensionshttps://t.co/F51fp34lxm

— blogTO (@blogTO) February 11, 2025

Meanwhile, Air Canada, which had already reduced its Vancouver-Houston, Vancouver-Washington and Vancouver-Miami schedules, just put plans to ramp up its direct Montreal-San Francisco route on ice. It will maintain its winter schedule of only one flight per day between the two cities instead of tripling the offering, as it had last summer and was slated to do for summer 2025.

"We have made some capacity reductions on certain U.S. sun routes, but we continue to serve all the destinations we had planned. We continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments as necessary," a spokesperson told us over email this week.

Smaller competitors are also following suit: Flair pulled its Toronto-Nashville, Calgary-Las Vegas and Edmonton-Las Vegas routes in March, and suspended four more earlier in the season than planned (Edmonton-Phoenix, Calgary-Phoenix, Vancouver-Palm Springs and Waterloo-Fort Lauderdale, which were set to end between April 22 and May 26, but were instead halted in early April).

Montreal-based Air Transat has scaled back its U.S. service by 10 per cent, per La Presse, while Toronto-based Porter Airlines is also looking at "targeted frequency reductions" on certain American routes.

Porter also took things a step further, proactively easing up on its promotion of American flights amid waning interest, and for fear that "some Canadians may view this negatively."

Focusing on where there's still demand

WestJet told us that as it culls some U.S. offerings, it is increasing domestic flights, adding three new Canadian routes (Winnipeg-St. John's, Saskatoon-Halifax and Regina-Halifax) and increasing frequency on others (Winnipeg-Halifax, Edmonton-Halifax and Calgary-Deer Lake).

"We have also added connectivity between Canada and Europe with all new service between Halifax and Amsterdam, as well as between Halifax and Barcelona," a representative told us, adding that the company is "continuously" adjusting its schedule based on customer purchasing patterns.

Air Canada has likewise added more international routes, including a slew to Latin America (Rio de Janeiro, Cartagena, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadalajara, Nassau, Montego Bay, Santiago, Cartagena, Huatulco and Guatemala City from either Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City or Vancouver), while expanding existing or planned service on others (like Vancouver-Dublin).